Godin & ‘There Plant Eyes’ in the Media

Three screengrabs of Godin's appearances in the media including The Colin McEnroe Show’s image of a bust of Homer, Lit Hub’s excerpt featuring a purple solar eclipse, and Lit Century’s image of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan.

Thanks to the radio shows, podcasts, magazines, and other media outlets that help get the word out about the ideas, people, characters, and tropes examined in There Plant Eyes. We’ll continue to update this page in reverse chronological order.., so be sure to check back!

2022

 

October 26, Freedom Scientific FS Cast

Delighted to talk with Glen Gordon on the FS Cast podcast brought to you by the makers of my text-to-speech and Braille software, JAWS! And here’s a link to the episode transcript as well. I discuss JAWS a few times in There Plant Eyes, and even quote from an FSCast episode in “Chapter 14: The Secret Life of Art and Accessibility.”

 

September 6, Letters and Politics on KPFA

 

June 3, Embodied on WUNC

A screenshot of the Embodied podcast “Perceived: Disrupting The Blind Stereotype” episode page at WUNC featuring an illustration of the word "Perceived" on the left with the Braille version of that word above and below it. To the right are three people: from left to right, an older masc-presenting Black person with a beard, sunglasses and a hat; a Black femme-presenting person wearing high heels, a short skirt and lipstick; and a femme-presenting person with short green hair, a green shirt and combat boots. All three people have canes and are wearing Braille on their shirts.

 

I was delighted to share radio airwaves with fellow blind culture-makers Lachi and James Tate Hill. Listen to our interviews on the podcast: “Perceived: Disrupting the Blind Stereotype.”

March 3, Accessing Art with Amy

February 28: Hobart

Hobart screengrab of “Three Blind Voices” that includes an illustration of a sunny corn field and a tractor.

Delighted to be included in this lovely article by Nikki Lyssy: “Three Blind Voices: Insight into Writing, Publication, and Vulnerability.”

 

2021

September 25, CBC Radio’s Writer’s and Company

A screen grab of the interview on the CBC Radio website that includes my author photo and a photo of Eleanor Wachtel.

I’m so excited to share my conversation on CBC Radio’s Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel , who’s interviewed everybody who’s anybody in the literary world—John le Carré told her at the end of their interview: “You do it better than anyone I know.” Check out “M. Leona Godin on the Metaphor and Reality of Blindness in Literature and in Life” wherever you get your podcasts.

 

September 24, Penguin Random House Higher Education

screen grab of my essay at PRH Higher Education that includes my author photo, A Drop of Patience cover, and a portrait of William Melvin Kelley.

With an eye on next year’s paperback publication of There Plant Eyes (pun intended!), I wrote “Reading A Drop of Patience Through a Blind-Culture Lens.” It was a great opportunity to think about intersections of blindness and blackness in A Drop of Patience by William Melvin Kelley—the guy who coined the term “woke”. And, perhaps it goes without saying, but if you would be interested in bringing me and/or my book into your classroom, please reach out.

 

August 27, The Rumpus

Screengrab of "Fighting the Weightiness of Metaphors" at The Rumpus, featuring a photo of Godin in the studio recording the There Plant Eyes audiobook.

Kerry Kijewski, a Canadian freelance writer, sensitivity reader, advocate, and podcast host of the show Outlook On Radio Western, interviewed me for The Rumpus. “Fighting the Weightiness of Metaphors: A Conversation with M. Leona Godin,” elaborates on many of the cultural threads that animate There Plant Eyes and so much of my academic and artistic work.

 

August 23, Inside Edition

I was delighted to share some thoughts on misconceptions about and faulty portrayals of blind people in the media and beyond on Inside Edition!

 

August 12, A Mighty Blaze

I was delighted to speak with Jane Roper on her weekly The Zeitgeist on A Mighty Blaze, a very cool YouTube and Facebook channel created during the pandemic to help writers get the word out about their books.

 

August 9, Perkins Global

screen grab of the article on Perkins Global Community.

One of the legendary schools for the blind in the world, @PerkinsSchool, makes several appearances in There Plant Eyes, so I’m honored that they chose to feature me and my book on their news site in “Author recounts her perspective on blindness in new book.”

