Elana K. Arnold, Mischa Kuczynski, Eli Payne Mandel

On the 12/6/23 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Dr. Andy is visited by this week’s featured readers for the Poetry Night Reading Series, Elana K. Arnold and Mischa Kuczynski, and an additional guest, Eli Payne Mandel. 

Elana joins the podcast first, discussing her gratitude for the success of her most recent novel, The Blood Years. She shares her perspective on achieving readership and her philosophy as a translator of teen experiences into words. She then reads a few pages from her book. 

Next, Mischa Kuczynski speaks on style changes as a writer, her own ritual of writing to either complete silence or minimalist, repetitive classical, and the theme of family in her works. She praises the accessibility of writing as a worthwhile and satisfying endeavor before reading her poems, “Milk” and “Lawn.” 

Eli Payne Mandel closes out the episode by discussing his new book The Grid, translations, archives, compiling works in the manuscript process, and the inspiration provided by the study of a “human computer.”

Elana K. Arnold is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels and children’s books, including the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Several of her books are Junior Library Guild selections and have appeared on many best book lists, including the Amelia Bloomer Project, a catalog of feminist titles for young readers. Her books stir up significant attention and praise, and sometimes controversy. Elana K. Arnold teaches in Hamline University’s MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults program and lives in Southern California with her family and menagerie of pets. She is an alumna of the graduate creative writing program at UC Davis. Her newest book, The Blood Years, is based on the true experiences of her grandmother's childhood in Holocaust-era Romania.

Mischa Kuczynski holds an MA in Creative Writing from UC Davis and a BFA in Photography from the University of Utah. A finalist for the 2009 Ruth Lily Poetry Fellowship, Kuczynski has published work in the American Poetry Review, Gigantic, Fence, Sinister Wisdom, and elsewhere. According to Dr. Andy Jones, “Mischa Kuczynski writes poignant, important, and unforgettable poems that stir the heart.” She lives in Davis.

Eli Payne Mandel is the author of THE GRID (Carcanet / Changes, 2023), which was named a "poetry book of the month" by The Telegraph. He holds a Ph.D. in English and interdisciplinary humanities from Princeton and teaches as a lecturer at Columbia. 

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature the authors Elana K. Arnold and Mischa Kuczynski at 7 PM on Thursday, December 7th, 2023, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.