From the Archives: Dzanc Books and 826michigan founder Steven Gillis talks about the “rogue warrior” Renaissance in indie publishing and his new collection, The Law of Strings.
From the Archives: Philip Graham speaks with his former student Rosalie Morales Kearns about her debut collection, as well as how to enter different points of view, the legacy of colonialism in Caribbean history and Caribbean literature, and why the trickster answers so many questions.
“My goal when I’m writing is to keep everything as real and hard and authentic as I can”: R.L. Maizes talks with Angela Mitchell about her debut collection, personal testimony, what she looks for as a fiction editor, and where we find ourselves (or not) in our stories.
“I don’t know why I’m reading or writing fiction if not to learn how to be human, how to be more human, how to understand the human condition and the humanity of others, and connect to the humanity within all of us.”
“With its ambitious blend of history and imagination, the novel might be at home on the reading list for a literature seminar cross-listed with urban studies”: Ellen Prentiss Campbell on Nathaniel Popkin’s new book.
“To bring the scene vividly alive in your mind and then to transfer that vividness to the reader takes imagination. There’s no way around that. This is why History and Historical Fiction are two separate genres.” John Vanderslice talks to Garry Craig Powell about his new novel, The Last Days of Oscar Wilde.
“Family, loyalty, love, lust: Vanessa Hua does justice to the big themes in this noteworthy debut.”
“Many characters in the book deal with unexpected changes in their lives and would welcome facts to guide them. The title seemed to reflect the emotional struggles of the characters and almost implies that it’s simple to change a life. But my characters find that life is complex; what works for one person will not work for another.”
“I still think it might have ruined the book if I’d known at the start how the story would end, and that’s one reason it needed to be fiction”: Robert Thomas chats with Lynette D’Amico about his poetic new novel, Bridge (BOA Editions).
“In The Universe of Click it’s more important to have someone saying ‘I loved it!’ than ‘The notion intrigued me, but I was unmoved by the pleonastic ramblings on page 94.’ A review is somehow less decisive than the perception that someone has liked something and passed it on to friends and acquaintances on Limped-In, Face-Schmuck, Mumbler, and Fritter…”
