Something Rather Than Nothing

Alex Behr [https://www.alexbehr.com/bio-alexbehr] is the author of the story collections ANIMAL KINGDOM and PLANET GRIM, both on 7.13 Books, and the poetry chapbook GRIEF STICK, Picture Frame Press. Her writing has been published in Tin House, Epiphany, Salon, Oregon Humanities, The Rumpus, Buckman Journal, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, in anthologies, and others. She lives in Portland, OR, and plays piano and bass guitar. She teaches writing workshops through Literary Arts. * What she learned from her mom: always carry a pack of cards * What her cat taught her: not a damn thing This is Something Rather Than Nothing [https://somethingratherthannothi.podview.com/]

Sophie Dunér [https://sophiedunermusic.com/]is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and visual artist from Sweden who has lived and performed in the United States and Spain. Originally a jazz singer, her writing and performing have evolved into a unique style of wild, risky, passionate and exhilarating music for vocals and string quartet. This is Something Rather Than Nothing [https://somethingratherthannothi.podview.com/]

Lawrence Q. Markx [https://questionmarkx.me/]was born on December 20th, 1980, in Miami, Florida—also known as Little America, or Cuba Adjacent, depending on your politics and GPS signal. From an early age, he challenged authority without getting expelled, mastering righteous mischief before most kids finished learning cursive. His intellectual path began at Temple Beth Moshe Pre-School, where rhythm, ritual, and rebellion took root—thanks, in part, to a prophetic reading of "Bim-Bum, Bim-Biddy-Bum." Identified as "gifted" in kindergarten—back when such aterm still implied distinction—he pursued advanced studies in foreign languages, computer science, marine biology, and psychological subversion before he could legally drink. By twenty, he held a B.A. in psychology and a deeply suspicious I.O.U. to the U.S. D.O.E…With a Quack Quack here, and a Quack Quack there…E-I-E-I-O! At twenty-one, he wrote his first book and coined his own genre: psycho-postmodern poetic realism, because no one else dared. His debut, The Evidence of a Cluttered Mind: Wrathematics; An Army of One, fused acrostic architecture with satirical depth, emotional candor, and linguistic rebellion. Markx, a one-man think tank, transformed the page into a battlefield where each vertical stack detonates meaning. With poetic shrapnel and philosophical fistfights, he unpacked modern absurdity in a style as unpredictable as it is unforgettable—a cognitive insurgency your high school English teacher warned you about. He founded Humpty Dumbtees, the creative asylum within Dumb Kunst Studios—a counterculture apparel brand gleefully printing satire, dissent, and the occasional cease-and-desist warranted parody onto t-shirts for the terminally unfiltered. He also helms Enigmagination Media, a graphic design and marketing outlet expertly designing the box to think outside of. Markx resides somewhere between brilliance and burnout—possibly in Florida, but not yet in exile. His daughters, his humor, and his refusal to shut up, keep him going. This isn't just an "about the author." This is a warning label. And this is something rather than nothing [https://somethingratherthannothi.podview.com/] . . .

Di Slaney lives with her husband in a Grade II Listed, 400 year old farmhouse in Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire with more animals than is sensible. She runs Manor Farm Charitable Trust [http://www.manorfarmcharitabletrust.org/]which offers a home for life for livestock, particularly elderly animals or those with special needs. She operates an Egg Club to raise funds for the poultry and sells speciality yarn from the small flock of rare breed and rescued sheep under the name Hooligan Yarns. [https://www.hooliganyarns.com/] Di has a degree in English and European Literature from the University of Warwick, an MA in Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University and owns Candlestick Press. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Research Methods and has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing for over 20 years, founding Nottingham marketing agency Diversity [https://diversity.agency/]in 1999. Her poems have been published in Poetry Wales, Popshot, Magma, The Rialto, The Interpreter's House and Brittle Star, twice shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Plough Prize, and highly commended in the Forward Prizes. Di's pamphlet Dad's Slideshow [https://www.stonewoodpress.co.uk/product/dads-slideshow/] was published by Stonewood Press in 2015 and first collection Reward for Winter [https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/15/reward_for_winter#:~:text=Reward%20for%20Winter%20tells%20that,one%20of%20the%20farm's%20chickens.] by Valley Press in 2016. Her second collection Herd Queen [https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/137/herd_queen] is due from Valley Press September 2020. She is poet in residence at Nottinghamshire Local History Association [https://nlha.org.uk/]. This is something rather than nothing podcast [https://somethingratherthannothi.podview.com/] . . .

Steven Seidenberg [https://www.stevenseidenberg.com/artwork-1] is an artist, poet, and philosopher whose collections of photographs include The Architecture of Silence (Contrasto, 2023), Pipevalve: Berlin (Lodima Press, 2017), and the forthcoming Kanazawa Vacancy (Chin Music, Fall 2026). He has had solo exhibitions of his work in Japan, Italy, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. He is the author of Coda (Omnidawn, 2026), Anon (Omnidawn, 2022), plain sight (Roof Books, 2020), Situ (Black Sun Lit, 2018), Null Set (2016, Spooky Actions), Itch (2015, RAW ArT Press), and numerous chapbooks of poetry and aphorism. His books have been published in Swedish, Italian, and Portuguese translation. This is Something Rather Than Nothing Podcast [https://somethingratherthannothi.podview.com/]