This Lit Show features recent Writers’ Workshop graduate Chinelo Okparanta, whose short story “America” is a centerpiece of Granta‘s new “Exit Strategies” issue. Granta editor Ellah Allfrey will join her in the studio by phone.

On Thursday, February 9th [...]]]> Season 05
Episode 03
Air date: February 8th at 2 PM CST

This Lit Show features recent Writers’ Workshop graduate Chinelo Okparanta, whose short story “America” is a centerpiece of Granta‘s new “Exit Strategies” issue. Granta editor Ellah Allfrey will join her in the studio by phone.

On Thursday, February 9th at 7 PM, Okparanta will join Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet, for a reading at Prairie Lights.

Season 05
Episode 04
Air date: Thursday, February 9th, at 3 PM CST

On this Lit Show, Ben Marcus discusses his new novel, The Flame Alphabet. Marcus is the author of two previous books, The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women, and the co-author [...]]]>

Season 05
Episode 04
Air date: Thursday, February 9th, at 3 PM CST

On this Lit Show, Ben Marcus discusses his new novel, The Flame Alphabet. Marcus is the author of two previous books, The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women, and the co-author (with artist Matthew Ritchie) of The Father Costume.

Marcus’s work centers (or de-centers) around language, mythology, and a perverse rationality that leaves the reader equal parts befuddled and captivated. The Age of Wire and String matches the prose style of technical writing and travel books to surreal, dreamy anecdotes and definitions. Notable American Women is no less experimental, turning familiar postmodern tropes (such as the inclusion of the author as character) inside-out.

Marcus will chat with co-host Ben Mauk about The Flame Alphabet, a novel in which a mysterious epidemic has caused language to become toxic.

On Thursday, February 9th, Ben Marcus will read at Prairie Lights in Iowa City, 7 PM.