 

August 7, Mosen at Large

Screengrab of episode 142 featuring Leona Godin on the Mosen at Large podcast.

I was absolutely delighted to speak with the smart and charming Jonathan Mosen on his international blind tech and culture podcast about some of the themes in There Plant Eyes, such as how we might move from the stigma of blindness to a formulation of blind pride alongside other pride movements.

 

July 8, The Colin McEnroe Show

Screengrab of The Colin McEnroe show at Connecticut Public Radio, featuring a bust of Homer.

So cool to talk to Colin McEnroe about the engrained tropes of blindness on this episode called “A Personal and Literary Exploration of Blindness and Sight.” Our conversation was wide-ranging and fun, and I was only a little intimidated to be live on Connecticut’s WNPR radio!

 

July 8, The Richard Crouse Show

Screengrab of the Richard Crouse Show featuring Godin on I Heart Radio.

What a delight to speak to Richard Crouse all the way from Canada about my punk roots, sighted assumptions, and so much more on this episode that just happened to also feature an interview with a filmmaker who made a documentary about the Queens bar scene during COVID—including my old neighborhood bar, The Sparrow! What are the chances?

 

July 2, Speakers Forum

Screengrab of KUOW Speakers Forum featuring my live conversation with Keith Rosson at Town Hall Seattle.

This is a rebroadcast on KUOW (A Washington state NPR station) of my conversation with Keith Rosson that was recorded live at Town Hall Seattle as part of my Virtual Monster Book Tour.

 

July/August Poets & Writers

Screengrab of Literary MagNet, a column at Poets & Writers magazine.

Thanks to Dana Isokawa for giving me the opportunity to praise the lit mags and editors that gave me the experience, confidence, and community to become a published author and founding editor. In this edition of “Literary MagNet,” I talk about Catapult, Quail Bell Magazine, Newtown Literary, Danse Macabre, and my very own Aromatica Poetica.

 

June 22, Lit CenturyScreengrab of Lit Century on Lit Hub featuring the episode "How Language Limits our Ability to Describe Smell."

I was delighted to talk to Catherine Nichols about Helen Keller’s The World I Live In (1908) on this Literary Hub podcast that dedicates one show to each year of the Twentieth Century. Listen to us discuss Keller’s politics, her time performing in vaudeville, and her perceptual experience that so many of her critics dismissed as insufficient on “How Language Limits Our Ability to Describe Smells.”

 

June 15, Electric Literature

Screengrab of "8 Memoirs by Blind Authors" at Electric Lit.

It was an utter delight to put together this list of “8 Memoirs by Blind Authors,” that includes some wonderful writers who I’m proud to call friends, including Haben Girma, Stephen Kuusisto, Georgina Kleege, James Tate Hill, Laurie Ruben, and Jim Knipfel.

 

June 15, This Is the Author

Screengrab of This is the Author podcast at PRH Audio featuring Godin and three other authors.

At the end of the long and arduous (and sometimes fun) recording of the audiobook of There Plant Eyes for PRH Audio, we did a short interview about the process, which is featured in this cool podcast that goes behind the audiobook scenes to tell all about what it’s like to record your own words. For me, recording my own words was by ear using my passionless text-to-speech synthesizer as electronic Cyrano.

 

June 7, Literary Hub

A screengrab of the excerpt of "Homer's Blind Bard" featuring a purple eclipse up at Lit Hub.

Thanks to Literary Hub for publishing the opening pages of “Homer’s Blind Bard,” which is the first chapter of There Plant Eyes. And if you really want to geek out with TPE, check out our idiosyncratically hyperlinked endnotes for the chapter HERE!

 

June 1, Stephen Kuusisto

Screengrab of "A Bold New Assessment of Blindness" on Stephen Kuusisto's blog, Planet of the Blind.

Thanks to poet and memoirist Stephen Kuusisto for taking the time to write “M. Leona Godin’s There Plant Eyes: A Bold New Assessment of Cultural Blindness,” a lovely and personal response to There Plant Eyes on his blog Planet of the Blind (named for his wonderful first memoir).