Author: Matthew Thorburn

The cover of A Larger Country side by side.
| |

“It all started when I began writing through masks”: An Interview with Tomás Q. Morín

Tomás Q. Morín’s first book of poems, A Larger Country, won the APR/Honickman Prize and was runner-up for the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award. It’s a collection that brings together a series of different times, places and characters (both historical and imagined) into a new world all its own, one that is both recognizable and decidedly strange….

“The poems toggle between wreckages”: An Interview with Kerrin McCadden
|

“The poems toggle between wreckages”: An Interview with Kerrin McCadden

Kerrin McCadden’s poems illuminate life’s sharp-edged particulars, making the touchstones of this physical world resonate with the meditative music of our everyday existence. She’s the author of Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes, winner of the 2015 Vermont Book Award and the 2013 New Issues Poetry Prize, as well as the recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship….

“I really wanted to just drive and talk with someone”: An Interview with John Gallaher

“I really wanted to just drive and talk with someone”: An Interview with John Gallaher

John Gallaher’s book-length poem In A Landscape has the feel of a long, wide-ranging conversation with an old friend. It’s like one of those cross-country car ride conversations when there’s time to talk about anything and everything: the tiny details of day-to-day living and the meaning-of-life questions that keep us up at night. His other…

“Ghosts Usually Accompany Me through My Poems”: An Interview with Diane Seuss
|

“Ghosts Usually Accompany Me through My Poems”: An Interview with Diane Seuss

Words just seem to have more possibilities in the poems of Diane Seuss. They become more flexible, more magnetic, attracting and accumulating meaning and music in a speedy rush to surprise, a hard-won clarity about what it’s like to be here, be human. Diane is the author of three books of poetry: Four-Legged Girl (Graywolf…

“Different Paths Up the Same Mountain”: An Interview with Adele Kenny
|

“Different Paths Up the Same Mountain”: An Interview with Adele Kenny

Adele Kenny’s poems speak from the head and the heart, giving thoughtful scrutiny to the moments that move us—whether to wonder or to grief. She is the author of more than 20 books of poetry and nonfiction, including What Matters, winner of the 2012 International Book Award for Poetry, and A Lightness, A Thirst, or…

“Unexpected Brightness”: An Interview with Elaine Sexton
|

“Unexpected Brightness”: An Interview with Elaine Sexton

Elaine Sexton’s poems are active, nimble, curious—they often seem to be trying to solve a problem or puzzle out the right words to describe our too-often wordless emotions. No wonder her first book is called Sleuth. Elaine’s other books include Causeway and, most recently, Prospect/Refuge. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and New York…

“Subjects We Never Completely Learn”: An Interview with Daniel Nester
|

“Subjects We Never Completely Learn”: An Interview with Daniel Nester

Daniel Nester’s prose zings back and forth between the heart and the funny bone. His latest book, Shader, is a kaleidoscopic coming-of-age story told in brief chapters called “notes.” It’s like one of those family slideshows that make us laugh, groan, squirm in our chairs, and sometimes cry. His previous books include How to Be…

“That Swerve that Takes Me Somewhere Else”: An Interview with Rick Barot

“That Swerve that Takes Me Somewhere Else”: An Interview with Rick Barot

Rick Barot’s poems are assured, finely composed structures in which memory and emotion often take startling, deeply moving turns. He is the author of three books of poems, including The Darker Fall and Want. Rick was born in the Philippines, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now lives in Tacoma, Washington. He…

“Slipperiness of Signification”: An Interview with Lee Ann Roripaugh
|

“Slipperiness of Signification”: An Interview with Lee Ann Roripaugh

In her most recent book, Dandarians (Milkweed, 2014), Lee Ann Roripaugh writes in the borderland between poetry and prose, blurring boundaries and finding the unfamiliar music in everyday language. She is also the author of three previous books of poetry, including Year of the Snake, which won the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award…