Features & Reviews
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Parasocial Connection & Dinner As Organizing Principle: A Conversation with Krys Malcolm Belc
“There was the loneliness of losing in-person socializing at work [during the early days of the pandemic]. And then when I was sent home–because I was not an “essential worker” at my job… there was a screen now, between me…
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The Sisters of Song, Myth, Poetry, Prayer: A Conversation with Maya Salameh
“I think the places in this book (especially Damascus and San Diego) are reconstituted in that they are mangled in my recitation of them, and I allow them their mangledness. By insisting on the presence of Arabic on the page,…
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A Reclaiming and a Reckoning: A Conversation with Diana Whitney
“So what do we do with the rage? We can make meaning from it. We can shape it into some form where it’s manageable, whether that’s a form on the page in a poem, whether it’s a story we can…
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On Natalie Shapero’s “Stay Dead”
In Shapero’s words, “everyone is a worker.” If many of life’s actions are performances done for payment, so that even oxygenation is “a service / the woods provide,” then art forms like acting, painting, and writing are also determined by…
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The First Book: J Brooke
“The book was always meant as political in its simple existence— the adding my voice to the annals of Trans/Nonbinary collective is an act of anti-erasure. While writing this, though, the incoming administration became even more vile in its attempt…
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Gendering Food and the Solidarity of Rituals: A Conversation with Alicia Kennedy
“Being rooted in my neighborhood has made my writing better because I listen to other people who aren’t on the internet. I listen to people who have very different perspectives on the world, and sometimes I hate people that I’m…
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The Timelessness of K-Dramas and Folktales: A Conversation with Jimin Han
“Breaking a big project down into small steps helps. In terms of time, I’m at my best when I write in the morning, first thing, even though it’s hard when there are all the social media notifications and emails to…
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Underwater, Unbelonging, Unknowing: A Conversation with Erin L. McCoy
“Genre could be said to be another bubble—another set of laws that preclude us from participating in anything outside them. As I was writing the book, I did my best to pretend that there were no walls pinning me in—beyond…
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Writing from the Chinese Diaspora and Against Self-Censorship: A Conversation with M Lin
“I have self-censored in the sense that, once, when I knew a story was to be published, I took out a few overtly explicit name-callings. I believe the story was actually better for it—sometimes leaving something unsaid has a chilling,…
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No Quick Fixes and Owning Your Own Existence: A Conversation with Kelly Yang
“[W]we want to believe that women will want to help other women. We want that so badly, that a lot of stories and experiences get swept under the rug, because they don’t fit neatly with the narrative.”
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The Train Keeps Moving: A Conversation with Jeff Boyd
“To me, there always has to be a sort of rhythm or pace to it, which is what I was keeping in mind as I was switching POVs in this novel. The train’s always moving, and it’s almost always moving…
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Waiting, Migration, and the Narrators Between: A Conversation with Bsrat Mezghebe
“I generally wrote as if the reader would know what I was talking about. I did not want to be bothered with incredibly long and detailed descriptions of culturally specific food, clothes, events et cetera. I thought it would slow…