Blog

10 Questions for Heather Treseler

September 13, 2022 - By Helen McColpin

“We came to think of it as our painting: two figures
Embracing in a corrugated field, its patina of sunlight
And stroked grasses beside the soot-stacks of factories,
Their stern faces flat as prisons. Plumes of smoke
Unravelling the shirt of sky.”
—from “Factories at Clichy,” Volume 63, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In college, I wrote a poem titled “The Painter,” and it was one of the first I tried that felt as though it truly arrived: it grew from my fascination with artists' relation to their subject matter. I was a scholarship student, working various odd jobs. Serving as a life-model for artists was one of the least arduous...

10 Questions for Anamyn Turowski

September 7, 2022 - By By Helen McColpin

“When Natasha began having sex with Jimmy Walczyk, I became an ocean swimmer. With goggles and a towel I’d walk to Will Rogers Beach and, jumping in at Lifeguard Stand 18, swim a mile north to the rock jetty below the Palisades cliffs—which was danger. I wanted connectivity to that danger; I craved the raw magnificent terror of waves tugging me toward the rocks. Who doesn’t? Jesus nuts and the brain dead.”
—from “Tidal,” Volume 63, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
A short story when I was five (maybe it was seven sentences long?) about a hornworm. I have no recollection of the story but I’m sure it was inspired by Eric Carle’s caterpillar. Likely I...

Back2School Brews

September 6, 2022 - By Marsha Bryant

Are you ready to go back to school?
Are you ready to follow the rules?
Fall semester draws near—
Why not reach for a beer
To ease into your schedule? Stay cool!

Whether teacher or parent or student-
of-age, don’t you’d think ‘twould be prudent
To stock beer in your fridge
That can serve as a bridge
As your summer pursuits are concludent?

Here’s a 4-pack to help you transition
To grading, reminding, cognition.
There’s variety here
That can bring you some cheer.
Try these recs from an academician.

1

You won’t be just a brick in the wall
With this Bellaire Brown ale, for it’s mal-
ty, yet robustly so:
...

August MR Contributor Publications

September 1, 2022 - By By Helen McColpin

Here’s what past contributors to MR have published in the month of August! Stay tuned at the end of each month for more updates.

Jehanne Dubrow’s book of lyric meditations on taste, Taste: A Book of Small Bites, is out now with Columbia University Press. With essays that blends personal experience with analysis of literature and the visual arts, as well as religious and...

10 Questions for Anthony Thomas Lombardi

August 30, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

“i thought i saw your face, your unmistakable
gait on the 6 train
—i’m wrong.
blessings refused maybe
or imagined.”
—from “on Survivor’s Guilt, ending with ‘Ruff Ryders’ Anthem’ by DMX,” Volume 63, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
All I can remember is that I was 8 or 9 years old, it was titled “Despair,” & I was pretty heavily aping Kurt Cobain. That should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about how & why I turned out the way I did.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Honestly, I learned to write poetry not from poets but from...