Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Rebecca Dehner-Armand

April 28, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

"Once upon a time," we say—a custom every self-respecting storyteller must follow as a way of opening a window onto another world, elsewhere in time, space, and dimension. . . . So, once upon a time. . . but this time, it was the very beginnning, the very first time. . . The very first time, there was nothing, and it was everything. And Everything was its name. So, once upon a time, there was Everything.
—from "Once Upon a Time," by Sylvia Hanitra Andriamampianina, translated by Rebecca Dehner-Armand, Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
One of the first pieces I translated was a short story by Vassilis Alexakis entitled “Papa,” from his 1997...

10 Questions for Anna Vilner

April 24, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

My dad, who liked confusing little kids, used to sing: "Of all the creatures who have wings, I prefer the flying pig." At first, I was suspicious of the song, and later on it annoyed me. When I was about six, he would take me for walks around the outskirts of Moreno, a town that turned into pasture if you strayed eight blocks from the main street and where, behind a wire fence, stood the plumpest cows I had ever seen.
—from "My History with Animals," by Hebe Uhart, translated by Anna Vilner, Volume 61...

10 Questions for Tad Bartlett

April 13, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

While the storm dances outside, rats huddle in the shadows at the far end of the attic. Julie can barely make them out from where she sits, an old wooden-handled axe and a battery-operated lantern by her side, the gable window rattling in its frame above. Other shadows shuffle about down close to the eaves. Raccoons, possums. Julie tries not to think what else. Ghosts, probably.
—from "When the Storm Comes," Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was in 8^th grade English class, our poetry unit started with the assignment to complete the sentence, “Poetry is like ________.” I wrote in the word “shit,” then left to get some water, intending to...

10 Questions for Paola Bruni

April 7, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

What do we remember?
I read about a woman who could recall
the womb, who described it as a shiny, mirrored
substance, slick, the purplish hue of an eggplant.
Another suspended in anti-gravity, shuffled
along in a premature moonwalk.
—from "Birth," Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My very first fiction piece was written when I was eleven years old. My Italian immigrant parents had just uprooted us, moved our family from an ethnic tumble of a neighborhood in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, to a white American suburb. I entered sixth grade terribly shy, a plump girl with acne and a strange name no one could pronounce. On the first day of class,...

10 Questions for Charlie Peck

April 3, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

(Author Photo by Simon Sahner)

Around the courthouse they've built orange and white barricades,
directed traffic to side streets to reduce heads craning from car windows,
and as I walk the dog this morning with Kate, she turns and asks,

What do you think? and I say, Must be a protest. When my dad gave
the eulogy at my granfather's funeral, one woman afterwards
was appalled that he quoted Grandpa's favorite phrase, Smiling like a cat

eating shit. [...]
—from "Barricades," Volume 61, Issue (Spring 2020)

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