From the Blog

10 Questions for John Baum

December 12, 2018 - By

“Devon is a fourth-grader in Guilford, Connecticut when he begins his work in Fairy Theory. The project for Language Arts grows way beyond the single-page, class presentation. He fills notebooks with ideas and stories and maps and fairy family trees. He learns to shut-up about his ideas because it is not wonder or admi­ration in his friends’ voices when he hears them say Devon actually believes that stuff. He keeps quiet for a long time past fourth grade.”
—from “Everything is Fine”, Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I think my first...

10 Questions for Mika Seifert

December 10, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

"SHNIP! That’s all it takes these days. Just a little shnip. And it’s painless, too. If, that is, you decide to take the Zonex they offer you at orientation (and why wouldn’t you?). And if you opt for the blindfold, so much the better. The sight of the ShadeBlade can still put the fear of God in some people."
—from "Only Light, All the Time", Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
This was one of those rare times when a story falls into your lap fully-formed. A friend told me about a girl she knew at the music school who had a...

10 Questions for Laura Willwerth

December 5, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

“Flory slept in and her family left without her. They were already standing with all the other families in her aunt’s front yard, sipping second coffees and cooking in the sun.”
—from “Parade”, Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first thing I wrote that I didn’t delete started as a list of strange things my parents said in conversation. For years when I visited them, I’d be jumping up from the dinner table to grab a pen and record something odd they’d just said. Those quotes became most of the dialogue in my first story. I need...

10 Questions for Dennis Finnell

December 3, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

Just now the thing inside
the flowering beauty bush is mewling
as little ones do wanting warm milk
or having a cramp meaning no one loves them.
—from “Walking her into the beautiful night”, Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first deliberately creative piece I recall writing was a story for a high school English class. A young man suddenly loses his memory but feels compelled to go to California. I was very pleased with it,...

10 Questions for Jill Maio

November 28, 2018 - By Abby MacGregor

“One at a time, the men emerged; their arms were dense with tattoos, earlobes deformed by gappers, noses pierced by silver rings. They looked, An­nie thought, like they’d given up on being human, had begun trans­forming themselves into whatever came next.”
—from “All Ink and Metal”, Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Most early work is probably best forgotten. Although when I was six I wrote stories about a brilliant detective (who also happened to be a six-year-old girl) and I remember thinking they were very good.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way...