Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for John Newton Webb

March 16, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

I work
the soil    it echoes with the footsetps of the world
I make my body tremble like a fallen leaf and sink
and I thirst for words of life which may bud in tomorrow's loam
—from "Loam" by Shiki Itsuma, Translated by John Newton Webb, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
The first poem I translated was Ishihara Yoshiro’s Funeral Train (published in The Kyoto Journal). I was finding my way into the world of post-war Japanese poetry and I came across a couple of Ishihara’s poems in an anthology. Funeral Train immediately stood out to me.

Ishihara (1915-77) spent 8 years as a Soviet POW after WWII and train...

10 Questions for Clare Richards

March 15, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Five minutes later and I was already regretting going with him. I fell behind, uneasy. I hoped he wouldn't notice, that he'd carry on walking. But he stopped and turned around. It seemed he wouldn't move an inch until I was right beside him. His smile read catch up, quick. I told him to go ahead, that I'd follow.
—from "The Lake" by Kang Hwagil, Translated by Clare Richards, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
I first started out translating film subtitles. My most memorable experience was working on 1990 documentary Even the Blades of Grass Have Names, the first work by South Korean feminist film collective Bariteo. The film takes a very candid, yet...

10 Questions for Yi Zhe

March 7, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Because of my poor hearing
two old friends think
they can make mischief
in front of me.
—From "I Blacklisted Two Old Friends" by Zuo You, Translated by Yi Zhe, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you translated.
Zuo You has suffered from a hearing impairment at the age of six. Since then, he has been exploring sounds, eager to hear every day. His hope to communicate with the world has shaped his poetic practice. Zuo You writes with high accuracy to evoke feelings which strike home in the text, and to achieve self-transcendence. At times, his writing is insolent, modern, lyrical, direct, self-ridiculing.

I have been translating Zuo You’s poems about sound, deafness,...

February MR Contributor Publications

March 3, 2023 - By Staff

Rebecca Kaiser Gibson's novel,The Promise of a Normal Life, is out now from Arcade Press. Her poem "Osmosis" was featured in our Summer 2021 issue.

Climate Issue contributor Joseph Earl Thomas' memoir,...

10 Questions for Adrienne Marie Barrios

February 28, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

She says, I care little about what's said in the short term. She cracks her shoulder blades. She wonders if she waters them, would they grow wings? She says, I care about what happens tomorrow or the next day or the end of next month when the doctor pronounces my heart obsolete.
—from "That's Still Short Term, I Care About Long Term." co-written with Leigh Chadwick, Volume 63, Issue 4 (Winter 2022)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
It’s hard for me to identify what “first” means. I’ve had so many stops and starts in the writing world. I wrote many things in my childhood and teen years, including a poem published in an anthology I have somewhere in a box. I managed and wrote for a...