This Thursday April 21st, at 4:15 (eastern) on WSR, I am thrilled to welcome Mark Kurlansky, author of the fascinating and thought provoking Cod (Random House, 1999), and Salt (Penguin, 2003)
"Imagine a planet with orange oceans, toxic seawater, and marine life that consists almost solely of jellyfish. This may sound like science fiction, but it's actually a realistic projection of what our world could become if we don't take drastic measures to reverse the decline of fish populations" (source).
"Mark Kurlansky, beloved author of the award-winning bestseller Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, offers a riveting new book for kids about what’s happening to fish, the oceans, and our environment, and what, armed with knowledge, kids can do about it. Written by a master storyteller, World Without Fish connects all the dots—biology, economics, evolution, politics" (source)
Then at 5:00 (eastern), I welcome Eileen Myles, enfant terrible of lesbian poets, to talk about her fast-paced, narrative Inferno,
"I was completely stupefied by Inferno in the best of ways. In fact, I think I must feel kind of like Dante felt after seeing the face of God. My descriptive capacity just fails, gives way completely. But I can tell you that Eileen Myles made me understand something I didn’t before. And really, what more can you ask of a novel, or a poet’s novel, or a poem, or a memoir, or whatever the hell this shimmering document is? Just read it." — Alison Bechdel
“What is a poem worth? Not much in America. What is a life worth? Inferno isn’t another ‘life of the poet,’ it’s a fugue state where life and poem are one: shameful and glorious. People sometimes say, ‘I came from nothing,’ but that’s not quite right. Myles shows us a ‘place’ a poet might come from, did come from––working class, Catholic, female, queer. This narrative journey somehow takes place in a moment, every moment, the impossible present moment of poetry.” – Rae Armantrout
“Zingingly funny and melancholy, Inferno follows a young girl from Boston in her descent into the maelstrom of New York Bohemia, circa 1968. Myles beautifully chronicles a lost Eden: ‘The place I found was carved out from sadness and sex and to write a poem there you merely needed to gather.’ ” — John Ashbery
“Eileen Myles debates her own self identity in a gruffly beautiful, sure voice of reason. Is she a ‘hunk’? A ‘dyke’? A ‘female’? I’ll tell you what she is––damn smart! Inferno burns with humor, lust and a healthy dose of neurotic happiness.” — John Waters
Need I say more? Just tune in. This should be really interesting and confounding to the point of enlightenment. 5:00 (eastern). Woman-Stirred Radio. WGDR and WGDH. Listen Live. Call the studio.
802.456.1630.
