Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Mingpei Li

August 1, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“What they said was, where there is contact
things rapidly change: circular reshuffling of hot rises,
cold sinks. On a sea, we would call it weather.
Here, before the drop & itself rush into
each other, it pressures aloft, a straining escape
from itself, a moment at peace” —From “Drop Coalescence ” Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My first language is Chinese, and when I was 10, I spent a summer reading simplified versions of Chinese classics and writing poems in Chinese in an imitation-classical style.  I was reading Dreams of the Red Chamber, in which some of the characters had a poetry circle, and I...

10 Questions for Leah Claire Kaminski

July 29, 2019 - By Emma Kemp

"your feet knowing sand at their arches: the heave the give and grit the quiet
waves of a chalky blue lake the heavy slide
down a small pebble bank
slide like
  ...

10 Questions for David Freeman

July 22, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“The swan is known for her singing, records
herself and gives the record to the boy
she has raped. In this way, she tapes over
the notes as they happened…”
—From "Third Swan," Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
It’s hard to say because a lot of my earliest writing was writing comic books and fantasy stories based on the Lord of the Rings VHS tapes my parents kept in our house. Like many writers, I didn’t get into poetry until later on, and much of the work I produced in the first few years I felt pretty unsure about. However, I think one of the first poems I wrote that I remember strongly was a poem from the perspective of a...

10 Questions for M.A. Untch

July 18, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“Stars crept through bedroom windows to feed the dark.
Everybody became a friend that died.
Blitzed desire tiptoed in from all directions.
Wintered, feverish roses bloomed on yellowed sheets.
Not me, thinking back as far as I could– who
            did I touch? How many sheets spilled over my bed…” —From "Better Angels II," Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote:
I wrote a poem “Estate Sale” while visiting relatives in Appomattox, VA. My aunt was having a lawn sale. When I started the poem, I had no idea where I was going with it until...

10 Questions for Alice Friman

July 12, 2019 - By Christin Howard

“But I do wish
we had found the courage to use
those purpled hours and put them
to work: defy decorum and undress.
peel off,disrobe, strip down to the very
bones if necessary.” —From “On the Overnight Train” Summer 2019 (Vol. 60, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I wrote poems in college. Didn't everyone? Terrible poems of love-longing and seventeen-year-old misery. But the first poem I ever wrote that I worked on and saved I called "Beneath My Heart." I had a friend who was pregnant and I wanted to express, to put into words, the tight clutch of a fetus—that little fist of 3rd month cells, that— well you see, I couldn'...