The idea behind LitStation Features is to air a number of great recordings that aren't part of a series, but are too long for the LitMix. We've put them in their own rotation and are really excited about them. Highlights include a selection of John Oswald's 69Plunderphonics96, the lovely Miette reading Haile Selassie's Funeral Train, a Malcolm X Berkley lecture, Smithsonian Folkways Charles Olson record... You get the point. This rotation is awesome and expansive in its notion of literature. Listen up!

Franz Kafka: Amy Hempel: David Wallace: Chaucer: Abbie Hoffman: Guy Davenport: Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Barry Hannah: Bob Perelman: Alfred Lord Tennyson: Andrea Dworkin: Herbert Woodward Martin: Robin Blaser: Malcom X: David Antin: John Richetti: Johnathan Swift: Alexander Pope: John Oswald: Charles Olson: Virgil: Ander Monson: Andrew Malan Milward: Brendan Lorber: David Lee: Elizabeth Willis: Gray Jacobik: Henry Miller: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers: John Keats: Lord Byron: O Henry: Polly Laszlo Brody: Richard Siken: Rick Moody: Rodrigo Toscano: Saki: Tina Chang: Tony Fusco

The Left Hand Reading Series (LH) comes from the Left Hand Bookstore in Boulder Colorado. This series curated by Laura Wright seems to have that Naropa flavor, possibly only by proximity. Most of the readers are exuberant and experimental. Mainly poets, but there is some really interesting fiction work too. The atmosphere is comfortable and supportive. LH captures on tape the wonderful quality of hearing work read live.

p.s. never heard of Bag Day? Check out Anne Waldman’s show. It all becomes clear.

LH is archived on the PENNsound website. All are available for mp3 download, and some are also archived as RealAudio files.

Laura Wright:Cole Swensen:Merrill Gilfillan:Laura Wright:Joe Amato:Kari Edwards:Jeffrey Deshell:Rikki Ducornet:Edmund Berrigan:Mark DuCharme:Michael Friedman:Brian Evenson:Jeffrey Robinson:Anne Waldman

Back to top

The series' motto is changing language since 1977, and if you listen to a few Segue readings you'll know what they are talking about. The series has been running since 1977. It is playful, challenging, and Languagey. The venue is really warm and audiences seem familiar with readers. Of particular note is the ambitious introduction each poet receives. Some of them are great, some of them suck, but Segue's hosts have made the most boring part of any reading interesting. That alone deserves your listening ear.

Anselm Berrigan: Steve Benson: Pattie McCarthy: Lytle Shaw: K. Lorraine Graham: Jesse Seldess: Christina Strong: Jill Magi: Brian Kim Stefans: Garrett Kalleberg: Brent Cunningham: Magdalena Zurawski: Sharon Mesmer: Caroline Bergvall: Elizabeth Treadwell: David Shapiro: Ron Silliman: Carolee Schneemann: Charles Bernstein: Ben Friedlander: Sawako Nakayasu: Gregory Whitehead: Mitch Highfill

Back to top

Cross Cultural Poetics (CCP) is one of the few shows that highlights international poetry and work in translation. Host Leonard Schwartz’s interviews are often done over the phone, which sometimes leads to uneven sound, but this is a small price to pay for the breadth that CCP offers. To give you an idea, a typical show involves a thirty-minute phone call to Cairo in which the names of Pound, Olson, Adorno, and Laabi are all invoked. Not bad!

CCP is still running. It’s home radio station is KAOS 89.3 FM, Olympia, WA. Schwartz broadcasts live every Sunday at noon. So check out the newest shows there. To download any of the archived shows point your browser to the PENNsound archive.

