“I like writing characters who are in those vulnerable, intense moments, whether it’s at the end or the beginning of a new relationship, arrival in a new city, the beginning of sobriety, or on the eve of or just post a gender transition.” Emily Nagin talks with Lydia Conklin about their debut collection, Rainbow Rainbow.
From the Archives: “Art needs to be honest. Sometimes, it’s the only pure honesty you’ll get all day.” Emily Nagin reviews Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.
Kirstin Valdez Quade talks with Emily Nagin about turning her story “The Five Wounds” into a novel, the process of following new threads in a narrative, and learning from your characters along the way.
“Quietly brutal, at times hallucinatory, and laced with emotional trap doors and secret passages, The Illness Lesson vibrates with a slow burning fury”: Emily Nagin reviews Clare Beams’ debut novel.
“I think this is what Ghostographs wants from its readers: remembrance. While much of the book is about the wild dreamscape of childhood, in the end the story is about the end of a time and place.”
“Reading A Bright and Pleading Dagger is a little like eating ortolan. Rivas’ stories are compact, tender, and razor-sharp. They combine the fairytale dread of Carmen Maria Machado with the dream-scape disorientation of Kelly Link.”
“I like binaries, but only if I get to play with them and break them down”: Lillian Li answers all Emily Nagin’s questions about writing her debut novel, Number One Chinese Restaurant, out next Tuesday from Henry Holt.
“Flash is slippery, hard to define. It has poetry’s short form and attention to detail, its disregard for what is technically possible, and fiction’s love of character and narrative.”
“Thanks! I will write that damn novel! I did pet a kitten while tripping! (Wait, did I say that?)”: Alex Behr and Emily Nagin talk music, writing, and Behr’s debut collection, Planet Grim, out now from 7.13 Books.
“Visitations is all about reckonings. Who are you at your most selfish, Upton asks, at your most desperate, your most monstrous?”: Emily Nagin on Lee Upton’s latest collection, out now from LSU Press.
