Blog / 10 Questions

10 Questions for James Janko

January 16, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

If I had really good eyes, I might see the threads that join me to the crowd, or even to one old man, this fellow next to me, for example, his cheeks as flush as a Christmas card Santa, his eyes moist, his hand over his heart as he gazes at the flag and sings. He is, by all accounts, normal.

—from "The Anthem and the Angels," Volume 60, Issue 4 (Winter 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I was a truant in high school, but I began writing a novel my junior year. I stuffed handwritten pages into an empty Tinkertoy box until it was full. I have no idea what my novel was about, but I remember my older sister, who never missed school, read a few pages and said, “This is sick.”

10 Questions for Annie Zaidi

January 14, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

You know the greatest myth? ‘Mirror, Mirror, on the wall.’ World’s biggest hoax. Yes or no? Because the mirror never says: ‘You, my queen! You are the fairest of them all. —from “Mallika Reflects on the Events of Discount Monday,” Volume 60, Issue 4 (Winter 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I’d written a short essay about my mother for our college magazine. Mothers, cows and festivals were common topics for essay writing in schools and colleges. My contribution found a bit of appreciation though. I remember being stopped by a couple...

10(ish) Questions for Jacob Paul

January 10, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

10 Questions for Clare Welsh

January 6, 2020 - By Edward Clifford

In the heat, on the hardwood floor, I lay
            naked with an electric fan blowing hair in my mouth
                          and my wolfdog drooling on my thigh.
—from "Love, or Grieving a Beast,” Volume 60, Issue 4 (Winter 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first piece I wrote was in eighth grade. It was about the death of a friend’s white horse—an enormous animal, part Arabian,  part Percheron draft horse. I wrote about the burial. Maybe it was jarring for a child to see a bright orange...

10 Questions for Piotr Florczyk

December 18, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

There is no denying that Polish poetry occupies a special place in the United States. Embraced by non-specialists and critics alike, the works of Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Adam Zagajewski have played a role in shaping the aesthetic of American poetry in the twentieth century. Anecdotal evidence sugg ests that today’s emerging poets also read the Polish masters, finding the historical and moral context that marks much of Polish poetry available in English not obscure, but germane.—from "East Meets West: On Polish and American Poets in Coversation," Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I started writing creatively in high school. Those pieces, mainly poems...