William Frank and DW Stojek are the authors of nearly 10 books of poetry between them, and they’ve been creative partners and performers (at readings and presentations around New York City) for over twenty-five years. When not writing poetry, Stojek is an avid photographer, while Frank enjoys long hours of chess, bingeing on 1950’s Japanese Cinema, taking naps with Scrambles (his cat), arguing with the Devil, press-ganging the elderly and Sadism.
In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with Frank and Stojek about their collections (The Purgatory Elm and The Foreign Excellent Rainbow Company, Inc. 1920, respectively), as well as popular culture, outrage culture, being tongue-in-cheek about poetry, and much more!
– William Frank and DW Stojek
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Garner adjusted his mask, pulling the Plastiskin(TM) tight against his throat. He flashed two fingers to his clone who stood at the end of the hall. He wanted to make sure Garner2 knew to wait a couple of minutes before knocking on the door.
His clone answered with a smile.
Garner was glad he’d programmed the clone to smile like a normal person. Lexa never liked how uneasy his own smiles were and now he could see why. Watching Garner2, he felt a sense of warmth. If he wanted to smile like that, he’d have to learn to do it the old-fashioned way: practice. No way would he install a personality chip in his own head. There were limits to his love and the risk of unleashing a computer virus in his brain was one of them.…
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Books of humorous essays can be hit or miss. Too often, the collection lacks cohesion or the humor can feel cloying. Scaachi Koul’s debut, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, is the rare collection in which none of the essays feel expendable. Rather, each one is well-crafted and thoroughly entertaining, balancing keen insight with effortless, acerbic wit.
Koul’s essays largely center around her identity and how it was shaped by her upbringing in Calgary as a child of Indian immigrants, the racism (both subtle and overt) she’s experienced growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, and the sexism embedded in both Western and Indian cultures. Her experiences feeling like an outsider undoubtedly helped influence her perspective, which is uniquely her own.…
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