1storypod

N 41ST ST — Convo w my neighbor Glenda, 52. On my last day on the block (07/31/2019), after living there 2 plus yrs.

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas Baptiste is a Philly-based writer, reader, musician, and MFKN LIBRARIAN YO. So sick. We post up on a blasted summer day on Baltimore Ave and powwow off the cuff about a whole gang of shit, returning throughout to our most recent reads: Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son (1992), respectively. We talk writing processes and what we consider constitutes the best art. Where this leads might be summed up as: that which investigates the difficult, touchy, taboo ideas, without either valorizing or condemning any one version of them. Sean Thor Conroe was born Sho Kamura in Tokyo in 1991. Latest story: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Contact: sean.thor.conroe@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/1storypod Website: http://1storyhaus.com

BKLYN-PHILLY — Eric Conroe, 33, is a writer and builder living in Brooklyn. He is the author of the poetry chapbook TOP BLOCKER (2017), available here: https://bit.ly/2M7ZvVV. He is my cousin. He read Thrown (2014) by Kerry Howley in a sitting two weeks ago. I read it in multiple sittings a year ago. Kerry Howley, 38, teaches nonfiction at University of Iowa. Thrown is her first book.

SOUTH PHILLY/SOUTH JERSEY — Still asking the same questions about monogamy, marriage, loyalty, child rearing, father/motherhood, the nuclear family, and work v. “love.” How these questions play out in Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation (2014), which charts a relationship from its inception to marriage to childbirth to infidelity, complicates things. Read in sips over the past three weeks and recorded during my CSA delivery route in South Philly (till I ran outta gas), during my route in South Jersey (after getting more gas), and on the way to the dentist, on foot, the following morning. Sound quality turned out surprisingly decent. New 500-word story 'That Fire' I dropped last week: https://expatpress.com/that-fire-sean-thor-conroe/ Website: http://1storyhaus.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/stconroe IG: http://instagram.com/seanthorconroe

PHILLY VIA BOSTON — In this special Lent pod, I catch up with the homie Aaron, 28 (1SP episodes 003 and 015), about the below topics during his weekend visit to Philly from Boston. Read is blog (http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com/). He's got some recent poems up about a hitchhiking trip he took around Scotland late last year. 0:00 - intro (03.11.2019) 2:44 - start of convo (03.09.2019) 6:00 - on criticism 9:00 - on keeping silent 13:00 - on editing 16:00 - on the accordion method 19:00 - on Bon Iver lol 23:00 - relocation from back to front of house 25:00 - on Lent 28:00 - on rules 38:00 - on writing about the body 39:00 - on social integration 42:00 - on community 45:00 - on marriage/family 47:00 - on cults 48:00 - how should a person be? 50:00 - on civic unity 54:00 - on the gay science 56:00 - final thoughts Contact: sean.thor.conroe@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/stconroe IG: https://www.instagram.com/seanthorconroe/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1storypod/id1238415112?mt=2 Sou

PHILLY — New Bolaño novel dropped 11 days ago, written when he was 31. New story I mention: https://softcartel.com/2019/02/18/a-seat-in-the-circle-by-sean-thor-conroe/

PHILLY — Really hit close to home, this one, especially with how dang nippy out it's getting; feeling of late like hibernation is just about all I'm up for. Otessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018), her fourth book and second novel, is about a mid-twenties Manhattanite intent on blocking out the world by ingesting an increasingly harrowing cocktail of sedatives. Read it last week, mostly lying on my side, on my couch, on Benadryl, but also walking places, in the daytime, in the cold. In this episode, which I recorded at 7 a.m. while walking to the dentist, I get into why this character wants to block out the world and whether she's able to find her way back into the world. Also: my shifting affinities towards character-driven rather than auto-fictional writing. And: how being an alt bro doesn't change the fact that you're still, physiologically and temperamentally, a bro. Sean Thor Conroe has written stories for X-R-A-Y (http://x-r-a-y.com/author/sean-thor-conroe/) and has another coming soon

LOS ANGELES — Sergio González Rodríguez (1950–2017) was a Mexican journalist and writer. A friend and colleague of Roberto Bolaño's, he was the primary source of information on the femicides—the countless unsolved rape-murders of women, primarily factory workers—in Ciudad Juárez, for the late Chilean novelist's novel, 2666. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y and is forthcoming from Soft Cartel. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Been a trip and a half reading Motherhood while posted with the mother this past month of holiday fam time / convalescence out here in LA. Has really propelled me into the nitty-grit of thangs. In this ep, I go in with more gripes about Sheila's stance on procreation than I come out with. I consider her view on the importance or lack thereof of Art. I hash out her ideas on family extending beyond the nuclear. And I give her props on the deepest idea of all: that Failure can never be communicated, must always be private, and yet is the only way to Freedom. Sean Thor Conroe's work has appeared in X-R-A-Y, on sidewalks and in fields. He tweets @stconroe and archives other art at http://1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — I started reading The Elementary Particles (2000) this past summer. I railed through the first couple hundred pages fairly quickly, before stalling out on the last sixty-or-so. I finished it this past Thanksgiving. In this episode, I explore Houellebecq's takes on the death of the nuclear family, extreme individualism in the West, and the value of declaratives. Michel Houellebecq was born Michel Thomas in Réunion, France in 1956. Houellebecq is his paternal grandmother's maiden name. The Elementary Particles (2000), Houellebecq's second novel (orig. published Les Particules Élémentaires in 1998), was simultaneously hailed as a "nihilist classic" and criticized for its brutality. Michiko Kakutani, for example, called it "a deeply repugnant read." Sean Thor Conroe was born Kamura Sho in Tokyo in 1991. He lives in the United States, @stconroe (http://twitter.com/stconroe) on twitter, and at http://1storyhaus.com.

