In this episode, it was a thrill to speak with Katherine Packert Burke about her captivating debut novel, Still Life (Norton, 2024). ”Katherine Packert Burke’s Still Life is everything you want from a Künstlerroman: smart, sexy, funny, sly, and exceptionally queer. With biting insights and heartbreaking attention, this debut captures the daunting thrill of becoming an artist while becoming yourself.” — Isle McElroy, author of People Collide This was such a fun, tender and insightful conversation with an exceptionally talented writer. We are honored to share this episode with you!

We’re thrilled to announce that we are currently open for submissions! In this episode, we discuss what’s new about this year’s open reading period, our tips and tricks for submitting your work, and what our vision for Host’s 2025 publishing program holds!

In this episode, we discuss the works by women in translation that have been blowing our socks off this month. We talk about literary celebrities in the small press world, how their books have opened our minds, and taught us something new about literature. The books we discussed in this episode are: Tentacle by Rita Indiana Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon

In this episode, we chat with mónica teresa ortiz, author of book of provocations, the inaugural winner of the Joe W. Bratcher Prize for Poetry. mónica teresa ortiz (they / them) is a poet, memory worker, and critic born, raised, and based in Texas. In this conversation, we talk about the origins of mónica’s radical poetry, and how their work has evolved since we published their chapbook autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist in 2019.

Considering themes of liberation, we take a close look at the work of three queer poets whose work we admire, Host’s very own m. mick powell (author of threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks,) Destiny Hemphill, and Cedar Sigo.

This episode dives head first into the age old question: how the hell do you end a poem? Investigating the endings of three poems by poets we admire, we discuss the various strategies poets use to make a grand (or subtle, or repetitive, or mysterious) exit.

To kick off season 5 (!!) we has the chance to chat with the winner of the Spring 2024 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, Stephanie Niu about her incredible chapbook, Survived By: an Atlas of Disappearance.  Stephanie is a Chinese-American poet, digital humanities scholar, and ecology enthusiast from Marietta, Georgia. She is the author of She Has Dreamt Again of Water, winner of the 2021 Diode Editions Chapbook Contest, and the editor of Our Island, Our Future: A Zine of Youth Poetry from Christmas Island. Her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Missouri Review, Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for community archiving research on Christmas Island’s immigration and labor history. Stephanie regales us with stories from Christmas Island, the remote Australian territory that is woven through many of the poems in Survived By, animating the extinct, endangered, and recovering species of the island through visual poems that chronicle the extinction crisis. We talk about the possible links between the poetic and scientific practices, what poetry as "atlas" might mean, how her poems try attempt to understand the scale and scope of ecological crisis through a human sensibility, how engaging with other art forms, studies, and obsessions can fuel our poetry, and much more.  Some things we discussed in this episode: "What is it Like to Be a Bat?" scientific paper by Thomas Nagel  Dear Memory by Victoria Chang Shell hall in the American Museum of Natural History  

In this episode, we had the immense pleasure of talking with our forthcoming poet and author of the chapbook threesome in the last Toyota Celica & other circus tricks m. mick powell! We talked about everything from digital collage and it’s relationship to mick’s poetry practice, to the way the organization of a book of poems can be inspired by the way an album is composed. mick’s brilliance and depth as a poet is undeniable, and their warmth as a conversationalist made for an uplifting discussion about poetry and art making!

Hello Wildlings! In this episode, Claire and Annar discuss the idea of the primal in poetry, how and why we might tap into our most raw and instinctive urges in the making of a poem, to explore ”the unknown capacities of the mind and heart” (Dean Young). In a sprawling but intimate conversation about fueling the fire of imagination, empathy and a spirit of desire unhindered by doubt, this episode dives in head first, discussing the work of these brilliant poets: The Art of Recklessness by Dean Young Solar Throat Slashed by Aimé Césaire  Alphabet in the Park by Adélia Prado

In this episode, Annar and Claire celebrate one of their favorite literary months, Women in Translation Month, by turning to the work of a couple of the podcast's favorite poets - Yi Lu and Alejandra Pizarnik. Discussing themes of loss, eco-poetry, drama and surrealism, these two poets were a perfect pairing for the celebration of women in translation.  The books featured on this episode are: Yi Lu's Sea Summit (formerly featured on the Earth Day episode with Host Poet Julie Howd!) Alejandra Pizarnik's The Last Innocence / The Lost Adventures 

