Blog / Interviews

10 Questions for Asnia Asim

May 2, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Maybe it was a reaction to old age; it could be that
he resented retired life. But the ex-neurologist,
amateur collector of oriental coins, had recently

taken to scolding his poor wife for all that praying
under her breath, Mashallah-this and Inshallah-that.
—from "Mr.Kemal Questions God," Volume 64, Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My first poem “The White Petal” startled itself into existence through me. I was a lonely Pakistani kid struggling with overwhelming unrest. As I wrote the poem, the vague aroma of its ambience became significant. I remember feeling transported, less alone, but more importantly, I felt a kind of ecstasy as the image of a soft...

10 Questions for Cindy Juyoung Ok

April 27, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

I stay outstretched in a November
coat, not abundant and not wanting
to be. A machine I own mistook shootings

for students in a transcript, ushering
me to tilt canals toward titles and curate
hedges into pages.
—from "Table of Contexts," Volume 64, Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
In kindergarten I wrote a neat cursive reflection during recess expressing elaborate distress over a change in dynamic between me and two other five-year-old friends, and drew Mary Poppins, who I guess represents reconciliation. I have another piece from that age that starts: “Once I had the best dream that I’ve ever had.”        ...

10 Questions for Ann Lohner

April 25, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

Emergency crews got through a week after the storm. They cleared downed power lines and sawed through fallen trees, creating a way in and out and delivering food and water. But the heat was still off, and another storm was on the way, so Kate swept the prescription bottles into a bag that she wedged in the car between the walker and the wheelchair.
—from "Postmortem," Volume 64, Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
My early fiction includes a trilogy that commences with Max pursuing Anne into debt and exile in the Rhineland, far from the shtetl where his family trades foals and theories about who fathered Anne’s child. The trilogy spans the world wars, and I wrote it during my time in...

10 Questions for Julieta Vitullo

April 18, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

I should ask my mom if the blue-plaid, pleated skirt I wore for a few years in my childhood was an off-the-rack item or if she made it in her sewing class. When I first got it, I would reserve it for special occasions, but as the novelty wore off I started using it as a daily garment under the school uniform, a white smock worn by every elementary-age public school student in Argentina.
—from "The Pleated Skirt," Volume 64, Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I wrote my first piece when I was six, on a school notepad sitting at the kitchen table in the apartment where I grew up. It was called “El libro perdido” (The Lost Book) and told the story of a boy who lent his favorite book...

10 Questions for Jordan James

April 13, 2023 - By Edward Clifford

If you give me half of what your brought to the stage last night, I'll make you a record, girl. That's what I tell Adriana. Her stage name is Adie Wells, but I've known her since monkey bars and hopscotch.

She says, You goin' think half when I blow a hole through this mic.

I say, You better, or you and the Passionfruit are headed back to Lester's.

No the, she says. Just fruit.
—from "Adie Wells and Passionfruit," Volume 64, Issue 1 (Spring 2023)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I consider my first piece(s) to be a series of action/adventure/fantasy vignettes co-written with my cousin and childhood best friend. As children with wild imaginations, we...