This week we check out the online literary magazine Taco Bell Quarterly, which recently put out its second issue. The journal began on something of a whim, according to its founding editor, and now publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction inspired or related to Taco Bell in one way or another. We were curious: Would the pieces feel gimmicky? Or could Taco Bell be a weird but useful portal into great contemporary literature?
We also provide a recap of AWP 2020–the conference nearly derailed by the coronavirus–and try go figure out why we’re sometimes annoyed by the relentlessly positive tweets of writers like Maggie Smith and Chuck Wendig (maybe because we’re bad people?).
For the record, one of us wanted to eat Taco Bell this week, but the other of us put the kibosh on it. Which is, frankly, sort of rude. Anyway.
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Until next time: thanks for listening!
Stream Episode 318: