The Collidescope Podcast

Order of Insects by William H. Gass

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:00:00 -0500

This story is about a housewife who contemplates the dead insects riddling her home. Revulsion turns into curiosity turns into obsession turns into a sense of totemic mysticism.

Purchase a copy of In the Heart of the Heart of the Country here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9781590177648

A review of The Tunnel: https://thecollidescope.com/2022/01/22/the-tunnel-by-william-h-gass/

A review of Willie Master's Lonesome Wife: https://thecollidescope.com/2022/01/30/willie-masters-lonesome-wife-by-william-h-gass/

Huge thanks to Mary Gass for permission to read this story!

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

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Obscure Clearly: An Interview with Garielle Lutz

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

In this episode, the writer Garielle Lutz and host George Salis discuss turning the quotidian into art, the epistolary work of writers, the limits of vocabulary and the mispronunciation of words, how literary voices are extinguished in academic institutions, the lack of a serious readership, her fascination with individual sentences, her sense of bodily abstraction and how it has affected her life and writing, her late-life autism diagnosis, how she’s a “freak-magnetic” in public, her ostensible Nobel Prize consideration, the work of Paul Schrader and other films, her troubled relationship with her mother, and much more.

Garielle Lutz was born in Allentown, PA in 1955. Her most recent book is the nonfiction collection Backwardness (SF/LD). Her most recent short story collection is Worsted (now in its second printing from Calamari Archive). Previous books include The Gotham Grammarian (Calamari Archive) and The Complete Gary Lutz (Tyrant Books). From 1997 to 2000, she edited fiction for 5 Trope, an online journal of experimental poetry and prose. Before retiring, she was a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

Read the 2022 Collidescope text interview with Lutz here.

Read "Protandry" by George Salis here.

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

www.TheCollidescope.com

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Literary Hypnotism: A Rare Interview with Lee Siegel

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 01:00:00 -0500

In this episode, the writer Lee Siegel and host George Salis discuss Siegel's prolific work, his obsession with Orientalism, magic on the streets and on the page, Darconville’s Cat by Alexander Theroux, the allure of audiobooks, his recent forays into painting, fatalism within literature and without, and much more.

Lee Siegel is the Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Hawaii. He has published many novels, including Love in a Dead Language and Typerotica, multiple non-fiction books about India, and a translation of Sanskrit love poetry called Sweet Nothings. Siegel’s writing has earned him a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, two Residency awards at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, a Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, and the Elliot Cades Award for Literature.

A Review of Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/08/22/love-in-a-dead-language-by-lee-siegel/

A Review of Typerotica by Lee Siegel: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/08/30/a-review-of-typerotica-by-lee-siegel/

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

www.TheCollidescope.com

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Insidious Nostalgia: A Rare Interview with REYoung

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0400

In this episode, the hermetic writer REYoung and host George Salis discuss the “Ponzi scheme” of Dalkey Archive, Young’s experiences as a student of the wonderful novelist Paul West, the perpetuity of Christmas, the emptiness of branding, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and The Pale King, Latin American and Greek fiction, and much more.

REYoung was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and currently resides in a limestone cave deep beneath the city of Austin, Texas. He is the author of six novels: Unbabbling (Dalkey Archive Press 1997), Margarito and the Snowman (Dalkey Archive Press 2016), Inflation (TageTage Press 2019), The Ironsmith: A Tale of Obsession, Compulsion and Delusion (TageTage Press 2020), Zol (TageTage Press 2020) and Daaa … SnowBiz! (TageTage Press 2024). His website is here: https://www.reyoung-author.com/

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

www.TheCollidescope.com

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Invent Your Breathing: An Interview with Barton Smock

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400

In this episode, the writer Barton Smock and host George Salis discuss the essence of poetry, death metal, the fear of god, the state of contemporary poetry, and more.

