The Back of the Book

Poet and critic James Matthew Wilson drops by to share a few poems, discuss his writing process, and consider the re-emergence of form in contemporary poetry. Chris and James also discuss efforts to foster literary excellence in the culture more broadly. The episode includes its federally mandated Seinfeld reference, but this time it’s James who brings it up.

Show notes: ·        
James’s most recent poetry collection, Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds      
The Colosseum Institute       
University of St. Thomas’s MFA program         
“Quarantine Notebook” – Part XI         
Adrienne Rich reads “At a Bach Concert”

Time stamps: 
4:11 – Formalism and narrative poetry
18:17 – Publishers, literary journals, and MFA programs
29:06 – Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds
43:05 – “Quarantine Notebook”

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist. 

Produced by Sean Doolan.

For this special Christmas episode, Chris is joined by Joseph Bottum, a distinguished man of letters who has written extensively about the Yuletide season. They discuss the significance of the holiday and the festivities (both old and new) associated with Christmas, its various literary portrayals over the years, and Jody’s own Christmas essays and tales.

Show notes:
Jody's book of Christmas-themed essays and tales, Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh
Jody's memoir of Christmases of his youth, The Christmas Plains
Jody's Christmas essays for First Things, The Lamp, Law & Liberty, Public Discourse, and The Wall Street Journal
Jody's Christmas EP, Grace and Gladness

Time stamps:
1:39 – The literary qualities of Christmas
15:45 – The opulence and "thickness" of Christmastime
25:38 – Jody's literary influences and the tradition of the Christmas story
33:40 – Dickens as "the great unconscious novelist"
43:29 – Jody's Christmas tales and Chesterton's poem "The House of Christmas"

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

Chris is joined by Jordan Castro, a novelist, essayist, and the deputy director of the Cluny Institute. They discuss Jordan’s new novel, Muscle Man, as well as the discontents of academia, Jordan’s literary influences, the place of fiction in contemporary America, and their favorite campus novels.

Show notes: 
Jordan’s new novel, Muscle Man
Jordan’s essay on weightlifting for Harper’s
Jordan’s previous novel, The Novelist
The Cluny Institute
Time stamps: 
1:52 – Portraying the embodied life
9:58 – Violence and the Gothic
20:18 – Mimesis in academic culture
29:31 – Writing complex characters
41:09 – Are men reading fiction?
48:08 – Genre and influences

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

For this special Thanksgiving episode, Chris is joined by Meir Soloveichik, the Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel (the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States) and the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. They discuss the Jewish origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, the history of Jews in America, and the current plight of antisemitism in American politics. Show notes:
For Solly’s writing about Thanksgiving, see here and here.
Solly’s recent essay for Mosaic, “The Christian-Jewish Alliance and Its Enemies”
The recent volume to which Solly contributed, Jewish Roots of American Liberty
George Washington's letters to the Hebrew congregations in Newport and Savannah
Get Chris’s book, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), here.
Time stamps: 
1:41 – Origins of Thanksgiving and the history of Solly’s congregation
12:22 – The significance of religious liberty for early Jewish Americans
23:33 – Hebraic roots of the American founding
40:05 – Antisemitism on the American left and right
53:12 – Maintaining gratitude in the face of hardship

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

The critic and literary biographer Frances Wilson drops by to discuss her exceptional new book, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel. She and Chris talk about the fascinating life and early career of Muriel Spark, including her development as a novelist, tumultuous family life, and journey to religious belief. This is an especially fun conversation about one of the 20th century’s greatest—and slipperiest—novelists.

Show notes:
Frances’s book, Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel
Chris’s review of Electric Spark for the Washington Examiner
Some of Chris’s other essays about Spark: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Mandelbaum Gate; (his book, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), includes a chapter about another Spark novel).
Martin Stannard’s authorized biography of Spark
Spark’s memoir, Curriculum Vitae
Time stamps:

0:34 – Muriel Spark's background and literary style (with a digression about Frances’s and Chris’s favorite Spark novels)
11:00 – Grappling with slippery biographical details
18:07 – Spark's early life and family
28:49 – Doppelgängers and doubling
36:15 – Peculiar day jobs and resulting entanglements

51:05 – Conversion to Catholicism

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan and R. Rubin.