Authors

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

Woolf at the Table: Good Dinner, Good Talk
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Woolf at the Table: Good Dinner, Good Talk

I have always been enchanted by Virginia Woolf and—being an avid cook and food writer myself—by gastronomic references in literature, both fiction and nonfiction. So when I learned about a book about the eating habits of the Bloomsbury set, of which Woolf was a member, I took notice. The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love,…

“Unexpected Brightness”: An Interview with Elaine Sexton
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“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
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“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…

Tracing Literary Family Trees: An Interview with Mark Wunderlich
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Tracing Literary Family Trees: An Interview with Mark Wunderlich

Mark Wunderlich is a poet from the Midwest living in Hudson Valley, teaching at Bennington College. He’s received many fellowships, including those from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Megan Mayhew Bergman interviewed him for Ploughshares on craft, place, and essential reading for the new reader of…

Literary Enemies: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie vs. Maud Casey
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Literary Enemies: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie vs. Maud Casey

Literary Enemies: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie vs. Maud Casey Disclaimer: I bet they’d love each other. There are two authors who have a special place on the fiction shelves at the bookstore where I work. The first is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, though “on the fiction shelves” isn’t quite an accurate locution in her case, since we…

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