When I Let the Dog Out in the Middle of the Night

This one was an unusual submission process. I had to audition a year in advance. Yes. Audition.

I’d always admired the literary journal iamb which pairs high quality audio with written words. Instead of the usual channels where I submit a defined body of written work and then a piece may or may not be selected, this time I sent in an audio recording of myself, and the piece I read didn’t even need to be the piece I would record in the end (which it wasn’t).

Once I was told that I would appear in wave 16 the following year, a bigger question arose. Now what do I record? I had a whole year. Would I record all new pieces? Or some old faves?

In the end, I chose one new piece in which the dog makes an appearance, and two other pieces I’ve always wanted to read out loud, but never got the chance. So, here they are in iamb wave 16. And I’ve very happy with the results.

Read and listen to: “When I Let the Dog Out in the Middle of the Night” , “The Cartographers”, and “What Really Happens When I Sit Alone at Parties”.

But tonight, he ignores the open door, lingers at the edge of the deck where porch light slips beneath darkness like a shore into black sea.

“When I Let the Dog Out in the Middle of the Night” in iamb, wave 16