On today's episode, we welcome Joshua James Amberson, author of the new book Staring Contest: Essays About Eyes, from Portland’s Perfect Day Publishing. Joshua’s writing includes the novel How to Forget Almost Everything, a series of chapbooks from Two Plum Press, and the long-running zine series Basic Paper Airplane. A former regular contributor to The Portland Mercury, his work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Seattle Times, Electric Literature, and Tin House, among others.
Joshua served as events coordinator for Portland’s Independent Publishing Resource Center, co-hosted The Steer podcast, and operates the Antiquated Future online store and record label. He also teaches writing classes privately and through Portland Community College’s Community Education Program.
Author Justin Hocking writes of Staring Contest: “These essays are at once inquisitive, vulnerable, humorous, and deeply humane. While sharing his experience with a chronic illness that threatens his vision, Amberson also interrogates the way we as a culture privilege the sense of sight. Especially in our image-saturated present moment, Staring Contest is a revelation—readers will never again experience the world in quite the same way.”
Author photo courtesy of Yaara Perczek
- KBOO