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Syndication

On this episode we bring you part 1 of our live show, recorded November 3rd, 2014, at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in New York City. For part 1, we have Kevin Nguyen reading an essay about names, culture, and the internet, and Alan Hanson reads an amazing new set of poems. Plus: What is the best emoji? (And is the singular of "emoji" "emojo"? Can it be?)

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

Direct download: Ep_21-_Live_Show_pt_1-_Kevin_Nguyen__Alan_Hanson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:19am EDT

Time works in strange ways in both pieces on this episode. Shelly Oria reads a short story from her new collection, New York 1, Tel Aviv 0, about measuring love, distance, and loss, and Bijan Stephen reads an essay that tells the story of one night in fragments, but decades and centuries are tangled up in those moments.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

 

Direct download: Episode_20_-_Shelly_Oria_and_Bijan_Stephen.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:30am EDT

Today we've got two nonfiction pieces that show the power of sharing experience through writing and reading. Meaghan O'Connell (Longreads, The Billfold) reads from her honest, funny, and generous recounting of her son's birth, and Miranda K. Pennington (The Toast, The American Scholar) shares a glimpse of how her life has been changed by decades of reading and re-reading the Brontës.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

Direct download: Ep_19_-_Miranda_K_Pennington__Meaghan_OConnell.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:45am EDT

On today's episode, the perils and thrills of being a woman or girl navigating a world full of men's bodies. But maybe not quite how you expect. Elisabeth Geier reads an essay about art, music, love, and penises, and Marie-Helene Bertino reads a short story about a woman caught in a sort of deluge of the past.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

Direct download: ep_18_-_Elisabeth_Geier__Marie-Helene_Bertino.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:58am EDT

The Pleiades, love poems, lava tubes, and porn. Rome and dark-sky mountaintops. An essay, "We Never Looked at the Stars," from Ben Lillie and poems by Dorothea Lasky from her new book, Rome

Also announcing The Catapult: LIVE, 11/3 at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC. (And to be distributed by podcast thereafter.) More info here.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

 

Direct download: Ep_17_-_Ben_Lillie__Dorothea_Lasky.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:30am EDT

Today we've got readings from two amazing short stories: Alice Sola Kim reads from "Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying" and Dolan Morgan reads from "Infestation." Alice's story appears in the new issue of Tin House (#61) and the anthology, Monstrous Affections. Dolan's story is in his new collection, That's When the Knives Come Down

You could call this episode "Ghosts and Goats," but that's so dumb that I hid it here at the bottom.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

Direct download: Episode_16_-_Alice_Sola_Kim__Dolan_Morgan.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

On this episode, we've got stories of children trying to make sense of the world... and adults trying to do the same. Figuring out the unspoken rules, trying to get the answers they want, a little lost, a little hopeful, a little strange. Julia Pierpont reads her short story, "Times For Us Alone," and Gabriel Roth reads from his novel, The Unknowns.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

Direct download: Episode_15_-_Julia_Pierpont__Gabriel_Roth.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:53am EDT

Two stories of love and leaving home: Rebecca Worby reads an essay about falling in love with red rock country and the confusion of romance in a beloved place, and Justin Taylor reads a short story about leaving the city in love and continuing to leave and be left.

You may direct all correspondance, including angry letters about ungenerous assessments of beloved Joan Didion essays, to letters@catapultreads.com.

CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads

 

Direct download: Episode_14_-_Rebecca_Worby__Justin_Taylor.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:31am EDT

From mermaids to the Midwest, we've got something for everyone today: poems from Matthea Harvey and fiction from Emily Gould. Also some musings on cat ownership and writing and how they're maybe the same thing, plus some ambient construction sounds from recording at Emily's apartment. Apologies for the buzzsaw; enjoy the rest.

Find more work by Matthea and Emily at CatapultReads.com, and follow us on twitter: @catapultreads

Direct download: episode_13_-_Matthea_Harvey__Emily_Gould.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:50am EDT

Today's episode features work from the new issue of Apogee Journal. (Today's episode also features the sound of several low-flying jets on their way to land at LaGuardia Airport.) Apogee publishes art and writing that engage with issues of identity politics, and today's readers, Morgan Parker (reading poems) and Stacy Parker Le Melle (with an essay), show just how gorgeous, compelling, funny, smart, thoughtful, and intriguing that work can be. For more info: CatapultReads.com and ApogeeJournal.org.