Barton Smock lives in Columbus, OH, with his wife and four children. He is the author of numerous self-published works. Author of Ghost Arson (Kung Fu Treachery Press, 2018) and Wasp, gasp. (Incunabula, 2023).

Buy Wasp, gasp here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/wasp-gasp/paperback/product-gjn5k5q.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Hungrily Poetic: An Interview with Barton Smock: https://thecollidescope.com/2019/08/11/hungrily-poetic-an-interview-with-barton-smock/

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Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Infinite Fecundity: A Rare Interview with Michael Brodsky

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 02:00:00 -0500

In this episode, the writer Michael Brodsky and host George Salis discuss suffering in the writer’s external world and the internal world, reaching toward perfection and the impossibility of containing the cosmos in a novel, the necessity/obligation of creating art versus abstaining from it, how words have a right to life, the most important book Michael has read, his 1,200-page magnum opus Invidicum (2023), and much more.

Michael Brodsky, born in New York City on August 2, 1948, is a novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. He is best known for his novels, including Detour (1977) (for which he received the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Citation from PEN); Xman (1987); and *** (1994), as well as for his translation of Samuel Beckett’s Eleuthéria. He lives in Manhattan, on Roosevelt Island. His latest novel is Invidicum.

Buy Invidicum here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9798218272203

Stigmata of the Intrinsic Lesion: A Rare Text Interview with Michael Brodsky: https://thecollidescope.com/2023/03/01/stigmata-of-the-intrinsic-lesion-an-interview-with-michael-brodsky/

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

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Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Sweet Adversity by Donald Newlove

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0500

George Salis and guest Henry Gelinas discuss the invisible book Sweet Adversity by Donald Newlove.

Henry Gelinas is a stand-up comedian, filmmaker, and writer from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Purchase the Sweet Adversity here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9780578423890
Purchase Those Drinking Days here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9780578362212
Purchase The Painter Gabriel here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9798218249823

The last interview with Donald Newlove: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/04/18/what-heartbreak-the-wind-will-bring-an-interview-with-donald-newlove/

My text review of Sweet Adversity and Those Drinking Days: https://thecollidescope.com/2023/12/30/sweet-adversity-and-those-drinking-days-by-donald-newlove/

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Thou Worm Jacob by Mark Jay Mirsky

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 07:00:00 -0500

George Salis and guest Jacob Pascoe discuss the invisible book Thou Worm Jacob by Mark Jay Mirsky.

Jacob Pascoe is a writer and filmmaker based in Vancouver. His work spans narrative film and music videos to prose and essays. He studied film production and literature at the University of British Columbia. His website is here.

Pascoe's review of A Death: Notes on a Suicide by Zalman Shneour: https://thecollidescope.com/2022/07/17/a-death-notes-on-a-suicide-by-zalman-shneour%ef%bf%bc/

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

www.TheCollidescope.com

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Movieland by Ramón Gómez de la Serna

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:00:00 -0400

George Salis and guest Matthew Taylor Blais discuss the invisible book Movieland by Ramón Gómez de la Serna, translated by Ángel Flores.

Matthew Taylor Blais is a filmmaker currently based in Vancouver, Canada.

Buy de la Serna’s Movieland here: https://bookshop.org/a/81719/9780578336817

Subscribe to Sital Cinema: https://www.youtube.com/c/SitalCinema

Support The Collidescope’s efforts via Patreon and get awesome benefits: https://www.patreon.com/TheCollidescope

The text review of de la Serna’s Movieland: https://thecollidescope.com/2023/09/24/movieland-by-ramon-gomez-de-la-serna/

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Will Isn't Free: A Rare Interview with Alan Singer

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:00:00 -0400

In this episode, the writer Alan Singer and host George Salis talk about whether or not an MFA is useful, the increasingly stifling atmosphere of universities, the question of free will versus ‘acting’, the primitive muses of violence and sex, film adaptions, dealing with doubt as a writer, Alan’s fruitful friendship with Joseph McElroy, his unfortunately failed attempt to befriend Djuna Barnes, and much more!

