This inaugural episode features a poem, “Afterlife Hotline,” by Caleb McGee, a short story, “Dog Food Lid,” by Mariya Kurbatova, a poem, “Poplar Back-Brace,” Salvador Sanchez, and stories that really did happen from J.B. Hogan’s and Susan Parks-Spencer’s new book Forgotten Fayetteville: More Hidden Stories from Washington County. Music by Joe Misterovich.
“Afterlife Hotline,” poetically provides a second chance to call someone, anyone, we know who might’ve passed before we got the chance to say what we really needed to. Caleb McGee is an aspiring poet looking to find the romance in the little things this world puts in front of us. You can see him perform at Word Coffee during the Derelict’s Digest open mic every other Wednesday.
“Dog Food Lid” places the wolfish power dynamics existing in all relationships under the spotlight of the moon. Mariya (she/her) is a fiction MFA at the University of Arkansas. She’s the Book Reviews Editor for the Arkansas International literary magazine. Her work is forthcoming/has appeared in HAD, Farewell Transmission, BULL, The Tightwires Anthology, and Crow and Cross Keys. Please send her pictures of your dog via Instagram @dogenthusiast. This story contains sexual themes.
“Poplar Back-Brace” is a drunken bender of a story, taking the listener from bus to bar to outside to a feeling of everywhere all at once. Salvador Sanchez is a local poet and tree-climber from Springdale. He is host of the bi-weekly Derelict’s Digest open-mic at Word Coffee. This poem discusses alcohol and drugs.
Susan Parks-Spencer tells the story of Rebecca Brown, an enslaved woman, and her experience during the Civil War in Prairie Grove. Susan Parks-Spencer a native of Prairie Grove who became interested in history as a young girl while listening to family stories about what life was like in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She has also edited a non-fiction book of letters and diaries, At War and on the Home Front, that chronicles a Prairie Grove family’s experiences during World War II. This story contains descriptions of wartime violence.
J.B. Hogan tells the story of John Rollin Ridge, the man dubbed the first Native American novelist, whose novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, inspired Zorro. J.B. Hogan is a Fayetteville native and award-winning writer with more than 400 published books, stories, and poems to his credit. In 2025, he was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. His novels include The Apostate, Living Behind Time, Losing Cotton, Mexican Skies, and Tin Hollow, while his nonfiction works include Forgotten Fayetteville and Washington County and Angels in the Ozarks. This story contains depictions of violence.
