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10 Questions for Sarah Emily Duff

June 4, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

When the forest fires in the northwest were no longer annual, monthlong catastrophes but a yearlong inferno, the question of what to do with the refugees pressed more urgently on both officials and those who lived on the ede of the woods. The occasional discovery of a moose in one's garden had been in the past a surprising and welcoming event, but now they were taking up residence, grazing on lawns and flowerbeds, denuding the shrubs, and filling up the pungent air around them with clouds of black and stinging insects, for moose are notoriously odoriferous.
—from "Ursa Minor," Volume 62, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
A governess takes leave of her wits at a mission station in the...

Limericks for the Beers of Summer

May 31, 2021 - By Marsha Bryant

O the brews of this season are here!
They’re refreshing, both hazy and clear.
So pour for your pleasure,
And sip at your leisure.
Let’s toast to the Summer with beer.

Hops 4 Teacher (J. Wakefield Brewing, Miami FL)
Hops 4 Teacher, a bright IPA,
Is a honey-hued Summer vacay.
After COVID sequester
And two Zoom semesters,
It washes your grading away.

It’s a coast-to-coast take on the style—
Neither grapefruit nor pine is defiled.
Subtropically hopped,
It’s the beer to adopt
For unleashing your teacherly smile.

Tasting Notes: This IPA has a bright hop profile and frothy head...

10 Questions for Sarah Lilius

May 28, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

I gave the devil a massage in broad daylight on hot summer grass. Skin on my palms began to burn and melt. Agony can feel good when it's wrong. His moaning lulled me, kept me in the dark place. We didn't dance but I assumed his pleasure formed inside me.
—from "What the Masseuse Finds in the Backyard," from Volume 62, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first thing I wrote was a short story in grade school about a boy who was lost. I started writing poetry in middle school and then in high school I became more serious about it and was encouraged by my English teacher to write more.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Anne...

10 Questions for Joanna Luloff

May 24, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

I used to start each day with the same ritual. I would look in the mirror and say my name out loud. "Abigail," I said , letting the sound of my dhort and long a's surround me in the still -dim light. Then I would say "Abbie," the name I used to go by at school, when school was still something you could go to. Then I said "Abs," the name my mom and dad and brother used to call me.
—from "Words," Volume 62, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In junior high, a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) representative came to our school. She discussed the dangers of drinking and driving, and the injuries her son struggled with (he had been a passenger in a car crash...

10 Questions for Linda Dittmar

May 21, 2021 - By Edward Clifford

It was the promise that the trees will soon be strong enough for climbing that kept me looking forward to my family's picnics. This was back during the short hiatus that separated the traumas of World War II from the violence that saw the birth of Israel in 1948. The promise was a lie, of course, though as a child I did not yet know it. There were other lies, too, for me to learn about, though that came later, much later.
—from "The Clearing," Volume 62, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
“Lights Vanish in Lifta,” which ended up in Shifting Sands, writing by Jewish Women resisting the Occupation. Mine is a short collection of memoir vignettes that began as an exercise...