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10 Questions for Judson Merrill

July 30, 2018 - By Sarah Lofstrom

"...They did not skip stones or draw in the sand with a stick or collect shell fragments, though Alex did all those things when the four of them were all together.There was always a beach walk after dinner. And, day or night, Alex and her parents always held hands. Nick tried not to fixate on that—holding hands was a regular thing in some families—but he couldn't watch one of those beach walks without getting the overwhelming impression that Shari and Mark were clinging to Alex, terrified to let go."

—from "Dreamgirl" Summer 2018 (Volume 59 Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Here’s one that’s sort of relevant to “Dreamgirl”: In third grade, I co-wrote a...

10 Questions for Katie Willingham

July 26, 2018 - By Edward Clifford

"Crack in the mug the wine seeps into,
            a pink vein. How close it all feels.
How close to the firehouse, how far
           From home. You bring the pumps
And I'll bring the glitter, but no one's willing
          To make the first sound..."

—from “Impermeable Material Suit," Summer 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The oldest poems still in my possession go back to seventh grade and it appears, at the time, I saw fit to organize them in folders by theme: bitterness, family, friendship,...

10 Questions for Max Berwald

July 23, 2018 - By Sarah Lofstrom

"Panic tightened Jean's throat. Apple's face had become the final hold–out, drifting somewhere about her chest. Her shoulders were sloping particularly the left, which hung nearer and nearer the floor. Everywhere drops were swelling, and every so often one would become too heavy and fall to the carpet. She seemed, by will, able to keep these drops somewhat slower and steadier in the falling than they might otherwise be, and even capable of sucking them back in. But the trend was clear." —from “The Melting Children,” Summer 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
There was an early story about two ants that leave their colony. They encounter earwigs that try to kill them. The...

10 Questions for Rebecca Foust

July 19, 2018 - By Edward Clifford

"When Iggy moved now, she shimmered in red, blue, and yellow pixels melding into an overall impression of green. And she was always moving, pacing the cage from end to end. She resisted being picked up, struggling and thrashing her tail. The boy could not help being afriad, but his love only grew along with the iguana as if, like the procession of tanks, it could expand indefinitely to hold them both."
—from “Iguana Iguana,” Summer 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 2)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Well, there was “Lucky the Leprechaun” in second grade, very bad, and then a review for The Altoona Mirror in sixth grade, not much better. I’ve written poems since I was taught to hold a...

10 Questions for Charles Swift

July 16, 2018 - By Sarah Lofstrom

Alan pulled up in his new car, watching his father hunched over near the curb, grateful the old man had some pants on. His father was sitting on a stack of boxes put out for the garbage truck, looking at a yel¬lowed copy of the local newspaper, making sure no one could get near the boxes before they got hauled off." -From "Boxes" Summer 2018 (Volume 59 Issue 2) 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote. 
The White Knight Versus the Black Knight. I was about eight-years-old. Cranked it out on my parents’ ancient Underwood typewriter by typing in each quadrant of a page, four pages thick with three sheets of carbon paper in between (no photocopiers in the mid-sixties), then cutting the pages and stapling them...