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10 Questions for Diamond Forde

- By Edward Clifford

he told me he was glad I wasn't fat yet
but this time, with flesh glutinous on my arms and back,
hips spread like grain, I wax at his bedside and watch
his violeting cheeks, their bruised orchids flutter
with every labored breath and I allow myself
to imagine what he must see:five years and my body
pours like golden-throated honey. We are breatheless.
—from "The Last Time I Saw My Grandfather," from Volume 61, Issue 2 (Summer 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I think early on, writing became one of the places where I could say what I was never confident enough to say in real life. Poetry is a contradiction in that way—it creates a space of vulnerability, but in that...

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Interviews

10 Questions for Patrick Barron

- By Edward Clifford

A few days after Italo Calvino's funeral I jotted down the notes that follow, in order to remind myself of the situation and the feelings of the moment. I had just returned from France, and that evening Calvino's wife (Chichita) called to tell me that Italo was dying. I left that night by car toward Siena together with Carlo Ginzburg's wife, Luisa, while Carlo arrived by train from Rome.
—from "Italo's Death" by Gianni Celati, Translated by Patrick Barron, Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was a little boy in Montana, I think about three or four years old, I used to dictate my memory of...

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Interviews

10 Questions for SeSe Geddes

- By Edward Clifford

Shelley washes up once or twice a year
on the beach at the end of my street.
And I still feel lucky to find him—my dear Bysshe,
all tangled in burgundy seaweed on the sloping shore.
And not the real one, mind you, not the one they dragged
rotten from the Italian surf, ten days dead, bloated, faceless
half eaten b sea life, the cartilage of the nose rising
from the sodden flesh, the ragged eye sockets blooming
with tiny crabs and bugs…
—from “Shelley on the Beach,” Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
One of the first pieces I had published—well, I think it was published—was a poem addressed to a mean girl in...

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10 Questions

10 Questions for Melanie McCabe

- By Edward Clifford

The baby in the crib is sleeping. Instead of tiptoeing out of the room, the mother tiptoes in, looks long at the infant, then moves quietly across the carpet to the dresser against the far wall. Slowly she pulls open one of the drawers, pauses, looks again at the baby, and then shoves the drawer shut with as much force as she can muster with her slender frame.
—from "Syllable from Sound," Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I could interpret this question in several different ways. As a child, I wrote “novels” which I also illustrated. The first one was called Too Good To Be True, and was closely followed by Summer in Miami, the cover text of which...

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Interviews

10 Questions for Amy Yee

- By Edward Clifford

Inside was an older Asian man of medium height and build. His head was shaved to a salt-and-pepper stubble. Square, silver-rimmed glasses perched on his gentle-looking face. He wore a white tank-top undershirt and a dish towel thrown over one shoulder. The man was busy cleaning up after cooking what smelled like cabbage soup. . . I realized that Mr. S, the guesthouse owner, had shut the kitchen door to block out the smell — and the sight of this man making his lunch.
—from “Searching for Walter,” Volume 61, Issue 1 (Spring 2020)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I took a creative writing class as an undergrad at Wellesley...

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Volume 61, Issue 2

Front Cover by Naudline Pierre
Hold On, Hold Tight, 2019. OIL ON CAVAS.

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