Interviews

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…

“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
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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…

Far Beyond the Pale in 1970’s Missouri:  A Tiny Interview With Daren Dean
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Far Beyond the Pale in 1970’s Missouri: A Tiny Interview With Daren Dean

Daren Dean’s novel, Far Beyond the Pale, explores masculinity, religion, and delinquency in a coming of age story set in rural 1970’s Missouri. The novel follows Honeyboy who has moved back to Kingdom County, Missouri along with his mother following a stint in California. They return, in part, to leave their baggage in California behind but…

“Another Way to Honor the Book”: An Interview with Odette Drapeau
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“Another Way to Honor the Book”: An Interview with Odette Drapeau

Bookbinder Odette Drapeau has been internationally honored for her modern and dynamic approach to what is often considered a traditional craft. To Drapeau, the book is both “a visual and tactile object where the container and content can connect to generate other visions.” While continually experimenting with new concepts that transform her practice, Drapeau also…

“It’s A Bit Mysterious, and I Like That”: An Interview with Frank X. Gaspar
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“It’s A Bit Mysterious, and I Like That”: An Interview with Frank X. Gaspar

Frank X. Gaspar writes poems that are lyrical, powered by swift associations, and full of surprising images and leaps in thought that in retrospect make perfect sense. He is the author of five collections of poems, including Late Rapturous and The Holyoke, as well as two novels, most recently Stealing Fatima. Frank was born and…

“This World and the World Just Beyond It”: An Interview with Brynn Saito
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“This World and the World Just Beyond It”: An Interview with Brynn Saito

Brynn Saito’s poems are lyrical, sometimes mystical, dream-like yet also grounded in what feels like lived life. Her debut book, The Palace of Contemplating Departure, is marked by a striking voice that sounds both of this world and as if it comes from somewhere far above it. With Traci Brimhall, she also co-authored the chapbook Bright…

“Digging out weapons in the arsenal of language” :  An Interview with Meena Kandasamy

“Digging out weapons in the arsenal of language” : An Interview with Meena Kandasamy

Meena Kandasamy is a writer based in India and London. She writes poetry and fiction, translates, and often uses social media to discuss issues of social justice. She describes her own work as maintaining “a focus on caste annihilation, linguistic identity and feminism.” She has published two collections of poetry: Touch and Ms Militancy. Her…