Book Banter with Rayna

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring M. A. Nicholson

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with poet M. A. Nicholson about her luminous debut collection, Around the Gate. Set against the vivid backdrop of New Orleans, her poems blend the personal and the communal, inviting readers to slow down and look closely at the world—and at themselves. We explore how place and history shape her work. Plus we discuss what we are reading now and our summer plans.

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M.A. Nicholson is a New Orleans poet, editor, educator, journalist, and a co-founder of LMNL Arts. An alumna of Loyola University and a M.F.A. graduate from the University of New Orleans—where she served as Associate Poetry Editor for Bayou Magazine—M.A. was the recipient of the 2021 Andrea-Saunders Gereighty Academy of American Poets Award and has work featured in Best New Poets 2022. Her debut poetry collection Around the Gate (Word Works Books, 2024) was selected by judge Carolyne Wright for the 2023 Hilary Tham Capital Collection prize.

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M. A. Nicholson's poems engage the ghosts and lives of New Orleans through the experiences and memories of the female speaker. Says Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, Louisiana Poet Laureate, "Nicholson's verse artfully engages the enigma of New Orleans, keeping hearts in a parade of memorable wordplay. Nicholson captures innocent eyes observing world stories, crafting the present where traditions are passed as gifts. These poems unveil the preciousness of days, as readers see life flip and unfold with the unexpected. From birthdays, saints' days, and barbecues to river horizons and storms-from skies or hearts-these poems entice readers to return again and again."

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Purchase Around the Gate here: https://bookshop.org/a/106612/9781944585815 

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring David Valdes

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author David Valdes about his fun, heartfelt YA novel Spin Me Right Round. We dive into the book’s time-travel twist, its celebration of queer identity, and how David brings both humor and heart to stories about being seen and finding your place. Plus, he shares what inspired the book and why writing for teens means so much to him.

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David Valdes is the author of the nonfiction books Homo Domesticus, The Rhinestone Sisterhood, and Today Show pick A Little Fruitcake, as well as a dozen produced plays. A former Boston Globe columnist and HuffPo blogger whose posts have received over a million hits, he currently blogs on Medium, and was recently featured in the New York Times’ Modern Love. He also teaches writing at Boston Conservatory and Tufts. David lives in the Boston area. davidvaldeswrites.com - From lauded writer David Valdes, a sharp and funny YA novel that's Back to the Future with a twist, as a gay teen travels back to his parents' era to save a closeted classmate's life.

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Purchase David Valdes' books here: https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=David+Valdes

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring Aaron Reynolds

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with Aaron Reynolds, the creator of Effin’ Birds, the wildly funny and delightfully irreverent comic that blends vintage illustrations with modern-day snark. We dive into the origins of his foul-mouthed feathered phenomenon, how he turns frustration into hilarity, and why swearing birds have struck such a chord with readers.

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Aaron Reynolds is a Webby Award–winning humorist, aprofessional speaker, and the man behind the Effin’ Birds and Swear Trek social media accounts. When he’s not on Twitter, you can find him producing a series of podcasts and at ComicCons dressed as George Lucas. He has been a baseball writer, a fine art printer, and a mall Santa Claus photographer. Aaron was raised in Mississauga, Canada, a suburb where they cut down all the trees and named the streets after them. He currently splits his time between Toronto and Ottawa.

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Get your copy of Effin' Birds: A Field Guide to Identification - https://bookshop.org/a/106612/9781984856289

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring Bethany Mangle

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author Bethany Mangle about her witty and heartfelt YA novels. We explore how she balances humor with emotional depth, the relatable teen experiences that inspire her stories, and the way she writes strong, complicated characters finding their way. Plus, she shares what draws her to writing about family, friendship, and the chaos of growing up.

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Bethany Mangle is the author of the Prepped, All the Right Reasons, and Conditions of a Heart. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys spoiling her dogs, playing video games, and spending time with her unbearably nerdy husband. She moves too much to put a location in her bio ever again. Visit her at BethanyMangle.com.

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Purchase Bethany's books here: https://bookshop.org/lists/book-banter-guests

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring Rien Fertel

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author Rien Fertel about his rich and reflective writing on Southern history and culture. We dive into the personal threads that run through his work, how he brings forgotten stories and voices to the forefront, and what it means to write about place with both reverence and critique.

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Rien Fertel is the author of four works of nonfiction. He writes about literature for a variety of publications, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune/Louisiana Advocate, where he is the biweekly book critic. He has held a variety of academic positions, most recently as a Visiting Professor of History at Tulane University.