Direct download: Episode_12_-_Morgan_Parker__Stacy_LeMelle.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Poetry and fiction for you, on rare neurological diseases, following Phish, the Next Great American Novelist that never was, lost love, found accents, and indescribable mystical experiences. Plus advice for writers, literary secrets, and a new Catapult feature: long-distance Q&A. Send your questions for this week's or any past readers to letters@catapultreads.com. We'll have answers for you on the next episode.

Direct download: episode_11_-_Lynn_Schmeidler__Ted_Thompson.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

Two nonfiction readings today—Matt Gallagher reads an essay about getting back in uniform, in New York City instead of Iraq, and Leigh Stein shares an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress about grieving in the internet age, in this selection touching on rings, relics, and run-ins with the cops.

Direct download: episode_10_-_Matt_Gallagher__Leigh_Stein.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

Our run of fortuitously themed episodes is OVER, unless you'll take for this episode's theme "really lovely readers." Because they are. Both writers on this episode have the kinds of voices I could just listen to forever. But the similarities mostly end there. Mira Jacob reads the opening of her novel, The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing. Filip Noterdaeme reads from his book, The Autobiography of Daniel J. Isengart. Info on the writers & links to more of their work at CatapultReads.com

Direct download: Episode_9_-_Mira_Jacob__Filip_Noterdaeme.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

This episode brings you two excerpts from two fantastic new books: Jen Doll reading the opening of her book, Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest (out now) and Catherine Lacey with an excerpt from her novel, Nobody is Ever Missing (out July 8th). On weddings and marriage with audio cameos from a helicopter, an ice cream truck, and who knows what else!

Corrections to the audio: The Last Five Years is about a bad *marriage,* not a bad wedding; Catherine's book comes out July 8th, not July 9th.

Direct download: Episode_8_-_Jen_Doll__Catherine_Lacey.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

An essay, poems, and a short story. Discussed: sisters, best friends, feminist poetry, Belle & Sebastian, California, meteor showers, shacks in the woods, DSM IV 300.6, John Green, tumblr, teens, and the impossibility of knowing another person's experience of the world but the importance of always trying.

Direct download: Episode_7_-_Kevin_Nguyen_Alan_Hanson_Julie_Buntin.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

A serendipitously themed episode, with an essay from Meghan Flaherty and a short story from Matthew Rossi.

Direct download: Episode_6_-_Meghan_Flaherty__Matthew_Rossi.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

Meehan Crist and Miles Klee read this week. Meehan's short pieces blur essay and poetry; Miles' short story blurs discomfort and hilarity.

Direct download: Episode20520-20Meehan20Crist202620Miles20Klee.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

Today's pieces come together on the topic of trying to be the person you want to be, dancing around the line between finding yourself and trying too hard. Rosie Schaap reads an excerpt from her book, Drinking With Men, and Isaac Oliver gets us cozy with "How To Build a Gay Fire In 30 Easy Steps."

Direct download: Episode_4_-_Rosie_Schaap__Isaac_Oliver.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am EDT

After an intro riff on hard books, rough patches, and some thoughts on novels read ten or so years ago, Rebecca Schiff reads a short story about romance with a down-on-his-luck pot grower, and Leslie Jamison reads an essay from her new book, The Empathy Exams. Read more at catapultreads.com and follow us on twitter at @CatapultReads.

Direct download: Episode_3_-_Rebecca_Schiff_and_Leslie_Jamison.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Colleen Kinder's essay takes us under cover in Cairo. Ryan Chang reads a short story about shame, a dog, and an institutional purgatory.

Read more at catapultreads.com, and follow us on twitter at @CatapultReads.

Direct download: Episode_2-_Colleen_Kinder__Ryan_Chang.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

On this, our inaugural episode, Isaac Butler reads an essay about love on the proto-internet, we have gorgeous and strange poems from Nicole Steinberg, and Ryan Britt's short story takes us to an Applebee's, perhaps an especially nice one.

Direct download: Catapult_ep1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:08pm EDT

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