113. Creating Joy and Community Through Poetry w/ West Hollywood Poet Laureate Jen Cheng

Dan Dissinger celebrates National Poetry Month with the West Hollywood Poet Laureate, Jen Cheng. They talk about Jen’s multi-hyphenate creative journey, her dedication to blending East-West influences in her writing and workshops, her role as the creator of the Palabras Literary Salon, and the importance of “artist dates.” Dan asks Jen to explain why sheContinue reading “113. Creating Joy and Community Through Poetry w/ West Hollywood Poet Laureate Jen Cheng”

112. Sailing Without Ahab w/ Dr. Steve Mentz

Dan Dissinger welcomes back his former professor Dr. Steve Mentz, chair of the Saint John’s University English Department, to discuss his latest book of poems Sailing Without Ahab and the Blue Humanities. They dive into (no pun intended) Dr. Mentz’s writing journey in and out of the poems in Sailing Without Ahab, the interconnected writing process and relationship between the creative space of poetry and academic scholarship when it came to creating Sailing Without Ahab, his personal and scholastic history with water, teaching Moby-Dick, and the challenges of writing in the voice of Ishmael. Steve also reads several poems from Sailing Without Ahab and discusses some of the more intricate details about these pieces.

This is such a rich episode both for writers and scholars alike, and being on the precipice of National Poetry Month, this is a great way to start it off.

82. Scratching Beyond Kerouac’s Surface w/ Saloni Srivastava & David O’Connor

In the final special episode celebrating American author Jack Kerouac’s centennial birthday, Dan invites Advanced PhD scholar of American Literature Saloni Srivastava & Poet David O’Connor to talk about the all-consuming meditative power of driving on the road, living at The Kerouac house in Orlando, FL, the spiritual depth of Kerouac’s writing, seeking one’s lineage,Continue reading “82. Scratching Beyond Kerouac’s Surface w/ Saloni Srivastava & David O’Connor”