“You might love, hate, or feel conflicted about these characters—but the main thing is that you believe in them and feel compelled to follow them wherever they go”: Mimi Lok and Eric McDowell talk process, empathy, and Lok’s debut collection, Last of Her Name, out now from Kaya Press.
Jennifer Marie Donahue talks with Liz Breazeale about her debut collection, Extinction Events, writing obsessions, story structure, trusting in your individual strangeness, and the powerful feminist and contemporary issues Breazeale explores in her work.
“I want you to connect and empathize with those people. I want you to understand that you are capable of horrible things even if you’re a good person.” Saul Lemerond interviews Leigh Camacho Rourks about Grit Lit, writing the body, unlikeable characters, and more.
“I love work that examines what it’s like to be a woman struggling to act as an autonomous person inside a place or a culture that’s very invested in telling you how to act, how to do your gender”: Ashley Wurzbacher talks with Lee Thomas about her debut collection, Happy Like This, the complexity of female friendships, resisting gender narratives, and more.
“When I critique the Midwest, my intention is to do so with love and some self-awareness about my own character defects. And some humility.” Beth Mayer and Sam Tschida chat about Beth’s new collection, We Will Tell You Otherwise, out now from Black Lawrence Press.
“I try to read every relevant thing I can get my hands on.” Ayşe Papatya Bucak talks with Natalie Rowland about research, setting, and writing the dark side of history for her debut collection, The Trojan War Museum: and Other Stories, out now from W.W. Norton.
“A story never fully feels ‘completed’ to me.” Dallas Woodburn talks with Carand Burnet about memory, coming of age, parenthood, and her debut collection of linked stories, Woman, Running Late, in a Dress.
“Even when interacting with the ones they want to love, the men in these stories cannot be fully honest with others or themselves”: Melissa Grunow on Steve Hughes’s debut collection, Stiff, out now from Wayne State University Press.
“I think it’s human nature to dream of what’s on the other side.” Benjamin Woodard chats with Caleb Michael Sarvis about his debut collection, Dead Aquarium, out now from Mastodon Publishing.
“We soon learn that tragedy isn’t exactly foreign to the Cordova family.” Michelle Ross reviews Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s debut collection, Sabrina and Corina, out now from One World.