Afaa Weaver:Alice Notely:Alving Pang:Toh Hsien Min:Yong Shu Hoong:Andrew Klobucar:Andrew Zawacki:Bill Ransom:Bob Perelman:Edward Foster: Lida Abdullah:Jerome Rothenburg:John O’Leary:John Tranter:Mohammed Metwalli:Maged Zaher:Laura Elrick:Linh Dinh:Marjorie Evasco:Mark Wallace: Marta Lopez-Luaces:Martin Corless-Smith:Michel Delville:Monica de la Torre:Nada Gordon:Paul Vangelisti:Richard Sieburth:Robert Kelly:Robin Blaser:Rodrigo Toscano:Russell Banks:Stela Tomasevic:Steve McCaffery:Seven Hendricks:Suzanne Jill Levine:Tsering Dhompa:Victor Reinking:Wang Ping:Zhang Er

Back to top

Don Swaim ran a short two-minute spot called Book Beat for CBS Radio in the 80’s. The program no longer runs, but Swaim has posted his raw interview tapes on the Wired For Books website. Book Beat focuses principally on fiction writers and is interesting in that these are the tapes are unedited. One can hear stuff never intended for broadcast. Also, Swaim is not averse to creating a little tension with guests. It is never over blown or intentional, but tasteful enough to avoid the adulation that plagues many shows. There are tons of shows archived on Wired for Books. LitStation brings you a select few.

Wired for Books archives the Book Beat interview tapes. The interviews are unfortunately not downloadable, but can be listened to via Real Player. The number of writers is voluminous.

Alec Guiness: Amiri Baraka: Anne Charters: Anne Rice: Anthony Burgess: Barry Hannah: Calvin Trillin: Carlos Fuentes: David Leavitt: Dotson Raider: Douglas Adams: Edmund White: Edward Abbey: Edward Guilino: Ethan Canin: Gary Snyder: Gloria Steinem: Gordon Lish: Gore Vidal: Gunter Grass: Issac Asimov: James Clavell: James Dickey: Jay Parini: Jim Carrol: John Barth: John Edgar Wideman: John Gardner: John Updike: Kazuo Ishiguro: Kurt Vonnegut: Louis L'Amour: Marget Atwood: Martin Amis: Michael Cunningham: Paul Auster: Peter Ackroyd: Rick Bass: Robert Stone: Russel Banks: Susan Sontag: T Coraghessan Boyle: Tim O'Brien: Tobias Wolff: Tom Clancy: Toni Morrison: Tony Hillerman: William Burroughs: William Gass: William Kennedy: William Styron

Back to top

The LitMix is an eclectic blend of literature coming at you from every direction. Click here to visit.

Back to top

Radio Radio:

Why Radio Radio and not just Radio? Don’t ask, this show is just that weird. That and its central preoccupation is radio itself. You will hear radiomen, sound artists, and poets interviewed by Producer and host Martin Spinelli. Radio Radio definitely is a series that helps you think about radio. Not many of us think about what makes good radio from bad radio. We merely vote with the dial and forget it is a medium worth fighting for. Listening to the Spinelli and guests help one to see the potential of radio and encourages choosiness. All the Radio Radio selections are great shows, but of particular interest check out the John Oswald show. Absolutely brilliant.

Radio Radio shows are archived on PENNSound. All the shows are available as an mp3 download. Included on the site are also descriptions of each show. Load up the Ipod.

Charles Bernstein:Bob Cobbing:Christof Migone:Jane Draycott:Elizabeth James:DJ Spooky:Sianed Jones:Chris Cheek:John Oswald:Kevin & Jennifer McCoy:Piers Plowright:Stephen Erickson

Back to top

LINEbreak is a series of half hour interviews put together by the team of Charles Bernstein and Martin Spinelli. The guest list includes many prominent experimental writers. Bernstein’s interview style is to drop the big questions on his guests: What is poetry? Is the avant-garde still alive? Can literature be translated?… They often squirm, but one gets the impression that he sits among friends and that his humor never lets things get too serious. The production is also first rate. Spinelli is so good you won’t even notice the show’s been edited. LINEbreak is definitely the show if you are looking for well-polished radio that expands your notion of the literary arts.

Series highlights? Watch for the Steve McCaffery show in which he reads his translation of the Communist Manifesto into the Yorkshire dialect. Also, there’s a whiff of insanity to the Hannah Weiner show.
All of LINEbreak’s shows can be found at the Electronic Poetry Center. They are available as downloadable mp3’s, or on demand in both real audio and mp3 format. Also check out the page for each show. Often work that is read, will be available as it’s own mp3. Cool for those that are only about the work.

Paul Auster:Steve McCaffery:Ray Federman:Madeline Gins:Hannah Wiener: Jerome Rothenburg

Back to top