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I was able to visualize my hometown so much more keenly, having not lived there in fifteen years. I believe it allowed me to write about the place with a little bit more compassion than if I had tried to write these books living there.
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Beth Gilstrap discusses her new story collection, DEADHEADING.
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Kiese Laymon discusses the revised HOW TO SLOWLY KILL YOURSELF AND OTHERS IN AMERICA.
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Where my masculinity dwells, I am in control.
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Dantiel W. Moniz discusses her debut story collection, MILK BLOOD HEAT.
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Jacinta V. White discusses her collection of poetry, RESURRECTING THE BONES.
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I refuse to play the part, but I play the part.
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Tenderness lies between the sharp and the sweet.
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Morgan Jerkins discusses her new book, WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS.
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JD Scott discusses their new story collection, MOONFLOWER, NIGHTSHADE, ALL THE HOURS OF THE DAY.
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Saeed Jones discusses his new memoir, HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES.
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Quintan Ana Wikswo discusses her novel, A Long Curving Scar Where the Heart Should Be, delving into the facets of trauma, and her creative processes.
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A hurricane is coming. Rita is in the Gulf of Mexico and is approaching Houston at a slow but steady pace of nine miles an hour. I don’t have many, or any, illusions that God and Jesus will see us through.
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Adrian Matejka discusses his new collection Map to the Stars, writing about poverty in contemporary poetry, and how racism maintains its place in our society.
...moreI’m a small blue dot living in a blood-red corner of a red state, so I’ve grown accustomed to hearing right wing talking points. I don’t like them, but they surface as regularly in my southwest Florida town as white egrets on the highway and dolphins in the Gulf. Talking points at the grocery store, […]
...moreRight now as I write this, smoke from fires in the southeastern Appalachian Mountains haze the morning. We’re under orange alert—the air quality bad enough that schoolchildren will stay indoors today. This morning the coastal flooding is up again thanks to the powerful tidal pulls of the recent supermoon. On my errand this morning, I […]
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I try not to think about fashion. It’s more that I want to settle on something to wear so I don’t have to think about it.
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I reached out to her, and she reached back. A hug I’ll never forget.
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Donald Ray Pollock has been steadily serving up plates of mild horror since his first book of short stories, Knockemstiff, appeared in 2008. Pollock followed the explosion of Knockemstiff with The Devil All the Time, in 2011, his first novel, which also bordered on the genre of mystery, again with generous servings of darkness. His […]
...moreBrian Booker discusses his debut collection Are You Here For What I’m Here For?, giving characters strange and unusual names, and sleeping sickness.
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