PHILADELPHIA — Gina Myers is poet living in Philadelphia. She is the author of the poetry books HOLD IT DOWN (2013), A MODEL YEAR (2009), and six chapbooks including PHILADELPHIA (2017), from Barrelhouse, which she wrote, mostly on her phone, during the first few months of moving to Philadelphia (August–October 2014). I encountered her work after hearing her read from PHILADELPHIA in early 2017, months after moving back to Philadelphia. Gina Myers co-edits the biannual online poetry journal, the tiny: https://www.thetinymag.com/ Some poems from PHILADELPHIA (2017): https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/poetry/from-philadelphia-freedom-song HOLD IT DOWN (2013): Read: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58134/hold-it-down Buy: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781938055072/hold-it-down.aspx Gina Myers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ginamyers?lang=en 1storypod website: http://1storyhaus.com

WEST PHILLY — Nicholas lives, and has for “about six years,” in West Philly. He is originally from Seattle. He read Don Quixote (1615) recently, finishing it within the past fortnight. I read the first half in the summer of 2016 and the second half in the fall of 2017. We both read the edition translated by Edith Grossman and published by Ecco Books in 2003. Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) published the "First Part of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha" in 1605, and the second in 1615, which he dedicated to his patron, Don Pedro Fernández Ruiz de Castro (1576–1622), the count of Lemos and viceroy of Naples from 1610–1616.

MANHATTAN — Daoud, 26, is an Oakland-based producer. His work lives on the Internet @daoudmakesmusic (Soundcloud). He began working on Saba's second album Care For Me (2018) with @sabapivot and co-producer @daedaepivot last fall. I listened to Care For Me about once daily since its April 5 release. This conversation was recorded before and after Saba's April 13 tour stop at Highline Ballroom in New York City.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Whether extolling the virtues of a legume-centric diet or exuding disarming gratitude in matters fraternal to cosmic, a quick TSA search finds YaMZ effortlessly emotive, lucid, and playful. Recorded entirely in transit, TSA Approved YaMZ, at just under eight minutes, could well be his most cohesive work yet. Full EP: https://goo.gl/QKQwWD. Blog: http://bumsum.net – @itscanals

BED-STUY — Eric, 31, is a poet, modern dancer, and carpenter living in Brooklyn. His chapbook, TOP BLOCKER, is now available from GAUSS PDF. I've read TOP BLOCKER a number of times over the past months, since its release. Order/read TOP BLOCKER here: https://goo.gl/VMpi1x. Eric tweets @ejconroe. - @sho_thor, http://1storyhaus.com

PHILLY — Aaron, 26, is a reader and writer of poetry living in Philadelphia. He discovered Hera Lindsay Bird while visiting New Zealand last month. I read Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press) twice over the past week. Hera Lindsay Bird (b. 1987) was born and raised in Thames, New Zealand. This, her first book, won the Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award. @sho_thor http://1storyhaus.com Buy Hera's book! ~ http://vup.victoria.ac.nz/hera-lindsay-bird/ Read Aaron's poetry! ~ http://somedayyeasayer.blogspot.com/

PHILADELPHIA — Nick, 26, grew up primarily in North Carolina and lives in Los Angeles, where he writes and teaches. He first read My Brilliant Friend "a few months ago." I read it over the past fortnight, finishing it literally moments before this conversation. The first story published under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante appeared in 1992. There is considerable debate about her real identity, about which little has been confirmed. It has nonetheless been inferred, based on information from her interviews and correspondences with her publisher, that she "grew up in Naples, is a mother, and is not now married" (James Wood/Wiki). – 1storyhaus.com

LOS ANGELES — Takako was born in Tokyo in 1955, teaches at a Waldorf school in California, and is also, turns out, my mother. She first read Almost Transparent Blue (1976) while still a student at Tokyo Daigaku, so at twentyish. I first read Almost Transparent Blue (tr. Nancy Andrew, 1976) maybe a month ago, and have reread it since. Ryu Murakami (b. Feb, 1952) was born and raised in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. He wrote Almost Transparent Blue while studying sculpture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

PHILADELPHIA — Charlotte, 24, grew up outside of Philadelphia and in 2017 has lived or will live in Philadelphia, Austin, and California. She is a potential future doula, part-time farmer, and caretaker of small creatures. She read The Argonauts this past winter and How Should A Person Be? this past spring.

PHILADELPHIA — Zac, 26, lives in Philadelphia and works at an art gallery. He read The Possibility of an Island (tr. Gavin Bowd) in a week, finishing it hours before this conversation. I read it a couple months back, also fairly quickly. Michel Houellebecq (b. 1956), 61, is a novelist, filmmaker, and poet. He was born on the French island of Reunion, and lives in France. Houellebecq (Michel's grandmother's maiden name) had a child in 1980, shortly after graduating and marrying, before quickly "growing depressed," taking up poetry, and divorcing. His work has been described by NYT critic Michiko Kakutani as "deeply repugnant."