Interviews Archive
Colson Whitehead on Slavery, Elevators, and Donald Trump
I got to know Colson Whitehead back when he was infiltrating the poker world for his non-fiction narrative, The Noble Hustle. His new novel, The Underground Railroad, has been honored by none other than Oprah Winfrey with her latest book club selection.
A Sound Picture of Place: Baltimore
In the days after the police killing of Tamir Rice, I came across the writing of Stacia Brown (including her essay For Tamir, Who Was Stolen). Her writing on Black motherhood drew in this young reader who rarely clicked on links about motherhood.
Love and Pain: An Interview With Diane Schoemperlen
One could argue that the work of Diane Schoemperlen is highly unusual even beyond its incredible strength: a more lyric prose managing publication through larger and more mainstream Canadian publishers. Given her work, I was curious to engage with her memoir, This Is Not My Life.
Cultural Lifelines and Individual Artistry: An Interview with Robert Bringhurst
In 1999, Robert Bringhurst—polyglot translator, poet, and typographic authority—published A Story as Sharp as a Knife, a book about Haida myths and mythtellers. Bringhurst retranslates the work of several Haida poets using century-old transcriptions from anthropologist John Swanton.
Poet Activist Spotlight: Rachel McKibbens
Hire people who don’t look like you. Publish work that doesn’t sound like yours. Read work that doesn't sound like yours. Take a look at your board, your editors, at the people in charge of the literary festival. If they are predominantly white, start over.
Things That WIRED Magazine Doesn’t Talk About: In Conversation with francine j. harris and Devin Kenny
Poet francine j. harris and artist Devin Kenny explore how technology affects language, how they go about the processes of investigating their own work, and who their mentors are–as well as how they themselves have mentored others.
Flowers Around Your Soft Throat: An Interview with Poet Christina Seymour
Christina Seymour is the author of the poetry chapbook Flowers Around Your Soft Throat (Structo Press, UK). Her work appears in Cider Press Review, North American Review, Cimarron Review, Wingbeats II (Dos Gatos Press), and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Maryville College in east Tennessee.
“Letting Myself Make Less Sense”: An Interview with Wendy Wisner
Wendy Wisner writes from the heart about parenthood, from pregnancy and childbirth to the joyous hard work of raising children. In her poems and prose, she evokes the wonders and struggles of daily life as a mother in language that is clear and sharp, tender yet honest about the
Reconstructions: An Interview with Soraya Peerbaye
I first met Toronto poet Soraya Peerbaye at the beginning of 2003, when she participated in a series of workshops I was conducting at Collected Works Bookstore in Ottawa. Since then, her poems have appeared in Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Women Poets.
Language as a “Banner of Identity”: An Interview with Mara Faye Lethem
We discuss the short novel Brandes’s Decision with translator Mara Faye Lethem. The novel was originally written by Eduard Márquez in Catalan and published in 2006 and was recently brought to an English-reading audience by Hispabooks, a Madrid-based publisher.