In Episode 85, we're joined by Camille Bordas, whose recent novel The Material explores what a fictionalized MFA program in stand-up comedy might look like. It's funny (as you might imagine) and philosophical, exploring some of the great cultural questions of our (and just about any other) time.

You can find out more about Camille on her website, where eight of her New Yorker short stories are linked.

Her English language novels are both available on bookshop.org.

Camille's Chicago piece we mention on the 2024 Democratic National Convention is here.

Camille is on Instagram a little bit here.

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

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In Episode 84, the incredible Sergio De La Pava joins Dave and Matt to talk about his latest novel, Every Arc Bends Its Radian, out now from Simon & Schuster. We also discuss David Lynch and his recent passing, deep sea life, and haunted hotels, among many other things.

You can find Sergio's website here.

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

Join Matt and Dave as they look back at the best of their year in reading during 2024, each with a list of ten(ish) books they found compelling and noteworthy.

Dave's top 10:

Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar Prophet Song by Paul Lynch The Bee Sting by Paul Murray Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem Coexistence by Billy-Rae Belcourt What Remains of Elsie Jane by Chelsea Wakelyn Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park Assembly by Natasha Brown

Matt's top 10:

SUNDAY by Olivier Schrauwen

Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham

The Horse by Willy Vlautin

Caged by Brandon Lamson

The Book of Losman by KE Semmel

Avid Reader by Robert Gottlieb

You'll Like it Here by Ashton Politanoff

A Primer for Forgetting by Lewis Hyde

The Notebook by Roland Allen

Al rio / To the River by Zoe Leonard

Stay tuned for the Patreon bonus episode in two weeks that covers all other things we liked this year in pop-culture.

As always, this episode comes with a playlist of our favorite songs of 2024:

Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/concavity-show-best-of-2024/pl.u-pMylAeRi4KoErM

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fVLMtsQSVBCLQUbDxhUFM?si=FaHzQsz8ThCZLMtAWO81tg

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

In this episode, Matt speaks with Lauren Elkin about her new novel, Scaffolding. They discuss Lacan, marriage, and why Paris is so damn literary, among other things.

Lauren Elkin is a French and American writer and translator, most recently the author of the novel Scaffolding (FSG), a New York Times Editor's Choice which the Observer called both "erudite" and "horny."

Previous books include Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute, and Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, which was a finalist for the 2018 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Notable Books of 2017, a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and a best book of 2016 by the Guardian, the Financial Times, the New Statesman, and the Observer. Her writings on books, art, and culture have appeared in a variety of publications including the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper’s, Le Monde, the Times Literary Supplement, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, and her essay "This is the Beginning of Writing," published in the Sewanee Review, was awarded notable distinction in the Best American Essays of 2019, edited by Rebecca Solnit.

Her website is: https://www.laurenelkin.com/

You can find her on BlueSky here: https://bsky.app/profile/laurenelkin.bsky.social

The Spotify playlist she created for the novel is here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3saYDj2BSKyCFWGXsUhCTZ?si=f7a471a0e77e45bc

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

We're delighted to present our conversation with the remarkable Benjamín Labatut for Episode 81, in which we primarily discuss his 2023 non-fiction novel The MANIAC, its primary figure John von Neumann, the madness and magic of fiction, and the limits and future of science and the human mind.

Run, don't walk to buy Benjamín's two English-language books:

When We Cease to Understand the World

The MANIAC

Extra special thanks to Cameron Waller of Penguin Random House Canada (@cameronsbookshelf) for (a) putting us onto Benjamín's work in a personal way, and (b) making this conversation with Benjamín possible.

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

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Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

For episode 80, we welcome Jessica Anthony back to the show. She has long been one of our favorite writers and she returns this month with a new novel titled The Most (out July 30 from Little Brown).

Jessica Anthony is the author of three books of fiction, most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. Her debut, The Convalescent, won the inaugural McSweeney’s Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award in 2004. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Preorder the book on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-most-jessica-anthony/20862156?ean=9780316576376

You can see some of the upcoming events for the novel here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/jessica-anthony/

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

In this episode, Matt Bucher interviews Matt Lowell of the band Lo Moon.

They discuss the genesis of Lo Moon's new hit song, "Water." Lowell shares how he discovered David Foster Wallace's writing and he also breaks down his collaborative writing process. Later, he digs into some of his literary influences and the two Matts discuss Salinger, Fitzgerald, Knausgaard, and more.

You can order the new album on vinyl here: https://www.lomoonofficial.com/ and there you can learn more about Lo Moon’s 2024 tour schedule here: https://lomoon.komi.io/.

Check out their private fan community, Raincoat Chronicles.

You can keep up with Lo Moon on X: https://twitter.com/lomoon

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

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In this episode, Matt interviews Don Hough. Don is the author of a collection of short stories titled The Funeral Girl, a collection of essays called The Exact Right Word, and a new correspondence collection called All the Best. They discuss how The Funeral Girl is influenced by David Foster Wallace’s work, how Don discovered DFW, James Cameron’s Titanic, Labute’s In the Company of Men, Alexander Theroux, Jonathan Franzen, Taylor Swift, and much much more.

You can follow Don on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DHSayer

His blog is here: http://donhoughauthor.blogspot.com

And be sure to order his books:

The Funeral Girl: https://www.amazon.com/Funeral-Girl-Don-Hough/dp/1541008553

All The Best: https://www.amazon.com/All-Best-Correspondence-Don-Hough/dp/B0D251Q6NK

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - concavityshow@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/