Features & Reviews
-
Writing Nostalgia, Absurdity, and Displacement: A Conversation with Hasan Dudar
“Painting also just brings me a lot of joy. I find a lot of joy in applying colors to the canvas. You need that when you’re writing a book. The two art forms feed off each other. My writing, and…
-
Consider the Rooster
Aren’t we complicit if we eat the chicken stew? I can’t help but ask myself this. I want the answer to be no, but the collection points to maybe, even towards yes. We are also complicit as we dig in…
-
Untying the Silence: A Conversation with Davin Malasarn
“The characters in this book often serve as stand-ins for my family members. I forgave Kamron, and that helped me forgive my father. Or maybe it was the other way around–maybe in the writing process I forgave my father and…
-
Under Surveillance: Benjamin H. Snyder’s Spy Plane
Righteous Black rage spilled over the borders into the downtown Inner Harbor. The cover of TIME magazine showed a mob of cops in riot gear chasing a young Black person down the street in front of Oriole Park. It was…
-
On First Loves, Writing Latinx Characters, and Grieving in Paradise: A Conversation with Mario Elías
“I wanted to create an honest depiction of the world as I knew it growing up. I needed to be honest in how the food smelled, in how the music playing vibrated everything around it, in how the specific rhythm…
-
A Little Machine Against Big Brother: A Conversation with Glenn Dixon
“At any rate, we have to find a way to infuse empathy into these AI models. And that’s where we come to my novel. I don’t know if I was thinking of this in writing the novel—I was slogging through…
-
Kafka in Kashmir: Zahid Rafiq’s “The World With Its Mouth Open”
Picture this: You awake to get ready for a cricket tournament. You have been excited for this particular cricket tournament, it’s a special event, a star-studded one. You are going to be on the field and play against sports stars…
-
Memoir in Essays: A Conversation with Maya Jewell Zeller
“The books got weirder and more experimental as I explored the dissonance and impossibilities inherent in being both a domestic and financial provider in a body that never receives rest nor care.”
-
Triumphs and Trials, Breaking Free to Wholeness: A Conversation with Toni Ann Johnson
“I wasn’t concerned with making every character lovable. Narcissists are not lovable from their victims’ POV. This book offers a look at how to survive narcissistic parents, not how to love them.”
-
“Beloved Son Felix”: Coming of Age in the Renaissance
And yet for all this death, life went on, and what makes the journal truly fascinating are the everyday details of the mid-16th century. On a day trip to Villeneuve, Felix notes that rosemary is so abundant that it’s collected…
-
“The Personal is Always Political:” A Conversation with Kate Schatz
“By expanding beyond her story, I was able to broaden the scope and incorporate the experiences of other young women whose stories I encountered during my research. And finally: by creating a fictional world, I could give my protagonist experiences…
-
Estrangement as a Chorus: A Conversation with Jenny Bartoy
“It helps, when editing, to think about the writer, the reader, and the self. When something is triggering and traumatic, I always think about the writer. Are they okay writing this? Are they okay sharing this? Editorially, I’ll say this…