On this month's episode, Bob and Chris are thrilled to welcome the author of 'It's not over once you figure it out,' Isaac Pickell! Fresh off of a book and pub day, Isaac reads "Nature Walk" by Basie Allen, as well as his own poem, "Uncommissioned Elegy For Joseph Paul Jernigan and The Body of Michael Brown." After that, the dudes talk Detroit Pistons basketball. 

Quick CW: from about the one-minute mark until the 10-minute mark, the three of us discuss the war in Gaza, and our desire for a ceasefire. If you would like to not hear that for whatever reason, listen to us introduce Isaac, then skip to the 10-minute mark. 

buy 'It's not over once you figure it out': https://www.blackocean.org/catalog1/its-not-over

Isaac's Substack: https://isaacpickell.substack.com/

Follow the show @linebreakpod on Twitter / @thelinebreak on Bluesky

the line break

Google Stuff When You Read Poetry (feat. Isaac Pickell)

On this week's episode of the Vine Radio Hour, Brendan and Chris are once again thrilled to be joined by guest reader Adam Hinkle. Together, the three read chapters 52-56 of Vine: "The Preacher," "Anthony and the Demons Part Two," "Ervin in the Quarry," "Gentleman Jim's," and "Jonah."

For more Adam Hinkle, check out theparkwebseries.com or @arhinkle on Instagram. 

For more Vine, visit storiesfromvine.com

For more Lazy & Entitled, follow us on Bluesky @lazyandentitled

Vine Radio Hour: Chapters 52-56

On this week's penultimate episode of the Vine Radio Hour, Brendan and Chris read chapters 57-61: "The Plague of Greed," "The Plague of Blood," "The Plague of Closings," "The Plague of Skinks, " and "The Plague of Darkness."

Read more: storiesfromvine.com
Follow us on Bluesky: @lazyandentitled

The Vine Radio Hour: Chapters 57-61

On the final episode of the Vine Radio Hour, Brendan and Chris read the last chapters of Vine: "The Plague of Bullets," "The Plague of Planning," "The Plague of History," "The Plague of Payouts," and "The Plague of Vine"

Read more Vine at storiesfromvine.com

Follow Lazy & Entitled on Bluesky: @lazyandentitled

Subscribe to Chris's newsletter for Lazy & Entitled updates: shipwreckedsailor.substack.com

The Vine Radio Hour: Chapters 62-66

The end of the year is upon us! Reflection time. Having put three guests in a row to the test with this question, Bob and Chris turn the metaphorical camera to themselves and ask: who/what are the five people/things that influence you/your poetics the most? The question is catchier in the episode. Have a great holiday and we'll see you in 2024.

Follow the show: 

Instagram: @linebreakpod
Bluesky: @thelinebreak
Twitter: @linebreakpod

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All-Influence Starting 5 (From The Boys)

It still counts as the New Year if it's January 30th! Bob and Chris limp into 2024 burdened by complicated schedules but buoyed by the power of poetry. This month, Bob reads “Community Check-In” by Sam Herschel Wein, Chris reads “John Wayne Niles … .--…--.- …/ - --- Ermias Joseph Asghedom” by Mahogany L. Browne, and then the guys talk about the surprisingly fun Los Angeles Clippers.

new year new line break

What an episode we have for you this month! Fresh off a weekend at AWP 2024 in Kansas City, Bob and Chris have recruited their most near-them-at-the-time friends to read LIVE POEMS on the show! That's right, we have Stephen J. Furlong, Teo Shannon, Chloe N. Clark, Diannely Antigua, Matt W. Miller, Todd Osborne, Amorak Huey, and Maya Williams! Forget NBA All-Star, this is Line Break All-Star! If you stay until the end, Bob and Chris even read their own poetry for once!

Guerilla Poetry At AWP

Gather round, damas y caballeros, children of all ages, have we got a treat for you! It's the first but probably not last crossover episode between The Line Break and Of Poetry! That's right, Han VanderHart joins Bob Sykora and Chris Corlew, and the three of them read not merely other people's poetry, but reach into the depths of their notebooks to holler some of their own art-words your way. Han reads their poem "last night I was sexting and reading June Jordan," and "Bottoms" by Jenny Johnson. Bob reads his poem "Utopians In Love" and "What Kids Don't Know" by Jill McDonough. Chris reads his poem "human pastoral brick" and "Elusive Black Hole Pair" by Alina Pleskova. 

After their declamations, the three dudes discuss how they decided to add podcasting to their practice of poetry. Do good things happen when you commit to discussing poetry with your friends every so often? We think so!

Han VanderHart is a queer writer and arts organizer living in Durham, North Carolina. Han is the author of the poetry collection What Pecan Light (Bull City Press, 2021) and the chapbook Hands Like Birds (Ethel Zine Press, 2019). They have poetry and essays published in The Boston Globe, Kenyon Review, The American Poetry Review, The Rumpus, AGNI and elsewhere. Han hosts Of Poetry Podcast, edits Moist Poetry Journal, and co-edits the poetry press River River Books with Amorak Huey.

Bob Sykora is the author of the chapbook I Was Talking About Love–You Are Talking About Geography (Nostrovia! 2016) and the forthcoming collection Utopians in Love (Game Over Books 2025). A graduate of the UMass Boston MFA program, he teaches at community college, edits with Garden Party Collective, co-hosts The Line Break podcast, and curates the KC Poetry Calendar.

Chris Corlew is a writer and musician living in Chicago. His work has appeared in Cotton Xenomorph, Whisk(e)y Tit, Kicking Your Ass, Cracked.com, and elsewhere. With Bob Sykora, he co-hosts The Line Break, a podcast about poetry and basketball. With Brendan Johnson, he is ½ of Lazy & Entitled, the band that writes novels. You can find more Chris on Bluesky @thecorlew, at storiesfromvine.com, or at shipwreckedsailor.substack.com.

The Line Break / Of Poetry Crossover Event

Strap on your leather armor and sharpen your curved bronze swords, Bob Curator of Calendars and Chris Wrecker of Ships are reading The Iliad! The dudes realized they had both separately decided to storm the gates of Troy (Bob shepherded by Emily Wilson's translation, Chris violently thrown around by Robert Fagles') and figured why not do an episode on it? In this episode, you'll find enthusiastic gushing about the language of epics, parsing of the way the Homeric epics are culturally absorbed, Chris confusing "Antigone" with "Aeschylus," confusion as to way Ajax was basically absent from the 2004 film Troy, and stunningly knuckle-dragging sexism from an ancient society!

Follow KC Poetry Calendar on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kcpoetrycalendar/

Read the Shipwrecked Sailor blog: https://shipwreckedsailor.substack.com/

thus the line break read Homer Writer Of Epics

on this month's episode, Bob and Chris confront narratives that feel depressingly inevitable—that war will continue to happen and fatherhood is difficult to get right—and try to see if poetry can help change those narratives. Bob reads "[...]" by Fady Joudah, Chris reads "We Were All Odysseus In Those Days," and even though the guys recorded less than a week ago, their playoff takes are already obsolete. 

two McSweeney's articles we might've been referencing:

"An Interactive Guide To Ambiguous Grammar" by Vijith Assar https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar

"How To Use The Past Exonerative Tense To Uphold White Supremacy" by Devorah Blachor https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how-to-use-the-past-exonerative-tense-to-uphold-white-supremacy

Guerilla Poetry At AWP

The Line Break Podcast

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