From the Blog

(Not Quite) 10 Questions for Ilya Kaminsky

May 21, 2018 - By Edward Clifford

Yes, I bought you a wedding dress big enough for the two of us
And in the taxi home
we kiss a coin from your mouth to mine.
—from “Of Weddings,” Spring 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 1)

We asked poet Ilya Kaminsky the same ten questions we ask our other contributors. He responded with nine of his own.

How do you begin writing a poem?
I write in lines. So the lines find their way on paper whether I overhear two boys insulting each other at the gas station, or see a gull cleaning her feet, or two old men playing dominoes on a hood of a car, or two young women kissing at the fish market. They become lines on receipts, on my hands, on a water...

Our America: : What is Nakba Day?

May 16, 2018 - By Michel Moushabeck

This speech was given by Michel Moushabeck on May 15, 2018, at a rally organized by Jewish Voice for Peace in front of the Town Hall in Northampton, MA. The event was organized to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of al-Nakba and show solidarity with the protesters in Gaza.

The Pioneer Valley has been my second home for the past twenty-six years. I am very grateful to be part of this wonderful community. But I say the Valley is my second home, because my first home is Jerusalem and my homeland is Palestine. In 1948, my family was expelled from its home in West Jerusalem during the Nakba at the hands of the invading Zionist forces. They were forced to abandon everything, while still carrying the key to our house. My family is now scattered all over the...

10 Questions for Amy Johnquest

May 14, 2018 - By Edward Clifford

Artist Amy Johnquest contributed the cover art and portfolio from her collection Adopted Ancestors, A Family Album (Volume 59, Issue 1, Spring 2018).

Tell us about one of the first pieces you created.
I’m almost sixty years old so by “first pieces” I’m figuring you’re talking about the hand painted Victorian cabinet cards like the ones in MR. About four years ago I got the bug during a ladies collage party, hosted by a vintage photo collector and dealer Stacy Waldman. She provided us with scads of photos and ephemera that weren’t suitable for resale. In other words destined for the trash bin. Like a modern day...

10 Questions for Jona Colson

May 8, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

Outside I saw the flagstones movi ng like heads in a Picasso
    painting—black beetles for eyes.The space unpeop

led yet so alive.The sky torn off but still du

sted with clouds.

My father die d in his bed—silent and cooling like the steel
     kettle my mother used for tea.

—from “At the Open House,” Spring 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 1)

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
I return to Anne Sexton. Her truth is a courageous.  I also read Anne Carson—her experimental forms and metaphors are gods. 

What did you want to be...

10 Questions for Ilze Duarte

April 30, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

“She stole almost everything from me. First, Mom’s joy. Then, Grandma Bela’s tender attention. And, still, Julinho. She took away the best that I had, the adults’ trust and my innocence. She tore me from my nest. And this, one couldn’t forgive in a person, even if she is kind, generous, and pretty.”
—from “Miss Bruna,” by Marília Arnaud, translated by Ilze Duarte, Spring 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 1)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
I was a student in the Certificate in Translation Program at the University of São Paulo many years ago. I had completed my bachelor’s degree in English and thought that taking the translation program would help me improve my English. (I didn...