The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
Join author John King for eclectic interviews with writers from a variety of genres, including fiction writing, poetry, memoirs, and journalism. From literature to genre writing to the movies, all writing is up for discussion. In particular, The Drunken Odyssey features discussion of all aspects of the writing process—not just the published manuscript, pristinely presented to the entire literate world, but also the scrawled notes and tortured drafts that lead writers there. In long-form interviews, writers discuss their process and the way that writing has influenced their lives. Besides this interview, each episode also features a short memoir essay from a writer about a beloved book, plus John King responds to listener's questions and observations about the writing (and the drinking) life. For more information, see our website at www.thedrunkenodyssey.com.
Episodes
On this week's show, John speaks with Ivonne Lamazares about her new novel, The Tilting House.
At the end of Schloctoberfest 2025, Jeff Shuster and I discuss the 1968 horror masterpiece Night of the Living Dead because how could we not? Our foray into 1960s black and white films is now ended.
This time around, Jeff Shuster and John discuss John Frankenheimer's thriller Seconds from 1966.
On this week's show, Jeff Shuster and John King delve into an existentially strange antihero story that feels a bit crazy and not entirely complete.
In October, The Drunken Odyssey crams Literature aside to consider wild, dark fun cinema with our curator of Schlock, Jeff Shuster! This year, John and Jeff discuss 4 black-and-white films from the 1960s. First up is this chili pepper of a film that arose the year before the Summer of Love.
Sylvia Plath is legendary for being a tragic poet mostly known for her novel, The Bell Jar. John and Rachael are fans of Plath's poetry and The Bell Jar, but hereby set out on a historical project to read Plath's work as the world would have known it first, and as she would have known it herself, without the legend imposing its darkest meanings onto every possible opportunity.
This conversation with Samantha Nickerson, Brian Salmans, and Rachael Tillman will give you some idea of the mischief you are missing out on, and the pain John is putting himself through.
This week, John speaks with the fiction writer, cartoonist, and musician Eugenio Negro about his new novel, Despair Priorities, the long term project, and figuring out what will be deeply satisfying as a writer and reader.
Sophia Ferrara joins John down the rabbit hole of Charlotte Brontë's early private storytelling.
In this week's show, John teams up once again with his friend Matt Peters to discuss the second book of William S. Burroughs's original quartet of novels. They also discuss the recent film adapation of the same.
On today's show, I speak with the essayist Katharine Coldiron about how the way we watch movies are sometimes our autobiographies, sometimes our philosophies, and sometimes our humanity.
On 679, John speaks with the novelist Keith MacKenzie about how to plan an unplannable thriller, and how body horror and comedy and existentialism are awfully close neighbors.
On 678, John speaks with recent Kerouac Project of Orlando resident Zach Zimmerman about memoir, memories, childhood, comedy, tragedy, the problems of authenticity, and other vital literary matters.
On this episode, John and Rachael discuss the poetic output of Hannah Arendt's poetry, newly translated into English in a new book from Norton, translated by Samantha Rose Hill and Genese Grill, plus Fred Lambert delivers another masterful installment of the Booze News Roundup.
On this episode, John speaks with Kerouac Project of Orlando resident Skye Jackson about how to create a poetry collection that can be read in one sitting, how to balance the concrete and imaginative abstraction, inviting the audience in, recording a poetry audiobook, ekphrastic poetry, and living in New Orleans.
On this episode, John speaks with Tom McAllister about writing burnout, writing prompts, revision, and discovery, as well as Tom's wonderful new collection of flash memoirs, It All Felt Impossible.
In this week's replay episode, John talks to author and editor Jaquira Díaz in a show dating back to 2014. Many thanks to Brian Salmons.
On today's art-infused program, Drew Barth speaks with comic book legend Peter Kuper about his wonderful new book, Insectopolis, a project created during Peter's residency at the NY Public Library, plus I briefly speak with my friend, the artist Jeff Wilfong, about his upcoming residency at the Timucua Arts Foundation here in Orlando.
This episode is a recording of the inaugural meeting of the Kerouac Project of Orlando's Book Club. Matt Peters and I discuss William S. Burroughs's debut novel, Junky, and its place in the first quartet of his transformative works. The setting for this conversation is the place where Jack Kerouac lived when On the Road came out, where he lived when writing the first draft of The Dharma Bums.
Dan Reiter reads from his new book, On a Rising Swell: Surf Stories from the Space Coast, with the jazz piano accompaniment of Daniel Tenbusch, touching the bohemian spirit of Jack Kerouac, who wrote the first draft of The Darma Bums at that very venue. John and Dan share notes about the writing life, the freedom of constraints, the careers of Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, and Hunter S. Thompson, and physical tran...
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