Malarkey Public Radio

In which LJ talks with Suzy Eynon about her new book Terrestrial, aliens, loneliness, wanting a bigger world/bigger life, those weird live action movies that Disney made in the mid 20th century, having a separate writing life from your regular life, and so much more!

In which LJ Pemberton speaks with Joshua Trent Brown about his new novel, The Walls Are Closing in On Us, genealogy as inspiration, how to write a novel if you’ve only ever written short fiction, the perfect length of any story, why would a random guy have a fake name?, the importance of research, writing until 2am, LJ’s constant astonishment at Trent’s habits, how editing makes Trent want to throw up, the importance of the woodshed, publishing as hell, how folks who downplay how good their work is are usually actually great writers, Trent as Theater-Kid, Alan Good as a genius editor, and more!

LJ talks with Ben Niespodziany about how he came up with his personal brand neonpajamas and the name of Pizama Press, what he learned the first year, how that changed things this year, and all about Pizama’s 2026 slate of poetry and experimental prose books. Ben also confesses he has no idea what he’s doing and LJ misnames Garielle Lutz as Gabrielle Lutz, but we’ll forgive her. Plus anecdotes about meeting Diane Williams, how a consistent body of short work eventually accumulates into a longer oeuvre, Gwendolyn Brooks, how some short stories might take years to finish, writing poetry on post-it notes, how there are so many great manuscripts out there just looking for a home, books as strange objects, how Pizama is looking for books in translation (!), how Ben is trying to track down the translator Brian Mendoza, and more!Find more of Ben’s work at https://www.neonpajamas.com/.Find more of LJ’s work at https://ljpemberton.com/.LJ’s debut novel is Still Alive.

Wherein we discuss respecting readers, the superiority of short works, the sapphic eroticism of the pencil, favorite pencils, the work of Joyce, Beckett and Virginia Woolf, and so much more! 

On Boxcutters and Feast of the Pale Leviathan, on all the places we’ve both lived, on Kurt Vonnegut and finding your people, on working at Powell’s, on scraping by, on mixing genres, Presidents, Polish darkness, anti-fascist postures towards creativity, anger as a generative force, and so much more!

LJ one-on-one with Adrian Sobol, author of The Life of the Party Is Harder to Find Until You’re the Last One Around and Hair Shirt.

LJ talks with Itoro Bassey about her book, Faith, and what writers she returns to again and again, and how she balances journalism, and what they’re inspired by, and why Malarkey is great, and being first-gen, and generational trauma, and ancestors, and more!

LJ Pemberton is the author of the novel Still Alive, as well as the host of the revamped Malarkey Public Radio. Her stories have been published in The Baffler, Exacting Clam, Los Angeles Review, to name only a few.Laura Paul is the author of Film Elegy. Her writing has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Los Angeles Review of Books, Tarpaulin Sky Magazine, Pangyrus, minor literature[s], Dream Pop Journal, and other outlets. As an artist, her work has been exhibited at the Armory Center for the Arts, Other Places Art Fair, L.A. Zine Fest, West Hollywood Book Fair, and included at the Omnidawn Poetry Conference, the Community of Writers Poetry Program, and the New Orleans Poetry Festival.Lauren Bolger is the author of the novel Kill Radio. Her second novel, The Barre Incidents, comes out in October 2025. Her short fiction has been published in numerous litmags and anthologies.

Three excellent novels talk about writing novels!Alex Miller is the author of the novel White People on Vacation (Malarkey Books, 2022) and the story collection How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel (Unsolicited Press, 2019). His stories have appeared in Flyway, Bullshit Lit, and MoonPark Review. He lives in Denver.Patrick Nevins is the author of The Commissioner of Inquiry (Cornerstone Press, 2024) and Man in a Cage (Malarkey Books, 2022). He lives in Columbus, Indiana, where he is an associate professor of English.LJ Pemberton is the author of Still Alive (Malarkey Books, 2024). Her essays, poetry, and award-winning stories have been featured in The Baffler, Exacting Clam, Los Angeles Review, Northwest Review, [PANK], VICE, the Brooklyn Rail, the Electric Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature, and elsewhere. Her photography has appeared in the Northwest Review, Hobart, the London Photo Festival, and has been featured by Metro Los Angeles. She was previously an assistant editor at NOON and she currently reviews fiction for Publishers Weekly. She holds a BA from Reed College and an MFA from Columbia University.

LJ Pemberton, author of Still Alive and host of Malarkey Public Radio, talks with Mick Carrigan and Axel Kolcow, editors of the esteemed Taco Bell Quarterly, about finding your place in the literary world, which sometimes means making your own space.