Interviews Archive
Killing the Messenger: A Dual Interview with Charles Baxter and Viet Thanh Nguyen on the Importance and the Stigma of Didactic (APIA) Fiction
Inside the craft-obsessed, time-warped fiction workshop where literary realism has reigned supreme forever, the Show-Don’t-Tell maxim serves an important function in critique.
Writing Through Silence: An Interview with Faizal Deen
Faizal Deen seeks to address the ways in which the cultural production of Caribbean populations in Canada—in particular, the work of poets—encourages us to rethink existing notions of diasporic identity.
Art Is Resistance: Editor Peter Kahn Talks The Golden Shovel Anthology and the Power of Poetry
As a commemoration and celebration of Gwendolyn Brooks’s work, the University of Arkansas Press released The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks. Editor and Chicago high school educator Peter Kahn explains the importance of the anthology and the transformative nature of poetry.
“Mapping out the Moves”: An Interview With Poet and Translator Derick Mattern
Derick Mattern is an accomplished poet and translator of Turkish poetry. I spoke with him about his approach to translation, why he believes that all poets should translate, and how he wanted his time in Turkey to be very Turkish.
“Ten Pounds of Potatoes in a 10-Pound Bag”: An Interview with Eileen Pollack
Eileen Pollack’s stories are smart, big-hearted, and thought-provoking. We recently caught up via email to discuss the differences between novels and short stories—and how changes in society can help novels find their audiences.
A Parliament of Poems: An Interview with Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke
Given that Toronto poet, editor, critic, novelist and librettist George Elliott Clarke is Canada’s seventh official Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17), I thought it would be interesting to explore some of his experiences now that he’s a bit more than halfway through his two-year term.
“Unapologetic Black Muslim Sudanese American”: An Interview with Safia Elhillo
In January, Safia Elhillo's debut collection, The January Children, brought her poems to my doorstep, and many others, as it became Amazon's top new release in African Poetry. I had the chance to chat with Elhillo about her collection and to discuss what it means to be a writer
The Three Percent 10 Years Later: An Interview With Chad Post
Since Chad Post, founding publisher of Open Letter Books, created The Three Percent blog in 2007, the term the “three percent” has become a household one to highlight the percentage of translated books published in the United States.
“Hyperconsciousness of the Historical Instability of Words”: An Interview with Monica Youn
Monica Youn’s poems are precise, sharp-edged and fleet-footed; they always seem to be moving in three different directions at once. She is the author of three books of poems: Blackacre, Barter, and Ignatz, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. A former attorney, she now teaches
Alt-weeklies, Prose Poems, Heroes: An Interview With Brandon Soderberg
2017 came, and I was in the market for words to live by. I needed a mantra to get me through the month of January. Miraculously, I found them four days into the new year: “We’re all special once we get to know each other.”
I found these words in