Episode 82 - Visionary Alchemy with Antonio Michael Downing

On this episode, Antonio Michael Downing, author and host of CBC’s Next Chapter, talks about his early reading life with his grandmother in Trinidad, how his work affects his reading life, and the types of authors that are speaking to him now. We talk about his two books, Saga Boy, a memoir, and Black Cherokee, his first novel.     Black Cherokee  Saga Boy  The Next Chapter    Books mentioned in this episode:    What Betsy’s reading:  The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai  Endling by Maria Reva  Isola by Allegra Goodman   Books Highlighted by Antonio Michael: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin The Sellout by Paul Beatty Salt by Earl Lovelace Dubliners by James Joyce Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Deep Secrets by Niobe Way   All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.   Other books mentioned in this episode: The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner  Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy  KJV Bible  Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin  The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin  Finnegans Wake by James Joyce  Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky  Ulysses by James Joyce