The Fearless Reader

Vivekanand Selvaraj (poetry)

Vivek Selvaraj, a poet, father, and diplomat, shares works from his series "Is This Water." In our conversation, he discusses fatherhood, memory, and his decision to switch from Tamil to English language poetry.

Zilka Joseph (poetry)

Zilka Joseph is a writer and educator who has published six volumes of poetry. In this episode she shares writing that explores the intersection of history, culture, religion, and cuisine of the Bene Israel community, an ancient Jewish community of India.

Jennifer Fossenbell (poetry)

Jennifer Fossenbell shares and discusses excerpts from her manuscript “Commuter.” There is often a Matryoshka doll-like view of the world in these poems, where one structure of our reality is revealed to be buried within another. My favorite part of the conversation was hitting on a brilliant interpretation of one of her poems that turns out to be totally wrong (yet I still stand by it!) Foreignness, pregnancy, revising poems, and terrible election results are among the other topics we touch on. More examples of the Jennifer Fossenbell’s work can be found online at the Colorado Poet’s Center [https://coloradopoetscenter.org/poets/fossenbell_jennifer/poems.html].

Writing Habits (APWT)

This special episode was recorded on location at the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators "Heart Water Conference" in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I asked 12 different writers about their writing habits. Responses included are from: Tony Waters, Carole Favre, Indyana Horobin, Joe Milan Jr. [https://joemilanjr.com/], Kaya Ortiz, Lizzie Packer, Renee Pettitt Schipp, Kadek Sonia Piscayanti, Kian Ronay, Menka Shivdasani [https://menkashivdasani.in/ ], Renee Thorpe, and Sara F Costa.

Sara Costa (fiction)

Award-winning Portuguese poet Sara Costa shares her debut novel "Ash City," which was recently translated into English. We discuss world building, the city as protagonist, and her literary influences, including Fernando Pessoa, Can Xue, and Gabriel García Márquez.