Episode 14 - Ally: Heather McCalden

Episode 14 - Ally: Heather McCalden

On the first ever "Now That's What I Call an Ally!" episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I chat with author and ally Heather McCalden on a myriad of topics such as: instinctual creative output, getting sick of your own work during the editing process, viewing the threads of a text as forming a “DNA strand,” using extended metaphor to describe the things we can’t otherwise explain, writing a fragmented book, striking a balance between the personal and the researched, respecting our own boundaries when writing about the personal, the internet as a photographic negative of our world, the transmission of knowledge, teaching a class called “Writing the Internet,” handwriting vs. typing, researching HIV AIDS, the role of AIDS in LGBTQ+ history, the AIDS walk as a day of resilience, queer and trans writing influences, exploring “covering” books the way we cover albums, and the concept of alchemy. Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Sex with a Brain Injury by D/Annie Liontas, The Situation and the Story by Vivienna Gornick, How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler, Merve Emre, write-the-internet.org, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Elizabeth Winkler, GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), Lucy Sante, Rachel Pollack, Doom Patrol, Grace Byron, Susan Sontag, Cyrus Dunham Links: * Purchase The Observable Universe (US Edition) [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/723150/the-observable-universe-by-heather-mccalden/] * Purchase The Observable Universe (UK Edition) [https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/the-observable-universe/] Intro/Outro Music by Lin * Lin's Bandcamp [https://linliketwotrees.bandcamp.com/] * Lin's Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/6sqigIeBdZRfHsQvAxQ9X8?si=yEeEXizHRym8SSd-sh1ZJA]

Episode 13: George Abraham & Hannah Moushabeck

On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, we celebrate the release of Homosexual Intifada: A Queer Palestinian Anthology with editors George Abraham and Hannah Moushabeck. Our discussion spans many topics such as: the bonds within queer Palestinian community, the trust of working with friends editorially, common themes and threads organically coming up in submission drafts for an all-genre anthology, the risks of writing memoir, colonial gaslighting, Epistemicide, who gets to narrate their own bodies, honoring Arabic storytelling traditions, responding to the argument that queer and trans folks shouldn’t support Palestinians, pinkwashing, making the concept of “return” a reality, photography as proof of existence, being vulnerable as editors alongside contributors, writing for adults vs. writing for children, and Arabic literature vs. English literature. Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Noor Hindi, Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry, Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, Afeef Nessouli, Micaela Laibni Raen, Randa Jarrar, Al Maqdisi, Tareq Baconi, Tariq Ra’ouf, Elias Jahshan, Noor Aldayeh, Sarona Abuaker, Sara Solara, Eman Abdelhadi, Maria Zreiq, Saleem Haddad, Lenna Jawdat, Rashid Khalidi, Mira Mattar, “The Principle of Return” by Adam HajYahia, “In Tune with Their Time” by Nasser Abourahme, “Bleeding Forms: Beyond the Intifada” by Abdaljawad Omar, Queer Phenomenology by Sara Ahmed, Palestinian Feminist Collective, Mx. Yaffa, Jordy Rosenberg. Links: * Purchase Homosexual Intifada [https://interlinkbooks.com/product/homosexual-intifada/] Intro/Outro Music by Lin * Lin's Bandcamp [https://linliketwotrees.bandcamp.com/] * Lin's Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/6sqigIeBdZRfHsQvAxQ9X8?si=yEeEXizHRym8SSd-sh1ZJA]

Episode 12 - Genre Switch: Kelz Smoot

On this special Genre Switch episode, I chat with poet Dr. Kelsey L. Smoot about topics such as: book tours, poetic texting, incorporating poetry into academic writing, re-framing the ways we define “love,” the politics of blurbing, determining the order and flow of a collection, considering the corporeal in trans poetics, form reflecting content, conveying imperfection on the page, speaking your truth even if someone else remembers it differently, personifying the heart, the ways in which love overtakes us, experimenting with innovative poetic forms, constraints as a means of strengthening word choice, pop culture references in contemporary poetry, and the lasting impact of Sula by Toni Morrison. Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: AWP, KB Brookins, Mac Crane, Jericho Brown, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, James Baldwin, Cameron Awkward Rich, Judith Butler, Jessica Abughattas, Chen Chen, Glorilla, Chaka Khan, Edward Scissorhands Links: * Kelz's Website [https://queerinsomniac.me/] * Purchase SOULMATE AS A VERB [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soulmate-as-a-verb-kelsey-l-smoot/1147885011?ean=9781635902822] Intro/Outro Music by Lin * Lin's Bandcamp [https://linliketwotrees.bandcamp.com/] * Lin's Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/6sqigIeBdZRfHsQvAxQ9X8?si=yEeEXizHRym8SSd-sh1ZJA]

Episode 11: Hugh Ryan

A fun and enlightening conversation with writer and historian, Hugh Ryan, in which we discuss: approaching personal nonfiction vs. researched historical nonfiction, examining through writing the moments and memories in our lives we constantly think about, reading against the archive when researching queer histories, crafting an intimate reader experience, disagreeing with or contradicting the self on the page as vulnerability, figuring out the meaning of a moment by re-writing it several times, the freedom of being alone in a queer crowd, articulating complicated feelings about gender, hope through young queer and trans folks, establishing stakes in creative nonfiction, building a question in the reader’s head to get them invested, structural work as an entry to a draft, the importance of writing community, and of course, 90s pop culture. Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: The Long Hallway by Richard Scott Larson, “Motorcycle Drive By” by Third Eye Blind, Edgar Gomez, The Moth, This American Life, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Vivian Gornick, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction, The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind, The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, Bennington College Low Residency MFA Program, The American LGBTQ Museum Links: * Hugh's Website [https://www.hughryan.org/] * Purchase My Bad [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hugh-ryan/my-bad/9781645030577/] Intro/Outro Music by Lin * Lin's Bandcamp [https://linliketwotrees.bandcamp.com/] * Lin's Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/6sqigIeBdZRfHsQvAxQ9X8?si=yEeEXizHRym8SSd-sh1ZJA]

Episode 10: Mackenzie Kwok aka Lin

My good friend and writer Mackenzie Kwok (who also makes music under her artist name, Lin), joins the conversation in episode 10. We discuss tons of topics such as: the crossover between the disciplines of writing and music, defining “folklore” and “folk and traditional arts,” Asian hate during Covid, the allure of the American Girl Doll universe in the 90s and 2000s, fictional characters with historical context, misrepresentation, writing with the current interests of the internet in mind, meme accounts, erasure of Asian American activism and history, research approaches, AWP hot takes, the appeal of creative nonfiction that fuses trauma and humor, writing songs vs. writing essays, choosing an artist name, journaling processes, lyrics that audiences react to, and popular indie musicians. Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: When the City Stopped: Stories from New York's Essential Workers edited by Robert W. Snyder, An American Girl Anthology edited by Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler and KC Hysmith, AFS (American Folklore Society), University Press of Mississippi, The Care and Keeping of You, Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy, AWP, I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying by Youngmi Mayer, There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib, SOULMATE AS A VERB by Kelsey L. Smoot, Good Luck in the Real World by Adrienne Novy, NoSo, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler Links: * Purchase An American Girl Anthology [https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781496858061] * Lin's Linktree [https://linktr.ee/lin.liketwotrees] Intro/Outro Music by Lin * Lin's Bandcamp [https://linliketwotrees.bandcamp.com/] * Lin's Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/6sqigIeBdZRfHsQvAxQ9X8?si=yEeEXizHRym8SSd-sh1ZJA]