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10 Questions for Diane Wilson

February 16, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

I dreamed my mother called my name in a voice that ached with longing. I dreamed the acrid smoke of a fire stung my eyes, blurred the edges of the woman who held a deer antler with both hands as she pulled on a smoldering block of damp wood. The flames were the only light in a darkness so complete the trees had disappeared.
—from The Seed Keeper, Volume 61, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
After a few years dabbling in freelance journalism, the first “real” piece I wrote was a story my mother had shared with me when I was a teenager, at an age when I was grappling with the usual teenage angst. She had told me that when she was 14, and living at the Holy Rosary Mission School on...

10 Questions for Bojan Louis

February 11, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

Mouth full of raven's bones, eyes black beaks, on our exhausted bellies
we umbilicus to Earth. .54 mm bullets light up our backs, exit our bellies

Pre-K: St. Michaels, AZ. Nuns, black scapular and white cowl, shunt
milk-blood prayers down constricted throats; gurgling cramped bellies.
—from "Ghazal VI," Volume 61, Issue 4

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Something that initially comes to mind is a poem I wrote in high school about payphones changing from 25 cents to 35 five cents. I think I was trying to be funny or ironic, but the piece was sort of long with a rhymey and ecstatic cadence, unmetered lines. I have no idea what other themes or images it possessed. It’s probably on a three-...

10 Questions for Michelle LaPena

February 8, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

The ilium represents the pelvis of a female. If the remains are one individual, it appears that she was a female​, and DNA testing indicates Native American ancestry. However, given the limited data for various tribes of the area, and the custom of intermarriage that results from a taboo against cousin marriage, it is difficult to ascertain her tribal affiliation. DNA cannot prove actual tribal identity.
—from "Excavation: She Was Dug Up," Volume 61, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My first published piece was written a very long time ago, when I was an undergrad at UC Davis. I was assigned to write an essay for a class taught by Professor Inez Hernandez-Avila called Native American...

(Almost) 10 Questions for Chip Livingston

February 1, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

They drink like frat boys on spring break, like frat boys on game day. They drink like frat boys in the movies. But they are not frat boys, not yet, and it's a Monday night three weeks into their first semester. Each drink builds unity, helps them forget the hazing at dinner. They drink to think of something daring to shock the brotherhood—a pledge class raid to show they will do anything to be Theta Mus, that they are united as a pledge class, committed and crazy.
—from "The Raid," Volume 61, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first intentional poem I wrote, for a dramatic monologue workshop with the poet Ai, was a 53-part series imitating...

10 Questions for Abigail Chabitnoy

January 29, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

A child walks the familiar road.
A body is found at the mile mark.
Still
      they do not suspect foul play.
Still
      they say she was Not Afraid.
—from "Girls Are Coming Out of the Water," Volume 61, Issue 4 (Winter 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first poem I remember writing was titled “Swimming Underwater”, and it was a concrete poem in the shape of a whirlpool. I must have been no older than 10 or so, and can’t remember anything else about it, nor did I really begin to seriously engage with poetry until perhaps 10 years later, aside from some awful melodramatic pieces in high school I believe my husband is...