Textual Healing with Mallory Smart

Updated: 18 Oct 2025 • 175 episodes
textual-healing.pinecast.co

Dive into this lit podcast hosted by Mallory Smart, where authors explore the synergy between music and their writing. Brace yourself for offbeat interviews where writers discuss their individual styles, get lost in unpredictable anecdotes, and how music transforms their creative process. New episodes airing every Saturday.

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Josh Dale is from Pennsylvania and recommends playing metal music to your cat. He’s the founder of Thirty West Publishing House, cohost of the Bring a Blanket reading series, and the author of The Light to Never Be Snuffed _and _Duality Lies Beneath. Drop a line at www.joshdale.co or on most social media @jdalewrites ?

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Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud: New and Collected Works (CLASH Books, 2023), and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She is an Editor-in-Chief at Zona Motel, and lives in West Virginia. (author photo taken by Saja Montague) Mesha Maren is the author

55 min
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Recorded live at Gallery Cabaret in Chicago during the 40th anniversary of Printer’s Row, this Maudlin House musical reading was chaos, community, and noise. Writers read their pieces with live backing from Movie Club, turning the night into something between a show and a gathering. Playlist: Snake Charmer / Ben Niespo

Benjamin Niespodziany is a Chicago-based writer, editor, curator, and folklorist. The author of two books, his writing has appeared in HAD, Fence, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, X-R-A-Y, and elsewhere. Along with hosting the Neon Night Mic reading series, he recently launched Piżama Press. You can find more at neon

77 min
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Benjamin Niespodziany is a Chicago-based writer, editor, curator, and folklorist. The author of two books, his writing has appeared in HAD, Fence, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, X-R-A-Y, and elsewhere. Along with hosting the Neon Night Mic reading series, he recently launched Piżama Press. You can find more at neon

5 min
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Josh Denslow is the author of the collectionNot Everyone Is Special (7.13 Books), the novel Super Normal (Stillhouse Press), and the collection Magic Can't Save Us (UNO Press). His most recent short stories have appeared in Electric Literature's The Commuter, The Rumpus, and Short Story, Long, among others. He is the E

108 min
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