Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Matthew Fiander

March 26, 2018 - By Abby Macgregor

“I am curled into the barrel of the cannon, in the middle of the cen­ter ring on this hard-packed earth. Somewhere in the stands, my son Jonah is with his father, Kirk. And as I wait for my signal, for those two taps on the side of the barrel, I remember the look on Jonah’s face from earlier in the day.” —from “The Disaster March,” Winter 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 4)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
One of the first that comes to mind was about drive-thru churches. You could swing up to the window and get a blessing, give confession, purchase the body and the blood. It was pretty bad, as you might have guessed. I think I thought I was being funny and absurd in my early work, but I was really just...

10 Questions for John Emil Vincent

March 19, 2018 - By Abby Macgregor

I had too much computer. And a bad case of quaint.

Such as it was, time stood still and there I was with someone seemed half my age and less a quarter my hygiene. We walked to Emily Dickinson’s grave. We held hands; he said his fingers were empurpled from picking kale in deep frost. I found that twee. In an adorable way.

—from “A crumbling infrastructure,” Winter 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 4)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first prose poems I wrote were in high school. I wrote this epic fantasia called “Bidet and the Giant Silver Rocking Horse.” It involved pretending to be on acid, which at the time I had not tried. The work was finding a way to open up and develop momentum,...

10 Questions for Gregory Conti

March 15, 2018 - By Abby Macgregor

“As she opens her front door, dressed perfectly with just a hint of retro, you see the blue flame of the samovar grumbling behind her down at the end of the hall. The tea, the smoked herring, the small talk meted out with the stately pace of a fairytale, create just the right atmosphere for talking about any theme you like.” –from “Like Horses Asleep on Their Feet" by Paolo Rumiz, translated by Gregory Conti, Winter 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 4)

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10 Questions for Paolo Rumiz

March 12, 2018 - By Greogry Conti

“As she opens her front door, dressed perfectly with just a hint of retro, you see the blue flame of the samovar grumbling behind her down at the end of the hall. The tea, the smoked herring, the small talk meted out with the stately pace of a fairytale, create just the right atmosphere for talking about any theme you like. ‘How’s it going, young man,’ she says, a bit maternally, sizing you up with the Tatar gaze of a countess who has seen it all: wars, love affairs, and who-knows-what-all. Then she leads you by the hand into the labyrinths of history, with the expertise of someone who has been working there forever.” —from “Like Horses Asleep on Their Feet,” translated by Gregory Conti,...

10 Questions for Susannah Sheffer

March 8, 2018 - By Abby Macgregor

November in our mouths,
the cool stone taste of it.
It is what we say when we say anything.
All through the cemetery
there are pebbles on the graves.
—from “Why Write About It,” Winter 2017 (Vol. 58, Issue 4)

Tell us about one of the first...