Blog / Interviews

(Not Quite) 10 Questions for Susanna Brougham

September 6, 2019 - By Christin Howard

 The lake moves, blue to blue. Runnels, droplets,
oar-lifted slap dull chimes against gunwales.

The blue dress and white kerchief are a young woman
crossing what she can’t escape. She forces
a calm, makes 
a quiet pool of herself. —from "A Finnish Lake," Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
Finland, for sure. It is a real place, of course, yet also an imagined place, for me. All my grandparents were born there, and it has fascinated me from an early age. For...

10 Questions for Kathryn Mills

September 4, 2019 - By Christin Howard

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In my early twenties, I wrote poems about my love life and nature in a small sketch pad, using different colored inks.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
I love books that blur the lines between genres—memoir blended with...

10 Questions for Elizabeth Barnett

August 28, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“We’ve never read her a story without a happy ending.
The divorced dad and his daughter make pizza. The rabbit loves chores.
When I flipped my mom’s suburban on 290, all the windows broke.
We climbed out of the passenger side, the cuts on our arms
The only injuries we got.” —From "Watching Sophia with my daughter, the one where the king’s coach crashes," Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)
 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In fourth grade, I wrote a serial Batgirl story featuring my friends that I would read in front of the class. I was Batgirl. Even when I made people villains, they loved being in the story.

What writer(s) or works have influenced...

10 Questions for J. Malcolm Garcia

August 23, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“Afghanistan was just a name, too. He didn’t know where it was, other than on the other side of the world from his home in Palm Bay, Florida. He looked like every other fucking reservist, did the same drills, felt the same nothingness of each passing nothing day even when he sat with the pilots in his nothingness. Their CO called the dead men heroes but the reservist didn’t see anything heroic in the freakish accident that killed them. They could have died that way at home.” —From "Having Once Served,” Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I started out writing fiction and had beginner's luck when my first piece was picked up by The Denver...

10 Questions for Dorsey Craft

August 19, 2019 - By Emma Kemp

When he you, you sat in the surf
           a day and night, let the lap of Caribbean

obscure your thighs, let the minnows run their purple
            races across your thighs and finches
tear red cords from your scalp…

—From "Anne Bonny Marooned with Child," Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first poem I submitted to workshop was a voice poem from the point of view of my cousin, who had gotten arrested for running from the police the week before. I love looking back on those early pieces because my voice...