Episode 74: Rachel Zucker's SoundMachine

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Host Rachel Zucker speaks with her husband, Josh Goren, and her friends, teachers, mentors and former Commonplace guests—Wayne Koestenbaum, Sharon Olds, Craig Morgan Teicher and Cathy Park Hong—about her recently released book and recently-launched audio project, both called SoundMachine. They discuss publication anxiety, shame, capaciousness, simultaneity, traditionally female forms of discourse, motherhood, writing about family, knowing when and when not to listen, how to intimidate bears, and the way art keeps one company. 

Books/Projects by Rachel Zucker

• SoundMachine (Wave, 2019)

• The Pedestrians (Wave, 2014)

• Mothers (Counterpoint, 2013)

• Museum of Accidents (Wave, 2009)

• The Bad Wife Handbook (Wesleyan University Press, 2008)

• The Last Clear Narrative (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)

• Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan University Press, 2003)

• Home/birth: a poemic  with Arielle Greenberg ( 2011)

• Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections with Arielle Greenberg (University of Iowa Press, 2008)

• Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First One Hundred Days with Arielle Greenberg

• SoundMachine, the audio project

Books by Guest Interviewers

Sharon Olds

• Arias (Knopf, 2019)

• Odes (Knopf, 2016)

• Stag’s Leap (Knopf, 2012)

• One Secret Thing (Knopf, 2008)

• Strike Sparks (Knopf, 2004)

• The Unswept Room (Knopf, 2002)

• Blood, Tin, Straw (Knopf, 1999)

• The Wellspring (Knopf, 1996)

• The Father (Knopf, 1992)

• Gold Cell (Knopf, 1987)

• The Dead and the Living (Knopf, 1984)

• Satan Says (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980)

Wayne Koestenbaum

• Circus (Soft Skull, 2019)

• Camp Marmalade (Nightboat, 2019)

• Double Talk (Routledge, 2018)

• Notes on Glaze (Cabinet, 2016)

• Andy Warhol (Open Road, 2015)

• The Pink Trance Notebooks (Nightboat, 2015)

• My 1980s and Other Essays (FSG, 2013)

• The Anatomy of Harpo Marx (UC Press, 2012)

• Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background (Turtle Point, 2012)

• Humiliation (Picador, 2011)

• Jackie Under My Skin (Picador, 2009)

• Hotel Theory (Soft Skull, 2007)

• Best-selling Jewish Porn Films (Turtle Point, 2006)

• Model Homes (BOA Editions, 2004)

• Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes (Soft Skull, 2004)

• The Queen’s Throat (De Capo, 2001)

• The Milk of Inquiry (Persea, 1999)

• Rhapsodies of a Repeat Offender (George Brazillier, 1995)

• Ode to Anna Moffo (Persea, 1991)

Cathy Park Hong

• Minor Feelings (One World, 2020)

• Engine Empire (WW Norton, 2013)

• Dance Dance Revolution (WW Norton, 2008)

• Translating Mo’um (Hanging Loose, 2002)

Craig Morgan Teicher

• We Begin in Gladness (Graywolf, 2018)

• The Trembling Answers (BOA Editions, 2017)

• To Keep Love Blurry (BOA Editions, 2012)

• Cradle Book (BOA Editions, 2010)

• Brenda Is In the Room (Center for Literary Publishing, 2008)

Liner notes

• 03:08 Introduction to episode

• 08:45 Conversation with Josh Goren

• 13:40 Conversation with Wayne Koestenbaum

• 35:35 Conversation with Sharon Olds

• 43:40 Conversation with Craig Morgan Teicher

• 55:35 Conversation with Cathy Park Hong

• 1:15:30 Conversation with Josh Goren

• 1:23:19 Excerpt from “The Moon is in Her Caul Tonight”

• 1:41:17 Outro to the episode

• All audio was recorded by Rachel Zucker.