Blog / 10 Questions

10 Questions for Sumita Chakraborty

November 16, 2023 - By Franchesca Viaud

When cleaved of their fur, rabbits look like they do not come from our planet.

Perhaps they came to us, bare, from yours.

Perhaps some of you came here with these creatures, their muscle and fat
               smooth around their lungs—the size of thumbs—and their eyes
               protruding from their faces, like emaciated cats.
—from "Track Eight: 'Alienation of Affection,'" Volume 64, Issue 3 (Fall 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
One of the first poems I ever finished is called “Cabinet of...

10 Questions for Thea Matthews

November 2, 2023 - By Franchesca Viaud

                       Teeth marks are found in the back of a cop car.
Cymbals clang on too-hot grits.

            My mental chatter is at the speed of rabbits thumping.
Asphalt tapes the blood spill.

A gold tooth crater smiles into a blow.
                        The blow is the lingering smoke of a body left
unrecognizable. A rollercoaster of adrenaline
                                                          shines bright
the red pollock splatter....

10 Questions for Denise Duhamel

October 24, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

I've checked the box acknowledging that, whatever happens,
it won't be your fault—that my insurance policy will cover
everything, except what actually breaks, that you are not responsible
for any data corruption, any mistakes in my bloodwork results,
that your mammogram can only detect so much.
—from "Poem in Which I Read the Terms and Conditions," Volume 64, Issue 3 (Fall 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer! I declared it to my parents when I was 5 years old, but I started writing “books” in the fourth grade while sequestered in Crawford Allen Children’s Hospital in Providence, RI.  A severe...

10 Questions for KT Herr

October 18, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

      while we yellowed    in the pale strobes
                                                                   rumors began to arrive
   of a wide floor    blown open
                                   ...

10 Questions for Valerie Sayers

October 12, 2023 - By Franchesca Viaud

"I tell Rudy that we really really need a new mattress and watch his mouth twist—he's never thrilled about buying anything, much less a mattress that might take as long to pay off as a new car. The old one was supposed to last twenty years, and Rudy's hell-bent on getting every last night. But honeybun, my aching back and the yellowing receipt agree: the twenty years are up."
—from "I Don't Need It, I Just Want It," Volume 64, Issue 3 (Fall 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Like most writers, I’ve been at it a lifetime, but the first consequential work I produced came when a high school teacher assigned Light in August and then asked us to write in a Faulknerian voice. I don...