A Conversation with Timothy Willis Sanders

Meet-cute. It’s like a cheesy movie scene or does it just look normal on the surface to everyone else, but to the two people it’s happening to–is it something more? Timothy Willis Sanders deep dives into a single relationship with his new book, Matt Meets Vik. (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2014). The complications that every relationship faces are presented in stark simplicity, with very little commentary as to the overwrought why’s, just glaring what’s. Timothy answered a few questions by email.

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How To Catch a Coyote: A Conversation with Christy Crutchfield

I haven’t read much fiction about coyotes, but a couple coyotes wandered down my street once and my neighbor said he started pawing at the dirt with his foot or something and they ran off. I don’t know, the whole thing could be apocryphal. Which is kind of what Christy Crutchfield’s new book, How To Catch a Coyote, is about. It’s about how one character, Daniel grows up and his perceptions about his family–what to believe and what not to […]

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A Conversation with Guillaume Morissette

One of my favorite Canadian authors is Guillaume Morissette. I just identified him as Canadian, because I really don’t read that many Canadians, but that shouldn’t matter. But it kind of does, because Montreal and Quebec and Concordia University play a role in the new novel from Guillaume–called New Tab (Vehicule Press, 2014). I first came across Guillaume via the Internets a few years ago, and really liked the easy fluidity of his story collection, I Am My Own Betrayal. […]

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Voicemail Poetry and Papercraft: A Conversation with John Mortara

I’m rarely moved to immediate action, but for I went right away for John Mortara’s “Small Creatures / Wide Field” from The Newer York Press. Hypertext madness in a broken-down house, with odd mythological creature inserts and cheeky choices? Yep. With a killer design on the beta version of Creativist, the sibling to Atavist? ALL IN. John Mortara is a writer, poet and teacher who now lives in Massachusetts. We both went to the same small, regional college for grad […]

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Internet Poetry & the Image Macro: A Conversation with Michael Hessel-Mial

The image macro. Internet poetry. How can are these concepts impacting and changing poetry? That question is impossible to answer at this point–but one thing is for sure–it’s definitely rewiring the way people interact and read poetry. One of the people on the forefront of this is Michael Hessel-Mial. He’s the editor of an “influential” poetry Tumblr called Internet Poetry. Yes, some of the submissions he selects only gets a few notes, others get 40,000. He mostly selects text and […]

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A Year of Favorites: Josh Spilker

A Year of Favorites

Feel like I skimmed or stopped more books this year than I actually read. I had some noble attempts, stuff like Underworld by Don Delillo (made it halfway through before I learned you’re only supposed to read the 1st chapter), Speedboat by Renata Adler (remember the spring fever pitch to this one?), The Man With a Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (I enjoyed his book on writing more), and Light Years by James Salter (but bro, can he write a […]

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Scott McClanahan Has A Cold.

Scott McClanahan, crouching in a small corner outside of a library conference room door, is dressed in a black blazer and a black button-up. He’s also carrying a large satchel. He was watching people file in to a room to watch him. I am the last in the line, but notice Scott over by the wall. His face is red. Scott McClanahan has a cold. “Josh I’ll be around the fest at 200 or so but I have cold so […]

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Occasional Literary Magazine Reviews: Zyzzyva

Title: Zyzzyva Issue #98, Fall 2013 $12.00 Theme: It’s not immediately obvious by its cover. But then you flip to the jacket (yes, a lit mag with a jacket!) and there’s this phrase: “Having a Kid: What Could Go Wrong?” Here at Vol.1 Brooklyn, we like to keep everything “above board” (or at least I think we do..is that even the right idiom?) and not delve into too much personal stuff. But I’m about to become a father, like at […]

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