The First Book: Soraya Palmer
I thought about stories that saved me as a child by showing me what was possible. And then I thought about the stories that were missing.
Features & Reviews
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The First Book: A. Light Zachary
I gave up on "speaking truth to power" when I remembered our oppressors will never read my poetry.
The First Book: Sebastián H. Páramo
I believe that's what most writers want—to share an experience that adds complexity to life and resonates with something someone hasn't been able to say yet.
The First Book: Cory Allen
Believe in your story. Be persistent. Be creative and find ways around the roadblocks.
“The psyche is a rich, vast junkyard:” A Conversation with Chin-Sun Lee
As a writer, anything pertaining to the psyche is a rich, vast junkyard I can poke around in to create narratives that align with my own obsessions.
The First Book: Boo Trundle
If the writing process is healing, and if this healing process shapes the narrative, then maybe the reading experience can stimulate aspects of the same healing process.
“Intimacy in the Telling”: A Conversation with Maggie Smith
I’m never in a hurry for a piece of writing to wrap up. And I almost never know how it will end.
Coming-of-age into Fame: Ben Fama’s If I Close My Eyes
Masterful prose...a novel that takes an unflinching view of what some might do for fame and ratings.
There’s Reality in Other Places: A Conversation with Kelsey Norris
Life’s weird. There’s reality in other places. I really like fiction and media that play with that strangeness.
Every Line Break, an Elegy: A Conversation with Leslie Sainz
I feel strongly that our personal histories are made complete by their various discrepancies, not undermined by them.
The Circumstance of Expectancy: Sara Gallardo’s January
From the early pages of the novel, she laments, “It’s a different story for rich girls, they have their ways,” which is a very elegant way of throwing one’s arms up and shouting that it isn’t fair to a world that won’t hear it.
Turning a White Savior Inside Out: A Conversation with Frank Santo
. . . There is a lot of horror and horrible things about it, but there is also a lot of grace and things that show how strong people can be. It’s really the whole gamut of humanity.