I’m thrilled to share the news of my upcoming interview and poetry podcast with the esteemed LA-based poet, Joshua Corwin for his series “Assiduous Dust”.
Assiduous Dust is the home of the On-the-Spot Collaborative Poem (OTSCP), a novel form of collaborative poetry where the featured poet and Joshua Corwin take turns in reading out phrases or individual words from lines randomly from their selection of books during the interview. The process of OTSCP promotes other authors’ work in an engaging collaborative bundle of spontaneity. According to Joshua, this technique is a variant of William S. Burroughs’ cut-up method, but combined with exquisite corpse, and grooviness–something he thinks would benefit us all. (Perhaps, he’s right!)
Adhering to the principle that lineation, indentation, spacing and punctuation are inescapably inseparable from a poem’s content, Joshua compiles the OTSCP and sends it as a ‘party-favor’ to his guest for being on the show–a poetic ‘thank you’ for sharing their words and wisdom with the world.
I was interviewed for Assiduous Dust 11½ (Episode 11½, Season 1 of this intriguing poetry podcast), which will be out in tandem with the LA-based award-winning poet, Mike Sonksen.
Joshua Corwin, a Los Angeles native, is a neurodiverse, Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and Spillwords Press Publication of the Month winner. His debut poetry collection Becoming Vulnerable (2020) details his experience with autism, addiction, sobriety, and spirituality. He has lectured at UCLA, performed at the 2020 National Beat Poetry Festival, and his Beat poetry is to be anthologized alongside Ferlinghetti, Hirschman, Ford, Coleman and weiss late this year (Sparring Omnibus, Mystic Boxing Commission). Corwin hosts the poetry podcast “Assiduous Dust,” home of the on-the-spot collaborative poem (OTSCP), and is a columnist for Oddball Magazine. Corwin’s collaborative collection A Double Meaning, with David Dephy, is currently seeking publication. He also has forthcoming collaborative poetry projects with Ellyn Maybe including Ghosts Sing into the World’s Ear (Ghost Accordion series 1st Wave, Mystic Boxing Commission). He holds a B.A. in mathematics from Pitzer College (’19) and teaches poetry to neurodiverse individuals and autistic addicts in recovery at The Miracle Project, an autism nonprofit, held at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California. He writes to honor his grandpa, Mert, whose last words to him were “Don’t ever stop writing.”
Mike Sonksen, a.k.a. Mike “the PoeT,” is a 3rd-generation Los Angeles native. Poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour-guide, his latest book Letters to My City is published with Writ Large Press. Sonksen’s poetry’s been featured on Public Radio Stations KCRW, KPCC and KPFK in addition to TV programs such as Spectrum News. Sonksen has lectured at & had his book I AM ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES! added to the curriculum of over 60 universities & high schools. He holds a B.A. from UCLA and an Interdisciplinary M.A. in English & History from Cal State LA. After teaching high school for five years, Sonksen teaches at Woodbury University.
““Assiduous Dust aims to see poets as people, not just poets, and aims at the collaboration of poets. Also, it gives an opportunity to have the co-features check out the work of their respective co-feature to allow for connection, collaboration as well.”
–Joshua Corwin
The video podcast will be released on October 23, 2020.
Here is a sneak preview of the OTSCP ( On the Spot Collaborative Poem) between me and Joshua Corwin during the interview.
MEGHA SOOD BOOKS OUT:
- Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds
- Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf
- Gregory Orr, A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry
JOSHUA CORWIN BOOKS OUT:
- Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition, pp. 70-1 (last page of “Letters in November” and “Amnesiac”)
- Hazarat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music: The Sufi Teaching of Hazarat Inayat Khan, 1998-99
- Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, pp. 254-55
- Anne Waldman (editor), The Beat Book: Poems & Fiction from the Beat Generation, pp. 248-49 (Joanne Kyger, from The Japan and India Journals, 1960–1964)
Keep watching this space for the podcast release on Oct 23,2020 along with the full collaborative poem.
Happy Poetry!!
Megha Sood
Megha's World 