Malarkey Public Radio

Malarkey Books

5.0 (2)
Fiction

Malarkey Public Radio features interviews and discussions with indie writers.

Aug 24

As Long as a Dog's Tail

In which LJ Pemberton speaks with Joshua Trent Brown about his new novel, The Walls Are Closing in On Us, genealogy as inspiration, how to write a novel if you’ve only ever written short fiction, the perfect length of any story, why would a random guy have a fake name?, the importance of research, writing until 2am, LJ’s constant astonishment at Trent’s habits, how editing makes Trent want to throw up, the importance of the woodshed, publishing as hell, how folks who downplay how good their work is are usually actually great writers, Trent as Theater-Kid, Alan Good as a genius editor, and more!
Jul 16

Strange Objects

LJ talks with Ben Niespodziany about how he came up with his personal brand neonpajamas and the name of Pizama Press, what he learned the first year, how that changed things this year, and all about Pizama’s 2026 slate of poetry and experimental prose books. Ben also confesses he has no idea what he’s doing and LJ misnames Garielle Lutz as Gabrielle Lutz, but we’ll forgive her. Plus anecdotes about meeting Diane Williams, how a consistent body of short work eventually accumulates into a longer oeuvre, Gwendolyn Brooks, how some short stories might take years to finish, writing poetry on post-it notes, how there are so many great manuscripts out there just looking for a home, books as strange objects, how Pizama is looking for books in translation (!), how Ben is trying to track down the translator Brian Mendoza, and more! Find more of Ben’s work at https://www.neonpajamas.com/. Find more of LJ’s work at https://ljpemberton.com/. LJ’s debut novel is Still Alive.
10/25/2025

My Ardent Love for Vi Khi Nao

Wherein we discuss respecting readers, the superiority of short works, the sapphic eroticism of the pencil, favorite pencils, the work of Joyce, Beckett and Virginia Woolf, and so much more!
10/25/2025

In the Belly of the Beast

On Boxcutters and Feast of the Pale Leviathan, on all the places we’ve both lived, on Kurt Vonnegut and finding your people, on working at Powell’s, on scraping by, on mixing genres, Presidents, Polish darkness, anti-fascist postures towards creativity, anger as a generative force, and so much more!
10/25/2025

Maybe You Can Have Fun With It

LJ one-on-one with Adrian Sobol, author of The Life of the Party Is Harder to Find Until You’re the Last One Around and Hair Shirt.
10/25/2025

Faith

LJ talks with Itoro Bassey about her book, Faith, and what writers she returns to again and again, and how she balances journalism, and what they’re inspired by, and why Malarkey is great, and being first-gen, and generational trauma, and ancestors, and more!
10/25/2025

Just Death

LJ Pemberton is the author of the novel Still Alive, as well as the host of the revamped Malarkey Public Radio. Her stories have been published in The Baffler, Exacting Clam, Los Angeles Review, to name only a few. Laura Paul is the author of Film Elegy. Her writing has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Los Angeles Review of Books, Tarpaulin Sky Magazine, Pangyrus, minor literature[s], Dream Pop Journal, and other outlets. As an artist, her work has been exhibited at the Armory Center for the Arts, Other Places Art Fair, L.A. Zine Fest, West Hollywood Book Fair, and included at the Omnidawn Poetry Conference, the Community of Writers Poetry Program, and the New Orleans Poetry Festival. Lauren Bolger is the author of the novel Kill Radio. Her second novel, The Barre Incidents, comes out in October 2025. Her short fiction has been published in numerous litmags and anthologies.
10/25/2025

How Novel

Three excellent novels talk about writing novels! Alex Miller is the author of the novel White People on Vacation (Malarkey Books, 2022) and the story collection How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel (Unsolicited Press, 2019). His stories have appeared in Flyway, B******t Lit, and MoonPark Review. He lives in Denver. Patrick Nevins is the author of The Commissioner of Inquiry (Cornerstone Press, 2024) and Man in a Cage (Malarkey Books, 2022). He lives in Columbus, Indiana, where he is an associate professor of English. LJ Pemberton is the author of Still Alive (Malarkey Books, 2024). Her essays, poetry, and award-winning stories have been featured in The Baffler, Exacting Clam, Los Angeles Review, Northwest Review, [PANK], VICE, the Brooklyn Rail, the Electric Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature, and elsewhere. Her photography has appeared in the Northwest Review, Hobart, the London Photo Festival, and has been featured by Metro Los Angeles. She was previously an assistant editor at NOON and she currently reviews fiction for Publishers Weekly. She holds a BA from Reed College and an MFA from Columbia University.
10/25/2025

Some of the Time It’s Transcendental

LJ Pemberton, author of Still Alive and host of Malarkey Public Radio, talks with Mick Carrigan and Axel Kolcow, editors of the esteemed Taco Bell Quarterly, about finding your place in the literary world, which sometimes means making your own space.
10/25/2025

Screaming, Crying, Throwing Up: Poetry

Malarkey Public Radio is back! LJ Pemberton talks poetry with Kat Giordano and Adrian Sobol. This is a good time to add that LJ is the author of Still Alive and Adrian is the author of The Life of the Party Is Harder to Find Until You're the Last One Around and Kat Giordano is the author of (among other books) Thumbsucker. All published by Malarkey Books.
09/01/2025

Short Story Panel

This episode of Malarkey Public Radio is dedicated to something everyone in publishing says doesn’t sell: short story collections. Just want to point out that all the writers you’ll hear talking about their books, about stories, about litmags, in this episode all have books for sale in our online store. Synopsis: Sean Ennis, Sheldon Birnie, Spencer Fleury, Steve Gergley, and Eric Williams join LJ Pemberton on Malarkey Public Radio to talk about how you put a short story collection together, what percentage is new work vs previously published work, flash vs long short fiction, the increasing irrelevance of literary magazines that aren’t online, favorite short stories, and more!
08/02/2025

Marketing Is an Inescapable Hell

LJ Pemberton (author of Still Alive) talks with Justin Bryant (Thunder from a Clear Blue Sky) and OF Cieri (Backmask) about how much book promotion sucks.

12 Episodes

5

out of 5

2 Ratings

Malarkey Public Radio features interviews and discussions with indie writers.

Creator

Malarkey Books
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

12
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

©2025 Malarkey Books
Show Website

Malarkey Public Radio