Interviews

INTERVIEWS Tyler Barton Interviewed by Michelle Neuffer Your story begins with Rhonda watching her neighbors through the window, and the rest of it sort of mimics that experience for the reader—we get glimpses into Rhonda’s art, her job, her marriage, the neighbors’ house. These glimpses hint at longer stories that feel like they remain just […]

Interviews Colby Cotton Interviewed by Michael Sirois Your poem “Neighbor,” confronts the great American suburb. A kind of success or resistance emerges from the speaker’s inability to adapt to this lifestyle, yet you also convey a sense of this speaker wanting to be a part of this suburban world, even if only a small part. […]

Interviews Deborah Levy Interviewed by Dan Shurley You’ve said that what people don’t say can be more interesting than what they do say, and that there is power in silence. How did you square this insight with the expectation that a memoir give us the “soul laid bare”?

Interviews Wayne Miller Interviewed by Alison Gaines My first question (and the others will likely hinge on it) is whether “On History” is autobiographical or not. 

Interviews Jamie McKendrick Interviewed by Sonnet Graham Frequently your work demonstrates a familiarity with and respect for scientific ideas. Is this a conscious effort to mend the (contemporary) rift between art and science?

Interviews Christian Wiman Interviewed by Forester McClatchey Last year you published an anthology called Joy, which gathers poems that seem to “undergo” that emotion. You wrote in the introduction that different people had very different reactions to the project. Some approved, some found it academically interesting, some were affronted. Since the book came out and […]

Interviews Brad Eddy Interviewed by Neal Hammons Can you tell us about your writing background—when you began writing fiction, what inspired you to start?

Interviews Daphne Kalotay Interviewed by Marsha Sasmor “Oeuf en Gelée,” your story in this issue of Subtropics, is set in a typically fashionable New York City restaurant—small room, small plates, high prices—and there’s significant talk of food throughout, whether it be what the two main characters, Laurel and Max, are eating or the paintings of food […]

Interviews Josh Russell Interviewed by Wynne Hungerford Readers are always curious about the writing process. What is your process like? Do you keep a journal? Do you write in a specific place? With coffee? Soft lighting?

Interviews Katherine Young Interviewed by Marie McGrath I’m really interested in hearing about your work with Inna Kabysh. I read that you’ve been translating her since the nineties, is that right?

Interviews Ashley Keyser Interviewed by Eileen Rush Rather than being plainspoken, your work has both highbrow and lowbrow elements. You revive words that aren’t common and combine them with words newly invented. I’m thinking of “bitty Bible. / The mates skip courtship for midlife’s bitter harangues,/ kvetching as they hump.” This is part of the […]

Interviews George Singleton Interviewed by Jacob Guajardo The following interview was conducted over e-mail correspondence during a few weeks in April and May (2017).  The first question I had for you, George, came up while I was reading the first paragraph of your story “Eclipse.” “I might not have earned an associate’s degree in culinary […]

Interviews Paul Crenshaw Interviewed by Charlie Sterchi This interview was conducted over the course of two weeks, via email, during the first 100 days of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. In order to write “Twelve Bible Stories in Need of Revision,” it seems you’d need a fair understanding of these Bible stories and their context. Do […]

Interviews Idra Novey Interviewed by James Davis Your poem “A History in Six Couplets” from Subtropics 7 and the two Manoel de Barros pieces you translated for Subtropics 9 display certain miniature qualities: short stanzas, end-stopped lines, clipped phrasing. What attracts you to this mini-ness?

Interviews A. E. Stallings Interviewed by Nicholas Pierce This interview was conducted, in person, on November 6, 2016 at the Florida Writers Festival in Gainesville, Florida, at which A. E. Stallings was one of the guests. You mentioned during your craft talk yesterday that your work has become increasing political over the last few years, […]

Interviews Pamela Murray Winters Interviewed by Sarah Grigg One of your blogs says that you write “poems, or ideas of poems, or poem-like material.” How would you define “poem-like material”?

Interviews Paul Theroux Interviewed by Heather Peterson This fictional piece reminded me of your article “Nurse Wolf,” published in The New Yorker in 1998. What precipitated your decision to revisit this story fourteen years later? What, in the story, is similar to the article and what is different? How does writing about this experience so […]

Interviews Emma Smith-Stevens Interviewed by Chloe Lane Illness and war are your subjects for “Some Ongoing Etc.” and your previous Subtropics publication “Parachutes,” respectively, yet your stories are full of humor. Can you talk a little about how important humor is to your writing?

Interviews Bennet Sims Interviewed by Amy Scharmann This story was originally one of several fables, all of which are from a young boy’s perspective and involve a particular object as a trigger for larger reflection or meditation. How do you feel about “The Balloon” as a stand-alone piece? Did you see this as a possibility?

Interviews Maggie Shipstead Interviewed by Sabrina Jaszi and Carrie Guss Your story in Subtropics 13, “In the Olympic Village,” takes a look at the more fallible, vulnerable side of Olympic athletes. What sports, teams, or athletes drew you to this subject? If there were an Olympics where anything in existence could be considered a sport […]

Interviews Bernard Quiriny Interviewed by Edward Gauvin Regarding “A Guide to Famous Stabbings,” did you know how the story would end when you began? As usual, no. One has the impression short stories are sufficiently short that writers know their endings before starting out—that in fact they must know—but in reality this isn’t always the […]

Interviews Kevin Prufer Interviewed by Laura Deily I’m interested in the way writers come about themes, especially for a book length collection of poems. I noticed that many of your poems in National Anthem seem to have political undertones (or at least are very suggestive of war), as well as “Recent History” in Subtropics 10. […]

Interviews Liz Prato Interviewed by Magdalen Powers Most people I know from Portland are actually from somewhere else. Are you from somewhere else? If so, what brought you to the rainy city? If you’re a native, what keeps you there?

Interviews Kevin Phan Interviewed by Elaina Mercatoris Your poem Fledgling, featured in Subtropics Issue 19, features various warnings and consequences in the form of commands or statements, as shown in the lines, “Do not leave unlocked the front gate. / You will grow cuts.” What inspired the poem and how did you choose this structure […]

Interviews Alex Perez Interviewed by David Blanton You mentioned that many of your stories take place in Miami. What about that city inspires your fiction?

Interviews Chinelo Okparanta Interviewed by RL Goldberg and Alex Pickett This story achieves an admirable balance between Chinasa’s everyday life and larger global problems—particularly some that are occurring in Nigeria. What are the challenges of writing about broader political/historical conflicts while keeping the focus on a character’s more specific and personal struggle? Do you think […]

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 […]

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?