Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Sakena Abedin

May 3, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

They came to meet him at the tiny airport in the town where he had attended medical college. As he went from his new house in Texas to the airport to New York and then London and Delhi, he had the sensation that the world was growing bigger and bigger. But on the final leg of his journey, the flight from Delhi to Nagpur, it all shrank back down again.
—from "Kabir," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was in fourth grade, I borrowed the family typewriter and wrote a story set in my neighborhood with a plot that was heavily borrowed from Heidi, which was my favorite book at the time. Many years passed before I tried my hand at fiction again.

What writer(s...

10 Questions for Lindsay Sproul

April 26, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

We knew our answers, but they weren't what you were looking for: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Not married.
A man with stronger arms than mine.
A person with the courage to bite down.
An evil queen.
A horse.
—from "Please Don't Ask Us," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first words I learned how to write were “cow” and “mom.” In preschool, I distinctly remember writing a picture book about a cow mom who lost her baby in the supermarket.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Aside from Carson McCullers, Alice Walker, Jo Ann Beard and some other greats, I...

Eco Lit: Readings

April 19, 2022 - By Paperbark magazine and The Massachusetts Review

On March 26, 2022, MR joined Paperbark for a reading at the Augusta Savage Gallery, as part of The Future is Now—Art. Sustainability. Activism. To purchase a copy of the CLIMATE issue of MR, ...

10 Questions for Aaron Hamburger

April 12, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, late September 2002. A beautiful fall morning. What was once called an Indian summer, but Jacob is learning to expunge such phrases from his lexicon: Indian summer. Dutch treat, French kiss. Is French kiss okay? Not that it matters; he hasn't French kissed a guy in months.
—from "Simple Past Present Perfect," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I always loved to read, but I didn’t really think about being a writer until I was twelve years old and we had a writing contest in our English class: The author of the best short story, judged by our teacher, would get to miss an entire day of school to attend a conference for young writers at a local community...

(Almost) 10 Questions for Meg Pinto

April 8, 2022 - By Edward Clifford

The day I arrived on the butter schooner a cow had fallen off the cliff. Its carcass was found on the beach in the cove below, near the high tide line, by some men waiting to load the hogs and butter onto the boat for the return trip to San Francisco. Everyone agreed the ranch foreman would be angry, but these things happen. Cows fall from the sky into the sea.
—from "Butter Schooner," Volume 63, Issue 1 (Spring 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was in my twenties, I wrote two stories about women who were quite a bit older than I. In one, a woman living in Rome realizes that people have stopped referring to her as Signorina and now address her as Signora. In the other, a woman,...