Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Allison Braden

November 6, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

"I don't consider myself sensual," Antonia said, pulling the sheet across her torso and stroking his hair. Miguel smiled without her noticing. He knew she was trying to draw out praise for her skin, her body, her lips. Antonia was provoking him. She knew she was irresistible. She knew that any movement of hers, however subtle, would set off a chain reaction that would end in a moan, both pitiful and powerful.
—from "Double Antonia" by Andrea Maturana, Translated by Allison Braden, Volume 61, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
The first work I translated was María José Ferrada’s Kramp, a delightful novella about a Chilean girl who assists her traveling salesman father. It...

10 Questions for Ryler Dustin

October 30, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

In Edinburgh I could not understand
   what the cabdriver said as he drove me
           to the restaurant, and inside the only person
   who would speak to me was a Lithuanian
                  with pink hair, who leaned
      above her wine and whispered,
                                              nothing is familiar.
—from "...

10 Questions for Esther Lin

October 26, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

But what is a Chinaman to do with Africa,
I hear you ask, on the great green waters that separate

the forets of Madagascar from Mozambique Island,
where half a million women and men walked down

stone ramps into waiting ships?
—from "For My Father the West Begins in Africa," Volume 61, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
One of the first serious stabs at poetry I wrote was about eating in a restaurant. I looped in every poetic device I possibly could, experienced or not, and somehow ended the poem in an apple orchard in Ontario. Still, it was the first poem I wrote that made me consider where I might travel in a poem, geographically and...

10 Questions for Alex de Voogt

October 23, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

One candle will suffice.      The light somewhat subdued
will be better suited,      will be more agreeable
as Love is drawing closer,     as its Shadows arrive.

One candle will suffice.      The room should not indulge
in too much light tonight.
—from "For them to arrive" by C.P. Cavafy, Translated by Alex de Voogt

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
When I was studying an East African board game, known as bao, for my thesis, I encountered a poem on the subject. Muyaka bin Haji, a famous Swahili poet of the early nineteenth century had written...

10 Questions for Brooke Sahni

October 19, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

First, we were taught how to spell
His name, then we were told to draw Him.
It was an exercise in metaphor.
The balls of paper amassed before me
while my class mates drew stars, maps of the Holy Land.
I thought I should color everything I could think of
—from "G-d, a Portrait," Volume 61, Issue 3 (Fall 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
For as long as I could write, I have. I’ve always had journals, but one of the first “formal” pieces I remember writing was in 3rd grade—a short book called Chloe, about a golden retriever princess. My teacher, generously, told me she couldn’t wait to see my first book in a bookstore one day; this stayed with me...