Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Olivia Muenz

March 23, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

cum on in / to my big show / dnt b shy / but dnt look down / wut do you make / of my image
—from "diagnosing," Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In second grade, I pasted pictures of flowers I cut out of a magazine into my notebook and wrote a poem for each one. I guess I’ve always been drawn to making series and projects rather than individual pieces and have always liked to engage with other media when writing.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
I think what we’re exposed to, what blows us up, at a relatively young age often impresses us the most because we’ve never encountered anything like it before. When...

10 Questions for Joselia Rebekah Hughes

March 21, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

In an attempt to escape another 5AM / got sick stayed sick hospital memory / pink coat phlebotomist posed with puncture / a butterfuly needle to draw 4 vacutainers of / hard to pull hard to flow blood jam / in an attempt to point pain
—from "denominator-mandate," Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Paul Beatty, Audre Lorde, Nikki Wallschlaeger, Jamaica Kincaid, Lucille Clifton, Toni Cade Bambara, José Luís Peixoto, Zefyr Lisowski, Vanessa Angélica Villareal, Kayla Hamilton, Jorge Luis Borges, Percival Everett, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Charles Yu, Ntozake Shange, Liz Bowen, Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Marcus Scott Williams, Shannon Finnegan, Ezra Benus, Karel Čapek, Ken Liu,...

10 Questions for John Newton Webb

March 16, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

I work
the soil    it echoes with the footsetps of the world
I make my body tremble like a fallen leaf and sink
and I thirst for words of life which may bud in tomorrow's loam
—from "Loam" by Shiki Itsuma, Translated by John Newton Webb, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
The first poem I translated was Ishihara Yoshiro’s Funeral Train (published in The Kyoto Journal). I was finding my way into the world of post-war Japanese poetry and I came across a couple of Ishihara’s poems in an anthology. Funeral Train immediately stood out to me.

Ishihara (1915-77) spent 8 years as a Soviet POW after WWII and train...

10 Questions for Clare Richards

March 15, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Five minutes later and I was already regretting going with him. I fell behind, uneasy. I hoped he wouldn't notice, that he'd carry on walking. But he stopped and turned around. It seemed he wouldn't move an inch until I was right beside him. His smile read catch up, quick. I told him to go ahead, that I'd follow.
—from "The Lake" by Kang Hwagil, Translated by Clare Richards, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
I first started out translating film subtitles. My most memorable experience was working on 1990 documentary Even the Blades of Grass Have Names, the first work by South Korean feminist film collective Bariteo. The film takes a very candid, yet...

10 Questions for Yi Zhe

March 7, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Because of my poor hearing
two old friends think
they can make mischief
in front of me.
—From "I Blacklisted Two Old Friends" by Zuo You, Translated by Yi Zhe, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
Zuo You has suffered from a hearing impairment at the age of six. Since then, he has been exploring sounds, eager to hear every day. His hope to communicate with the world has shaped his poetic practice. Zuo You writes with high accuracy to evoke feelings which strike home in the text, and to achieve self-transcendence. At times, his writing is insolent, modern, lyrical, direct, self-ridiculing.

I have been translating Zuo You’s poems about sound, deafness,...