The Small Machine Talks
with a.m. kozak and Amanda Earl
Episode 46, Season 4 Opener
Recorded at Occo’s Kitchen and Bar on July 30, 2019
Season 3 Highlights and Season 4 & Beyond Plans
Overview of Season 3
12 episodes
most played – 38 – Bad Nudes with Thomas Molander and Fawn Parker with 153 plays (October)
9 interviews and 3 topics episodes: Small Press Fair, Book Review, Visual Poetry
Statistics as of July 30, 2019
SEASON 3 July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019 had 1,513 plays
OVERALL May 15, 2016 to July 30, 2019 had 4,122 plays
Top Played Episodes: Dalton Derkson interview – Episode 6 with 174 plays, Bad Nudes 38 with 153 plays and 9 with Sarah MacDonell with 151 plays
Highlights
Aaron talks about why he enjoys interviews and their importance for research for contemporary writers; We mull over the idea of number of plays and ratings.
Amanda talks about craft and process, the discussion with Cameron Anstee on minimalism and ephemera, books as objects and materiality from episode 34, the opener was quite interesting. Aram Saroyan’s Complete Minimalist Poems.
The Visual Poetry episodes 41 and 42 gave us a chance to go into a bit of depth about a subject, do a little research and discuss.
Amanda also particularly enjoyed episode 43 with Danielle K.L. Gregoire was so much fun because we went all over the place and because Danielle is such a great storyteller with a sexy radio voice.
We talk about the importance of a flexible format. The balance with over and underpreparing. We talk about doing interviews without our co-host.
Plans and Dreams for Season 4 and Beyond
More episodes like A Moveable Podcast with Jennifer LoveGrove, Episode 29, poets in the wild, perhaps a pub crawl or coffee crawl episode where we meet poets at different cafes and pubs and chat with them.
Go to a particular city, such as Toronto or Montreal and set up a space for a few days with interviews with poets we haven’t had the chance to talk to yet. Doyali Islam, Canisia Lubrin, Dionne Brand, Dorothy Palmer, for example.
Interview with Shery Alexander Heinis and Mailyne Morena about the BIPOC reading series they’re creating in the fall.
Interview with Christine McNair about her current manuscript, motherhood and preeclampsia.
Interviews with Jason Christie and Nina Jane Drystek.
To interview long term friends or couples. We interviewed Conyer and Nathanael Larochette in Episode 36. I have plans to visit James Moran and Anita Dolman for an interview.
Aaron talks about revisiting those who were writing together in a group some time ago and interviewing them to talk about that experience and how it influenced their writing. Example is the creative writing workshops with Seymour Mayne at U of Ottawa.
Guest hosts/curators. Decide who you want to interview.
More episodes focused on a specific theme, such as places and spaces.
A bunch of people talking about a single book, such as the podcast On the Line by Rusty Toque: http://www.therustytoque.com/on-the-line
To expand our interviews to other genres, such as the interview with Mariah Horner which focused a bit more on the theatre. Would love to add music and musicians, but that would mean paying for a SOCAN license, so maybe not.
Interviews over Skype, Youtube, Messenger. Technical advice needed!
Panel discussions, such as a queer poetry panel, and maybe a live episode somehow.
We talk about how we figure out who to interview. Depends on poet’s interest, availability and also publishers sometimes send us books for poets coming to town. Invisible Publishing, Wolsak and Wynn, for example.
We invite suggestions for podcast episodes.
People could send us mp3s or mp4s of to 10 minutes and we’ll include them in the podcast, especially if you’re out of town and haven’t been on the podcast. Possible topics include places that you like to write at, places that appear in your poems or that you feel connected with, a poetry book or chapbook that you’ve recently enjoyed.
Aaron invites people to submit photo essays to the blog he co-runs with Justin Labelle: https://describingspace.wordpress.com/places/
Conclusion
Thanks to everyone who’s listened and shared the episodes. Thanks to those we’ve interviewed, the publishers for sending books, thanks to Charles Earl for processing and Jennifer Pederson for intros and outros. Thanks to a.m. kozak. thanks to the reading series and event organizers who make this town and others damn interesting by organizing and applying for grants and keeping these things running. thanks to poets for continuing to write engaging work that gives us something interesting to discuss.
Stay tuned for the next episode!