In this episode, the second in our Adventures in Cover Design series, Managing Editor and cover designer extraordinaire, Annar Veröld, gives us her personal masterclass in all things color! We talk about everything from the ways to use the Pantone wheel to create the perfect color combinations, to the prehistoric origins of Barbie Pink (yup, you heard that right!)  Here are the color design resources that Annar recommends from this episode: Werner's Nomenclature of Colours Dictionary of Color Combinations, Vol. 1 The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair Ithell Colquhoun's Taro as Colour (check out this beautiful article Annar wrote about this deck!)

This episode asks the age old question: What the Hell is an Em Dash? As the first punctuation mark Annar and Claire cover in the WTH series, it is a fan favorite among contemporary writers, as evidenced by this tweet from author Alexander Chee: “Em-dash is the ‘just belt it and go’ of punctuation. Thus my devotion to it.” There’s even a (particularly nerdy) Distracted Boyfriend Meme circulating.  So what distinguishes an em dash from other dashes? Why do poets in particular have such a fondness for it? In this episode, the Host team gets to the bottom of these questions and find: more questions, of course! But also, lot’s of great insight into how writers have come to affectionately use this hip punctuation mark.  These are the books discussed in this episode: Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson Sho by Douglas Kearney  To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis

In this episode, we had the abundant pleasure of talking with the Spring 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize Winner, Bianca Alyssa Pérez!In this conversation supercharged with Bianca's charm, we talked about  all things Gemini Gospel, from the inspiration behind the cover art to the poems themselves, full of spirit, grief and healing. We know you'll be charmed, too, by this lovely conversation with Bianca!  If you're listening before April 8th, 2023 and you live near Austin, Texas, please join us for the in-person book launch for Gemini Gospel at the Host Office! We'll have cake, a photo booth and a reading by Bianca from her stunning new chapbook. And if you're near San Antonio, please join us for the second launch party at Poetic Republic Coffee Co. on April 29th!

For this episode, Claire and Annar each brought "something old" and "something new" - a mashup of very old and very contemporary poems to learn a little more about what poetry can do, what it has always done, and how it speaks remarkably clearly to us through the centuries.  Annar's Mashup: "Darkness" by Lord Byron and three poems from the book Blood Snow by dg nanouk okpik.  Claire's Mashup: "Field-Song" by Anachreon, (from Stone Garland: Six Poets from the Greek Lyric Tradition edited by Dan Beachy-Quick) and "Serenade behind a Floating Stage" by Shangyang Fang (from his book Burying the Mountain)  

In this episode, Claire and Annar get into the nitty gritty of where, how and what to submit when sending your writing out for publication, whether it be to a literary magazine, a chapbook prize, or to a press for full-length manuscripts.

Welcome to Season 4 of The Host Dispatch!!  We’re kicking this season off with another pressing question: What the Hell is Dada? Annar and Claire dive into the absurdity, revolution, and anti-art of the Dada movement, and share some of their favorite writings from the likes of Tristan Tzara, Til Brugman, and Mina Loy.

In this episode, we had the immense delight of chatting with the Fall 2022 Host Publications Chapbook Prize Winner, Sophia Stid! We discuss her prize winning chapbook, But For I Am a Woman, and much more.

In this episode, we reminisce about all the good times we shared with our publisher, friend, and ultimate fan of Spooky Season, Joe Bratcher.  Carrying on the tradition, we discussed two spooky reads that we’ve been enjoying this year: A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee (Creature Publishing) Three Streets by Yoko Tawada (New Directions)

In this new minisode series, Managing Editor and cover designer extraordinaire, Annar Veröld, divulges all of her secrets to making the most striking book covers for Host Publications. In this first episode of the series, we focus on what it means to be inspired, and how to carry that inspiration through to the finish line.

We offer this episode in loving memory of our publisher, mentor, and dear friend, Joe Bratcher III, who loved literature and was a champion of translated works, especially those written and translated by women. We celebrate Women in Translation Month this year in his honor.    In this episode, we discuss: Shapeshifter by Alice Paalen Rahon Extracting the Stone of Madness by Alejandra Pizarnik Please visit our website where currently, all of our works by women in translation are 50% off!