Podcast: Casey Walker on “Vigilancia”

Apple Podcasts logo

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on Google PodcastsGoogle Podcast logo.

Spotify Logo Green

Listen on Spotify.

Casey Walker speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his short story “Vigilância,” which appears in Issue 20 of The Common magazine. In this conversation, Walker talks about writing World War II-era Lisbon through the eyes of a police informer who trades in secrets. Walker also discusses the complex nature of complicity in his novel Last Days in Shanghai, and the historical and personal background behind his current project Mexicali, a new novel set in the Mexican-American borderlands.

Headshot of Casey Walker and cover of Issue 20 of The Common

Casey Walker is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and has a PhD in English Literature from Princeton University. He is the author of the novel Last Days in Shanghai. His writing has appeared in The Believer, Boston Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He is currently finishing a new novel, Mexicali, exploring the history of the Mexican-American borderlands where he was born and raised.

Read “Vigilância” by Casey Walker at thecommononline.org/vigilancia.

Learn more about Casey Walker and his work at caseymwalker.com, and find his book Last Days in Shanghai here.

Follow Casey Walker on Twitter at @CaseyMWalker.

Listen to more podcast episodes here.

If you require a transcript or other accessible format, please contact us at info@thecommononline.org.

The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Twitter @CommonMag.

Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her stories appear in theKenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House Online, and Mississippi Review. She holds an MA in literature from Queen Mary University of London, and a BA from Smith College. Say hello on Twitter @Public_Emily.

Podcast: Casey Walker on “Vigilancia”

Related Posts

black and white photo of a slim man's body, arm outstretched from the bbody

LitFest 2025 Excerpts: Video Poems by Paisley Rekdal

PAISLEY REKDAL
On the seventh day / of the seventh month, magpies / bridge in a cluster of black and white // the Sky King crosses to meet his Queen, time tracked / by the close-knit wheeling / of stars. I watch. You come // to me tonight, drunk on wine / and cards, nails ridged black / with opium

Julia Sanches' headshot next to the cover of The Common Issue 28.

Podcast: Julia Sanches on “The Advice”

JULIA SANCHES
Translator Julia Sanches speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about translating “The Advice,” a story by Irene Pujadas, which appears in The Common’s fall issue in a portfolio of writing by contemporary Catalan women.