Interviews

Christina Nichol

Interviewed by Sebastian Boensch

In “Infinite Village,” there is a passage toward the end of the essay where you describe a feeling of peace that has come over you. This feeling seems to originate in a momentary shedding of your own identity and the trying on of a new one. You are wearing a long coat and baggy pants—an outfit similar to the one Fitim’s sister is wearing earlier in the essay. In the passage at the end of the essay, you write that, contrary to your independent American rearing, part of you wishes to relinquish your American-ness and to become a full member of this close-knit community of people you are living among—even if that means a rejection of certain values you deem fundamental. Perhaps I’ve answered my own question, but what keeps you from actually trying it?

Interviews

Christopher Merkner

Interviewed by RL Goldberg

In “Cabins,” I’m really interested in the masculinity of your narrator. I like how he has this somewhat Hemingway-identified vision of self-sufficiency—and, perhaps, what Rachel Maddow would call a man-cave—but he is really tender and sensitive. Can you speak to his masculinity? Any masculinity?

Interviews

Kuzhali Manickavel

Interviewed by Sharon Lintz

Tell us about the genesis of your story.

I had been toying with three ideas at the time–the road, Prasanna’s character and the idea of a vanishing twin. I was working on them as separate pieces at first but after a number of drafts they started coming together.

Interviews

Roy Kesey

Interviewed by Anastasia Kozak

What’s been harder for you: finding good Peruvian food in Beijing or good Chinese food in Lima?

Interviews

J. Kates

Interviewed by Bredt Bredthauer

I’m interested in the way translators come to the poetry they translate. How did you come to Magny’s work and what made you want to translate him into English?

Interviews

David Huddle

Interviewed by Claire Eder and Andrew Donovan

Why did you choose a wren and a bear for your poem “Wren & Bear” from Subtropics 14?

Interviews

Suzanne Halmi

Interviewed by Tarah Dunn

Where are you from? What do you do?

I grew up in northwestern New Jersey when it was more rural than it is now, although there are still a lot of farms and wooded areas despite more and more development. I was a librarian and then a doctoral student (English), but now I’m a stay-at-home mother with young children.

Interviews

Lauren Groff

Interviewed by Emma Smith-Stevens

In your writing, history is brought into the present moment of your narrative through memory, documents, and by giving voice to ghosts. What philosophical or personal beliefs underlie that choice?

Interviews

Mark Girshin

Interviewed by Anastasia Kozak

When did you start working on your memoir, Mosaic[from which The Seaweed Mattess is excerpted]? If it was after your immigration to America, what are the advantages, if any, to writing about one’s childhood and the past so far away from Odessa?

Interviews

Edward Gauvin

Interviewed by Carrie Guss and Sabrina Jaszi

If we were doing this interview in person, we’d ask you to perform your life’s history in interpretive dance. Since we don’t have that luxury, do you think you could tell it to us in five sentences or less?