ISSUE 8.3 welcome issue contents > poetry > fiction > nonfiction contributors interviews featured art our editors scott bassis“I intentionally wrote a story that would make readers smile, and would make me smile writing it. Depicting Louis’ transformation was not only fun, it reminded me to have faith and perseverance..” emma boggs“I also think my favorite scenes to write are those imbued with meaning or those that become revelatory in some way…” abigail carlson“It seems like such a cruel thing, to want someone only when she can’t be complete.” onyedikachi chinedu“I feel known for the language of Hemphill, of Brown, of Romeo, of Chee, of Logan, of queer bodies honestly and bravely telling and documenting our histories and identities.” chen du“I believe in “好文不在文中，功夫亦在文外”, which is my own words or creation, meaning a good piece of writing also embodies expertise outside the writing.” melanie figg“I often use formal poetry to explore difficult subjects. Using formal restrictions provides a kind of oven mitt for the poet to approach hot topics like grief.” katie higinbotham“It also became a way for me to make those fears visible, to call them out and begin to process them on the page.” romana iorga“It all comes down to tuning in, to simple hearing. I try to listen to what a leaf might tell me, or the rain, or a stone in the riverbed.” robert julius“We’ve sanitized death and put grief in a closet. Our culture glorifies youth and turns its head at aging and illness.” elina katrin“The piece was asking for rough line breaks, and I wanted the enjambment and negative space to be unpredictable to the point that they’re almost uncomfortable.” perry levitch“Poetry presents, to me, a brilliant opportunity to intervene in the canon more broadly. A whole host of poetry’s most exciting capabilities…” mee-ok“Stories were originally oral—most languages in the history of the world don’t even have a written counterpart—so I tend to think all stories are meant to be spoken, musical, percussive.” carling ramsdell“‘Whistling Woodwinds, Unfurling Flowers’ is a story entirely for me–maybe Young Adult, maybe not, but very much my version of a fabulist fairytale.” martha silano“Who said ‘Don’t be a poet on whom anything is wasted’? When I had the luck of seeing all those gulls, how could I not write about them?” ellen skirvin“My advice to fellow writers would be to identify your “ideal reader” (real or imagined) who motivates you. My ideal reader is my sister, so you’ll have to pick someone else.” r. thursday“I associate repeated thought forms/sentence frames with the beginning of an anxiety episode, it’s the rollercoaster pulling up the hill, a very late warning alarm.” katarina yuan“Every once in a while, I try to reimagine an epic from the perspective of one of the female characters in an attempt to reclaim them.”
