In this episode, we speak to Nuar Alsadir about her essay, Animal Joy. We discuss the radical possibilities of laughter, the connections between writing and psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic notion of our 'true' and 'false' selves. We chat about living 'hotter' and being 'more' in the face of a society which often asks us to diminish ourselves in order to conform to social scripts. We talk about the role of the clown within this society and the disruptive nature of poetry. We think about what it means to put unconscious and bodily experiences into writing, through the lens of Nuar's second poetry collection, Fourth Person Singular.
Nuar Alsadir writes poetry and nonfiction. She is the author of the nonfiction book, Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation, and two poetry collections, most recently Fourth Person Singular, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Forward Prize for Best Collection. She lives in New York where she works as a psychoanalyst in private practice.
References
Fourth Person Singular by Nuar Alsadir
More Shadow than Bird by Nuar Alsadir
Winnicott's theory of true and false selves
L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
Tune into the episode for a 10% discount on Nuar Alsadir's work at Storysmith.