Blog / Interviews

10 QUESTIONS for Geffrey Davis

January 2, 2017 - By Amal Zaman

Photo by Howard Romero

It took time and travel to understand
how the word father sings to me in all
languages — I want daddy, but father-abuser crosses
the notes or keys I believe have barricaded
the badness of that man. I hear father-addict
in the damn silence. Of course, my whol-

hearted hope had no chance, which I should
have known once I learned guitar — the first instrument . . .

—from "The Fidelity of Music," published in Winter 2016: Words and Music

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10 QUESTIONS for A. Molotkov

December 29, 2016 - By Amal Zaman

Yesterday, blue rain fell on me. I found my hair on the pillow:
     lovely beige clumps,
dry like distance.
I remember your hands running through it. I'm on read-only
     access. . .
—from "The Persistence of Music," published in Winter 2016 "Words and Music" (Vol. 57, Issue 4)
 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you...

10 QUESTIONS for Meredith Nnoka

December 26, 2016 - By Amal Zaman

As if the World Has Not Turned its Back: An Interview with Mahtem Shiferaw

December 22, 2016 - By Mary Catherine Ford

Mary Catherine Ford: Mahtem, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. It was such an immense pleasure to read and review Fuchsia, your debut poetry collection, for World Literature Today, and then to hear you read at Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop last month. What a fabulous reading that was! I felt so privileged to hear you and the other incredible writers that evening.

You are fluent in multiple languages, including...

10 QUESTIONS for Lisa Beech Hartz

December 8, 2016 - By Amal Zaman

"When she asks me to remove
my spectacles, I am wary, feel
as if she is asking me to reveal
a wound. The lenses
a closed window between
what I have seen..."

—from "Portrait of José Clemente Orozco, Doris Ulmann, New York City, 1929" which appears in the Fall 2016 issue out now! (Volume 57, Issue 3).
 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you’ve written.

When I was a girl I wrote vast treatises on my plan to save the world. It was the early seventies. My plan was pretty much everybody should love each other. Also peace. Peace was a good idea.

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