Alan Singer is the author of six novels, including The Charnel Imp, The Inquisitor’s Tongue, and most recently Play, A Novel (Grand Iota, 2020). He also writes about aesthetics and the visual arts. His most recent work in this area is Posing Sex: Toward a Perceptual Ethics for Literary and Visual Art (Bloomsbury, 2018).

Purchase Singer’s latest novel here: https://www.grandiota.co.uk/alan-singer.php

Dancing in Chains: An Interview with Alan Singer: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/01/24/dancing-in-chains-an-interview-with-alan-singer/

A review of The Ox-Breadth by Alan Singer: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/11/01/the-ox-breadth-by-alan-singer/

A review of The Charnel Imp by Alan Singer: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/01/24/the-charnel-imp-by-alan-singer/

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Oono by Patricia Eakins

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 07:00:00 -0500

The story of a species of creature known as oono, so massive it can't be seen in full, and the ignook couple who is trying to start a family in the arctic wilderness. Their only hope is for the aspiring father to connect with an oono spirit even if it means deceiving him, even if it means becoming more than human.

Interview with Patricia Eakins: https://thecollidescope.com/2019/10/18/imaginary-beings-an-interview-with-patricia-eakins/

Review of Eakins' first novel: https://thecollidescope.com/2020/01/12/the-marvelous-adventures-of-pierre-baptiste-by-patricia-eakins/

Huge thanks to Patricia for permission to read this story!

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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A Woman With Sauce by Alexander Theroux

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 10:00:00 -0500

The culinary stand-off between a potential son-in-law and a potential mother-in-law from hell, with hilarious results. This story is from Early Stories (Tough Poets Press).

Beyond the Zero Podcast with guest George Salis: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hm5RJQZrqTuuAtynNgFcW?si=33HWHqUDRZqDx_NE77rlwQ&dl_branch=1&nd=1

Tough Poets Press: https://toughpoets.com/

Interview with Alexander Theroux: https://thecollidescope.com/2020/07/05/the-apocalypse-of-wordlessness-an-interview-with-alexander-theroux/

A review of Darconville's Cat: https://thecollidescope.com/2020/03/07/darconvilles-cat-by-alexander-theroux/

A review of Laura Warholic: https://thecollidescope.com/2020/07/05/laura-warholic-or-the-sexual-intellectual-by-alexander-theroux/

Huge thanks to Alex for permission to read this story!

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

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Night Soul by Joseph McElroy

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 12:00:00 -0400

Welcome to The Collidescope Podcast!

I’m George Salis, founder and editor of The Collidescope, an online publication dedicated to promoting innovative fiction. I started this podcast as another way to promote the kind of writing I love. For my first choice, Joseph McElroy was kind enough to give me permission to read the title story from his collection Night Soul, which was published by Dalkey Archive in 2011.

This particular story stands out for its intimacies between a father and his infant son. The feeling of connection to the past, to one’s parents, beyond the past, a connection to a being that’s future even as you’re becoming past. McElroy explores this connection with an emphasis on language, on communication, what’s implicit if not subconscious, instinctual.

For plenty of text interviews, reviews, as well as fiction and poetry in general, feel free to visit www.TheCollidescope.com. If you’d like early access to content like this and other cool benefits, such as monthly book picks or editorial services, then be sure to support the publication through Patreon.com/TheCollidescope.

There’s always awesome content in the works, so stay tuned and thanks so much for your support. Together, we can make the invisible visible or, in this case, the unheard heard.

Other links:

Joseph McElroy interview: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/04/04/a-chaotic-science-an-interview-with-joseph-mcelroy/

Review of Women and Men: https://thecollidescope.com/2021/06/01/women-and-men-by-joseph-mcelroy/

Intro/outro music: DJ Griffin

Let us know your thoughts.

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