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Purchase Rien's books here: https://bookshop.org/lists/book-banter-guests

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring Julia Ridley Smith

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author Julia Ridley Smith about her sharp, funny, and insightful new book, Sex Romp Gone Wrong. We dig into the stories behind the title, the humor and heart that shape her characters, plus we talk about some of the books we're reading now.

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Julia Ridley Smith is the author of Sex Romp Gone Wrong (Blair), a short story collection, and The Sum of Trifles (University of Georgia Press), a memoir about cleaning out her antique-dealer parents’ house, grief, and what the objects we live with mean to us. Her work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, the Missouri Review, New England Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. Smith teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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In her debut story collection, Julia Ridley Smith navigates the currents and eddies of desire, sex, love, and relationships. These twelve highly accomplished stories are witty and accessible, intelligent and thought-provoking. A girls' week at the beach prompts hot tub drinking, awkward confessions, and a poignant reconsideration of friendship. A caregiver extracts a small repayment from her elderly patient for his long-forgotten role in the demise of her family. A young woman, new to New York City, finds herself in a complex but tacky love affair and reckons with the unfolding plot of her life. In the title story, a woman plots to conceive a second child while at a convention hotel with her husband and teenage daughter, both of whom have other plans. Smith's stories will beguile and delight readers while at the same time exploring the deep and often difficult ties of family, marriage, and romantic love in modern life.

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Purchase Julia Ridley Smith's books here: https://bookshop.org/lists/book-banter-guests

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring Jared M. Bentley

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author Jared M. Bentley about his sharp and heartfelt sci-fi debut, Robots, Please. We explore the story’s blend of humor, humanity, and artificial intelligence, as well as the themes of loneliness, connection, and what it means to be truly alive in a world built by machines.

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Jared M. Bentley is an American writer and educator. His collection of short stories, Robots, Please, is the first in a trilogy that humorously explores how to exist in an absurd world. Future work includes his debut novel, Dream Control, which examines resistance against government control in a speculative past version of Earth where dreams can alter reality. Jared's other publications may be found at jaredmbentley.com. Jared lives with his wife (and editor), Amy, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. There he will remain until he receives his ticket to the stars.

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Robots, Please is a collection of short stories that explores absurdity. Each story pokes fun at its world and examines a familiar societal flaw. The collection mulls over other themes like art, addiction, foolishness, friendship, parenthood, paranoia, and the duality of life and death. Robots, Please also features robots. Through their inner circuitry, we may better understand what it means to be human. Or not. I guess we’ll see. You may gasp. You may cry. You will most certainly laugh. If not, you should have your behavioral system recalibrated.

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Purchase Robots, Please here: https://bookshop.org/a/106612/9798385159475 

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

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Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter 

Book Banter with Rayna Featuring TQ Sims

In this episode of Book Banter with Rayna, we talk with author TQ Sims about their bold and tender sci-fi romance, Lovers in Arms. We dive into the themes of queer love, resistance, and chosen family that pulse through the story, and how TQ crafts emotionally rich worlds that feel both epic and intimate.

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TQ Sims crafts engaging stories that center Queer characters in supernormal situations. Their sci-fi series The Lovers Universe, including Godspeed, Lovers and Lovers in Arms, follows two men who fall in love while using their psychic powers to battle sentient storms. This compelling tale explores themes of mental health, post-traumatic growth, and the power of found-family. In 2022, TQ’s short story "The Ritual" was a finalist at the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival, showcasing their talent for blending emotional depth with fantastical elements. Their work has also appeared in Louisiana Words, Beyond Queer Words, and The Queer and Trans Guide to Storms. Residing in New Orleans with their partner and an ever-growing number of cats. Connect with them on Instagram @t.q.sims.

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As deadly living storms threaten to destroy the world, a crew of Queer warriors must harness their supernatural powers and their deepest emotions to stave off cosmic annihilation. "Lovers in Arms" is a soulbending sci-fi saga that combines heart-pounding space opera with a sizzling LGBTQ+ romance. As Casey and Oscar tap into their justified rage and unbreakable bonds, they uncover the true force propelling them-love worth fighting for, love worth living for. Join them in a journey through multiple dimensions where courage, love, and resilience light the way against the encroaching darkness.

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Purchase Lovers in Arms here: https://bookshop.org/a/106612/9781835561973

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Book Banter is a laid-back conversational interview with authors, illustrators, creators and other bookish folks.

-

Subscribe to Book Banter with Rayna wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@Book_Banter