Meet
Our Hosts

Caleb James K.

Caleb James K. is the former Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal, Drunken Pen Writing, and the host of the DPW Podcast. He’s also a fiction writer, poet, and aspiring novelist.

Spencer Church

A former aspiring comic book artist, Spencer is the cohost of the DPW Podcast as well as a short story writer and avid reader.

No cold open today. Instead, we dive right into the topic of the day. We examine the current illiteracy crisis going on in the US and discuss a study done with English majors who were found to be unable to read or inadequate in understanding the opening to Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House.

We read the opening of Bleak House ourselves to see if we’re capable of understanding it, and then, for fun, we read some pages of Ulysses by James Joyce to prove just how dumb we really are.

A Murakami Minute: 1Q84 Book Three – Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

In today's episode, we finish our discussion of Haruki Murakami's giant novel, 1Q84. We share our thoughts on how the book ends, as well as the lack of resolution for the characters we've spent far too much time with. This leads to a brief comparison to the other notable Murakami, Ryu Murakami, who tends to write in a much faster-paced, grittier, and harder-hitting way. There are a lot of things to like about 1Q84, but there are also many things that bring the book down. Overall, it's still a solid read.