Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Erika T. Wurth

January 8, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

"Jim," she said.

He turned to her. He was sitting on the couch in the living room, that same sinking couch that had belonged to his parents, as had the house. She was in the kitchen making something to eat. They had been out late the night before, and had woken up only an hour ago. Jim felt horrible. Cecilia, on the other hand, never seemed hung-over. Even when she drank, and she could drfink most women, and some men, under the table, she always seemed in control.
—from "Cecilia," Volume 61, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
How far back do you want to go? I think the first story I wrote was in eighth grade and it was a Stephen King style story that ended in “ahhhhh!...

10 Questions for Sonya Chyu

January 4, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

The first day of their year arrived four weeks later than the rest of the world's. Or, perhaps, the rest of the world's year had simply started forty-eight weeks early. In either case, the day was marked by great occasion: work and study were suspended for a week to accommodate cross-country travel and family reunions.
—from "The Middle of Things," Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My first published piece, "Sartorial Shedding," was birthed from a Creative Writing course taught by the always-witty Ernesto Quinones at Cornell University, and inspired by the summer I had just spent in Thailand as part of a business internship program. Though I am not Thai, the...

10 Questions for Marianne Boruch

December 23, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

of a totaled car? Disc five there once,
the library lectures-on-tape (Daily Life in the Ancient World)
however fog-socked-in shattered day of arrival.

But arrival: that would be

the Present waitin for a Future to soothe
—from "Is the Past What's Left in the Glove Compartment," Volume 61, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
A very simple one about eating eggs for breakfast. Not the first I've ever written, but the piece about which I suddenly thought: my god, this is a poem! Which is to say, it looked back at me. It had its own secret life, could stand up for itself. I wasn't trying to xerox something that happened or make a sweetened scrapbook of some moment of...

10 Questions for Marcela Sulak

December 21, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

For three hours I've been thrusting my body past the breaking waves on the northernmost beach in Tel Aviv, where the surfers go, and the lifeguards keep calling—little girl!

Little girl, come back!—when I move just outside the border marked by red and white plastic lines tied to metal poles sunk into the sea floor.
—from "Breaking," Volume 61, Issue 3, (Fall 2020)

We asked Marcela Sulak the same 10 Questions we ask our other contributors. She provided the following interview.

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote. 
Roses are red.So’s the Indian Blanket.
What happened to the Titanic?
An Iceberg sank it.

At the time, I was proud of extreme...

10 Questions for Emily Van Kley

December 18, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

Often we bled
afterwards.
A seep high
in the nostrils,
then red. Or
our heads pounded
& we slept
for hours in dark
rooms, waited
for our thoughts
to unbrick.
—from "Effluvium," Volume 61, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first story I ever wrote was a near-total plagiarism of “Popcorn” by Frank Asch. If I remember correctly, my only ‘original’ contributions were the title—“Pippi Poppi Popcorn”—and the fact that the protagonist was a little girl instead of a bear in a racist Halloween costume (yikes).

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now? ...