Episode 63 — Djuna Barnes

Dead Ladies Show Podcast

In this episode, translator Laura Radosh introduces us to the fascinating and troubled writer Djuna Barnes. The journalist, novelist, and artist mixed with everyone from James Joyce to Peggy Guggenheim, and was at the center of Bohemian life in 1920s New York and Paris, though perhaps not quite as much as she would like. Best known (if at all) for her modernist novel “Nightwood,” Djuna once called herself ''the most famous unknown in the world.''

DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens joins producer/host Susan Stone to muse about Djuna and her circle of modernist Dead Ladies.

Find out more about Djuna and her work, and see her polka-dot portrait here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/05/11/podcast-63-djuna-barnes

Djuna Barnes intersects with a great number of our previously presented Dead Ladies, including:

photographer Berenice Abbott (who took the above mentioned portrait): https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/01/20/podcast-59-berenice-abbott/

and

dadaist Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven: https://deadladiesshow.com/2021/10/16/podcast-47-elsa-von-freytag-loringhoven/

Here’s the documentary Laura cited where you can see Natalie Barney’s Parisian home and garden with its Temple of Friendship: https://youtu.be/ihzoLrUkNoc

The documentary we mentioned is “Paris Was a Woman” by Greta Schiller

https://jezebelproductions.org/paris-was-a-woman/

And Will Self’s radio segment on “Nightwood” can be found here: https://youtu.be/5cy3-uOTTfE

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Want to suggest a Dead Lady for us? Drop us a line to [e-mail] or tell us on social media @deadladiesshow

If you’d like to get advance tickets for our May show in Berlin they are here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-34-tickets-632679640837

DLS NYC tickets can be purchased here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-nyc-no-23-tickets-628717840987

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

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The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

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