Tag: James Benger

Ep. 106: This Still Life

We’re back from another unplanned, unannounced hiatus, and who knows, this could be the beginning of another one. Old friends Jason Baldinger and James Benger discuss their new split poetry collection This Still Life. In our discussion, we talk about what it means to work on a collection like this, James and Jason read, and during The Bottom 5, we accidentally discover while rock music is cool and so are lots of rock bands, a lot of folks who are in rock bands aren’t cool. You can buy This Still Life on James Benger’s Bandcamp Page. And you can get a bunch of other cool stuff on Jason Baldinger’s Bandcamp Page. You can hear James and Jason read at Swordfish Tom’s on Sunday, September 18, 2022.

As always, we swear.

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Ep. 88 From the Back

James Benger is a fantastic poet from Kansas City, and his new book is entitled From the Back. From the Back is a collection of poems about the kinds of characters one could have found in every dive bar in every town in this country before Covid struck.

During the course of our conversation, we get nostalgic about bar life, and talk about the man-drama that often comes with being in a band. We discuss the importance of practicing one’s craft everyday if you can. James also wraps up The Bottom 5 with a tale of the WORST drive-in double feature combo that anyone could bring a young child to.

After listening to our extended conversation you are going to want to hear more of From the Back, and the best way to buy it is from James directly by emailing him at JamesBengerAuthor[at]gmail[dot]com. However, buy From the Back from a chain store if you must. You can also listen to James read his works on Bandcamp.

James uses his poetry for civic engagement. He is on the board of The Writers’ Place in Kansas City. He helps curate the Riverfront Readings series. He is proud to be a part of Words Save Lives. And the proceeds from the 365 Poetry anthologies he edits go to Operation Breakthrough.

I might swear like once.

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Episode 69: Party Line

In an attempt to forge new frontiers of podcastdom We’re All Gonna Die tries our hand at podcasting over the phone, and I’m sorry about the constant hum.  I ran noise reduction and the compression software multiple times, and well…it’s at least an amusing conversation between myself, Stephanie Brea, Jason Baldinger, and all the way from a U-Haul parking lot in Kansas City James Benger.

During our talk we discuss the holiday season, why labor and poetry go together, James and Jason’s great new book Little Fires Hiding, the 5th Annual Bah Humbug:Writers Wrestle with the Holiday Spirit reading, and James has to get out of his car and explain why he’s talking on the phone in a U-Haul parking lot

At this point, I try to earn the explicit tag on every single podcast.

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