Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Kelsi Vanada

October 10, 2017 - By Kira Archibald

1. The world is the sum of facts and birds.

2. Every proposition has form (or syntax: the profile of a Siberian goldfinch) and content (or semantics: the belly of a Siberian goldfinch).

2.1. The contents of a glass of milk, which could be a human body transmitting songs about birds, are the lyrics of the songs transmitted by birds. . . .

—from "Thirteen Theories on the Better Understanding of Birds of Eligible Age," by Berta García Faet, translated by Kelsi Vanada (Fall 2017, Vol. 58, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
My first experience with...

10 Questions for Liang Yujing

October 3, 2017 - By Elizabeth Mikesch

An orphan
stands in the sky.

An orphan with a huge head
is nailed to the boundless sky in light-blue ink

like a Jesus
without grief on his face, . . .

—from "Night of the Full Moon," by Shen Haobo, translated from Chinese by Liang Yujing (Fall 2017)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
I started translating poetry more than ten years ago when I was still in China studying English literature. When I studied Keats and Shelley, I would try to render them in Chinese. Later, I began writing in English and translating from Chinese into English. One of my first attempts, as I remember, was an ancient Chinese poem by...

10 Questions for Leila Chatti

September 26, 2017 - By Beth Derr

A wine crate for a nightstand, and on it, a rose
gone bad in a cup. Its water

a swallow of shadow, murk of rot
and sugar. Clothes sloughed, bodiless, and half-

eaten on a plate,
a plum in its juice. . . .
—from "Still Life with Hemorrhage," Fall 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I began writing poems very young—as soon as I knew how, really. I’ve kept journals at every stage of my life, and my Kindergarten journal has some gems in it. My favorite is a poem about cheetahs. It’s more or less a list of all the adjectives I knew at...

10 Questions for Laura Paul Watson

August 29, 2017 - By Emily Wojcik

First, it will feel like surprise. Like the edge of something
unconsidered: a glass let go; an open palm;
how cold a mouth can be and still say love,
still say okay.  —from "Love & Hypothermia,"
in Summer 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first poem I wrote was in the fifth grade, published on pink paper as part of an elementary school showcase of creative writing. I can’t say it was good, but I remember the thrill of comparing the crown of a live oak to a floret of broccoli. The first poem I recall writing, earnestly, as an adult was a pre-cursor to “Love & Hypothermia.” It’s taken a few years, and a few attempts at...

10 Questions for Nouri Zarrugh

August 25, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

That last February before the war and the hard years that were to follow it, forty-one years after the Leader’s revolution, Laila woke to the sound of explosions in the street. She sat clutching the blanket, eyes darting, half expecting to find herself buried in dust and rubble, her vision slowly adjusting to the familiar sight of the armoire and the floral cushions piled beside it, the matching nightstand and the ceramic lamp and on the other side of them, undisturbed, the sheets tucked and folded, Hajj Yunus’s empty bed, glowing in the faint moonlight like a preserved artifact. —from "The Leader," MR's Working Titles, Vol. 2, Number 3

Tell us about one of the first...