Renowned microfiction author Joseph Young put out his new flash fiction collection The Thing I Was Trying to Tell You in June, and the collaborative children’s book Rocks: What Are They Doing also came out in June by artists Christine Sajecki and Michael Mäke. They got together for an amusing and enlightening conversation about their books, their process, and what art means to them.
I’ve been an admirer of Matt Kindt’s comics work ever since I read the 2001 graphic novel Pistolwhip, his collaboration with Jason Hall. Since then, his career has seen him take on a host of genres, including working with some other high-profile collaborators. (Notably, Keanu Reeves on BRZRKR.) Kindt’s latest collaboration finds him working in the mystery genre, collaborating with his mother Margie Kraft Kindt on the series Gilt Frame. The first issue is due out this Wednesday, and I spoke with the two collaborators on the making of their new series.
I first heard Judith Krummeck before I met her. I’d been scrolling through radio stations – years ago – on my way home from work when her voice came through on 91.5, soft yet self-assured. Perhaps she’d been expounding on the historical nuances behind a classical piece of music; I’m not sure. What intrigued me enough then to form a concrete memory about it, was how Krummeck spoke with a passion for music so genuine it was almost palpable through my car’s busted stereo. I’d never been much for overtures or concertos, but I kept listening to Krummeck’s retelling of how they came to be.
In the mid-1990s, I was in Berlin for the first time looking for the Berlin Wall. I remember walking around the Reichstag marveling how its façade was still gutted by artillery fire almost fifty years after the Second World War ended and only a few years after the momentous events of 1989. I remember learning how the Soviets had left post-war East Berlin in tatters as a humiliating reminder and punishment for the German people. What I remember most however was looking for the Wall and failing to find it where it had once stood. I had seen it in films and photos and heard stories about it. Like millions across the globe, I had watched ecstatic Germans of all sides gleefully ram sledgehammers into its graffitied sides and scale its exposed wires to reach the once perilous ledge that stood between two worlds. Stopping on the spot where I was told the Wall once stood, I was astounded to find not even the smallest marker. Meandering east and west, I came across biscotti-sized pieces of what was allegedly “the Wall” being sold for only a few marks in local tourist traps. I remember walking away feeling duped. Where had the Wall gone? What modern gang of tomb raiders had stolen it? The Wall was a part of me too, I thought, and I wanted a piece of it.
I first met Katharine Coldiron when she conducted a brief interview with me. Since then, our paths have crossed at conferences, and is our punishment for living in a modern age, social media. Since our introduction, I’ve grown to know Coldiron as a skilled writer and critic who is capable of moving between genres and styles with savvy flair and cutting edges. Her book Cerimonials is a breathtaking lyric novella following two young lovers with style and bite. Her books on film, Junk Film and Plan 9 from Outer Space are clever and offer smart insights. With her latest book, Wire Mothers, Coldiron presents us with a handful of tightly written short stories probing bad things—bad parents, bad choices, and bad feelings. As I’ve done with all of Coldiron’s writing, I read the collection in what felt like a heartbeat. Coldiron was kind enough to take a few moments from her busy schedule to chat about craft, broken things, and the homes we can’t seem to shake.
Unbound, the debut album from Bizhiki, brings together a trio of talented musicians with some high-profile guests to create one of the most immersive, compelling, and wide-ranging albums you’ll hear in 2024. The group, comprised of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, Joe Rainey Sr., and S. Carey, have done terrific work on their own; seriously, if you haven’t listened to Rainey’s 2022 album Niineta, you’re in for a treat. I talked with with Bizhikiins Jennings about the making of Unbound and the challenges of collaboration.
It’s hard to find the right way to describe Ananda Lima‘s new book Craft: Stories I Wrote For the Devil. On the simplest level, it’s a collection of uncanny stories, many of them involving the act of writing and a series of ominous Satanic presences. But there are also — as the title implies — subtle links between all of the works in the collection, establishing this book as more than the sum of its (impressive) parts. I talked with Lima about the genesis of Craft, its relationship to her poetry, and the art of structure.
Sigtryggur Baldursson and Birgir Mogensen have been making music for a very long time. They first played together in the group KUKL along with future members of the Sugarcubes; the music the duo makes now as Paddan, though, takes them in a very different direction. Their debut Fluid Time is a hypnotic collection of songs, both propulsive and willing to linger and explore unexpected sonic corridors. I spoke with Baldursson about their debut, their approach to collaboration, and the subgenre they’ve coined to describe their sound