With MARY MILLER
Your name: Mary Miller
Current city or town: Jackson, Mississippi
Ask a Local: Mary Miller, Jackson, Mississippi
October 26, 2017
Interviews
Interviews
Some Voice Has Spoken: an interview with Kirun Kapur
October 1, 2017
Interviews
ISABEL MEYERS interviews KIRUN KAPUR
Kirun Kapur is a poet, teacher, poetry editor at The Drum, and author of the collection Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist. Kapur’s debut volume, which grapples with themes of borders, religion, and feminism, feels more relevant by the day since its release in 2015.
Last fall, Kapur taught at Amherst College. She recently spoke to former student Isabel Meyers about Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist; the intersection of personal and political history; girlhood; family as a sense of place; and trusting the poem’s voice.
Ask a Local: Anzhelina Polonskaya, Frankfurt, Germany
September 28, 2017
Interviews
With ANZHELINA POLONSKAYA
Your name: Anzhelina Polonskaya
Current city or town: Frankfurt
How long have you lived here: 2 years
Three words to describe the climate: windy in winter
Best time of year to visit?: spring, summer
1) The most striking physical features of this city/town are. . . The skylines and the River Main. Frankfurt was destroyed during the second war, and the skylines give a “fresh air” to the city. Of course, I cannot compare the city to New York or Chicago, but I think the modern architecture makes Frankfurt unique, if we are talking about Germany in general, and fits in general the composition of the city. Everything is around the River Main: holidays, boats, sports, cafes and walkways.
Our Quest for Safety: an interview with Jill Eisenstadt
September 3, 2017
Interviews
JULIA PIKE interviews JILL EISENSTADT
Jill Eisenstadt by Beowulf Sheehan
Jill Eisenstadt’s latest book, Swell, was released to acclaim in June—Rolling Stone called it “the literary comeback of the year,”—thirty years after her debut novel with the same setting, From Rockaway.
In Swell, Eisenstadt tells the story of the Glassmans, a family of four who relocate from Tribeca to Rockaway, New York, in the aftermath of 9/11. The house they move into, like the Glassmans themselves, comes with a fraught history; their confrontation with this past reaches a crescendo that will make readers rethink what it means to love thy neighbor.
In this month’s interview, editorial assistant Julia Pike and Eisenstadt discuss marginalized communities, emotional truth, and the author’s return to Rockaway.
Ask a Local: Kayla Rae Whitaker, Louisville, Kentucky
August 31, 2017
Interviews
With Kayla Rae Whitaker
How long have you lived here: One year. Still feels very new.
Three words to describe the climate: Because it’s July, humid – on some days, the air feels like drinking cotton. In the winters, damp. But in the fall – particularly the long falls – and the spring, it feels forgiving.
Best time of year to visit? NOT DERBY. May is a beautiful time in Kentucky, but Derby snarls Louisville traffic in the worst possible way. I say this as a newcomer to the city (while I wrote about Louisville, I had never lived there until this year). It only took one Derby weekend for me to see some of the most ridiculous displays of driving I’ve ever seen. Early summer is a good bet. Fall’s nice too.
The Personal (Essay) is Not Dead: an interview with Mensah Demary
August 6, 2017
Interviews
MELODY NIXON interviews MENSAH DEMARY
Mensah Demary as an editor is most known for his work with Catapult Nonfiction, and more recently, Black Balloon. But Mensah Demary the writer is a force to be reckoned with. The Common published his essay “Blood and Every Beat” in our most recent issue, No. 13. In this month’s Q&A, Interviews Editor Melody Nixon talks with Demary about audience and desire, creative partnerships, “getting out of his own way,” and why the personal essay is not dead (“the idea is absurd”).
Ask a Local: Caitriona Lally, Dublin, Ireland
July 27, 2017
Interviews
Gestured to and not yet quite: an interview with Muriel Leung
July 2, 2017
Interviews
SARETTA MORGAN interviews MURIEL LEUNG
In this month’s interview, Saretta Morgan talks with poet, editor, and academic Muriel Leung about her poetry collection Bone Confetti; queer love; how loss can activate political consciousness; Hortense Spillers; and writing in a state of transition. Bone Confetti was released by Noemi Press in 2016.
History is Not Over: An Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen
June 4, 2017
Interviews
ALEXANDER BISLEY interviews VIET THANH NGUYEN
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen is on a hot streak. Since winning a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for The Sympathizer, his nonfiction collection Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and this year’s short-story collection The Refugees have amassed acclaim. In an ultimately uplifting conversation with Alexander Bisley, Nguyen discussed America’s obligation to help Syrian refugees, writers’ political responsibilities, and why the past’s traumas endure.
The Female Writer is Political: an Interview with Oddný Eir
May 7, 2017
Interviews
MELODY NIXON interviews ODDNY EIR
In this month’s interview, Melody Nixon speaks with Icelandic author Oddný Eir about feminism and writing, folklore, and tyranny. Eir’s latest book of auto-fiction, Land of Love and Ruins, is a work of diaristic essay, lyric collage, and rumination. Collaborator Björk describes Eir as “a true pioneer.” Eir appeared this week in New York City’s PEN World Voices Festival on Gender and Power.
