I rant about books, mostly memoir, putting short clips from my YouTube videos here. Reviews and tweets by @JohnJuliusReel.
Seville, Spain
Joined February 2022
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Dean Bartoli Smith (@NeverEasy921) and I talk about what makes a narrative poet, how long a poem takes to write, fathers and mothers, memory, sobriety, mortality, and learning to read through sports and music. The man has mastered his craft.
youtu.be/DoebELp035c?is=9BGs…
ALI AND NINO allows the Western reader to understand, from the fundamentalist Muslim perspective, the way fundamentalist Muslims think. Without bias—for or against. That’s what makes it art.
youtu.be/TppaHmrwX8M?is=BhAW…
After 20 years of submitting this, only to receive silence—owing, I suspect, to prudery and short-sighted social justice concerns—it finally met with acceptance at Magazine Non Grata. Glad to see it out in the world.
open.substack.com/pub/magazi…
This collection was born of Heresy Press (@InfoHeresy) sending a Kafka quote out to a select group of established writers, hoping it would inspire them to submit something that “would quite likely meet with rejection by the average mainstream editor.”
youtu.be/hk1OFP-8N2g?is=5JkQ…
BOOK RANTS retweeted
Here's a review of Nothing Sacred, an anthology I was in with @mikra_namani, @Perez_Writes, and a lot of other great folks. Dude has some nice things to say about my story "The Child Star".
youtu.be/XxxBVaw9kPg?is=5sdn…
Enjoyed 8 of the 12 stories in Nothing Sacred, for a batting average of .666. Not bad. @InfoHeresy gives us a taste of the talent, points of view, and subject matter that mainstream publishing has overlooked for a decade or more.
youtu.be/XxxBVaw9kPg?is=O0i9…
It's been three years since I published anything about my Andalusian wife. That's too long!
open.substack.com/pub/therep…
First piece of fiction published in thirty-five years of trying. Not many writers can beat that initial slump.
open.substack.com/pub/therep…
An impressive memoir in essays by @thomasbeller .
Full Rant on ▶️
youtu.be/7D27pL1IMNk?si=KXxv…
I had some thoughts on Hyperidean Press after reading HORIZONTAL RAIN, the excellent debut novel by its editor, Udith Dematagoda.
youtu.be/oelp1plvQN4?si=82Dj…
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES might have the best male masturbation scene ever written, which I read at the end of my rant—YouTube censors be damned.
youtu.be/PmqHZhTExso?si=mYG4…
BOOK RANTS retweeted
Lovely and quietly bracing essay by @JohnJuliusReel on the poet and lover (“romantic” in both senses) Jack Gilbert for @r0manticon. Gilbert’s work has tended to haunt the periphery of my consciousness—I’ve long been a greater fan of Linda Gregg, among the most significant of Gilbert’s many lovers. Maybe I will write something about her work, sun dazzled and and lapidary like a Cycladic figurine, some day. For now, enjoy these spare, luminous reflections on a significant poet.
I was able to write about my passion for Jack Gilbert's poetry, thanks to the Substack literary magazine, @r0manticon.
open.substack.com/pub/romant…
"'So this is variety,' I said to myself, not yet realizing that I was the variety."
johnjuliusreel.substack.com/…
Both Shakespeare and James produced at the highest level late in their careers.
johnjuliusreel.substack.com/…
Happy Thanksgiving, people. I'm thankful for a lot, including this interview. My Half Orange, published over two years ago, keeps giving me satisfaction.
open.substack.com/pub/andrew…
