Blog

Deus ex machina

August 29, 2021 - By Jim Hicks

Who’s to say just what it is that inspires a reader? To my mind, the writer who answers this question with the most force and clarity is Erri De Luca. But then, I would think that, since I translate him. Here’s what Erri says:

"For those who stumble into a serendipitous reciprocity between life and reading, literature works at the level of nerve fibers. You can’t book such appointments in advance, nor can you recommend them to others. Every reader deserves to be astonished by the sudden interplay between his days and the pages of a book."

I like this quote on several levels, but mainly because in my experience it’s true. The connection between life and literature, when it happens, is electric, and it sings the...

10 Questions for Lucas Jorgensen

August 27, 2021 - By Marissa Perez

I hide from people. I have a big nose & don’t brush
my teeth. My silhouette is long, splattered
with lumps, bulging. This is to say: I’m ugly,
I want to be unique. Since I was little,
I’ve loved goblin sharks, their trapdoor jaws
—from “Self-Portrait as Goblin Shark,” Volume 62, Issue 2 (Summer 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first piece I wrote was a sort of ode to the streetlamps outside the dorm I stayed at in my first year at Florida State. I was taking an intro to poetry class and we were reading the early modernists, so it had all that high brow poetry voice stuff. I believe the first line was “Core of hot yellow, shine out!”
...

10 Questions for Lynne Thompson

August 25, 2021 - By Marissa Perez

I don't want to pluck my burr from your flesh
nor do I want to be kind    Or if I am to be kind,
    I want to be a kind of chameleon,
                                        night-blue flourescent.
—from "When Nothing Else Will Do," Volume 62, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I can’t recall the year but when I wrote “How I Learned Where We Come From”, it led me to recognize that I had an “original voice”. The poem is...

Are You Listening?

August 24, 2021 - By Avital Balwit

“Are you listening, NSA?” “Can you hear me  Mark Zuckerberg?” “Are you there Bezos?” At some point, these went from internet-era jokes to truisms, from mocking a conspiracy theory to acknowledging the status quo. While it may not be by these specific actors, most of us accept that we can be listened to—and sometimes are.

One particularly egregious example of this spying comes from the story of Project Pegasus. Over the past few months, a group of NGOs and investigative journalists broke the story that governments are using a powerful spyware called Pegasus to target activists,...

10 Questions for Darla Himeles

August 23, 2021 - By Marissa Perez

When Jesus casts demons into pigs,
they leap from steep banks

to sea. Some translations suggest
lake. The water, salt or fresh,

muffles a mania of snouts.
—from “Pigs that Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of,” Volume 62, Issue 2 (Summer 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I started writing in earnest, in middle school, I wrote by hand in journals and spiral notebooks that are likely currently decomposing in a Los Angeles landfill. That time in my life was tumultuous and difficult, and I journaled and poemed to carry myself through it. Because trauma does strange things to the brain, I don’t remember anything I wrote then; probably I was bouncing between...