Poet and scholar (and anime enthusiast) Steven Leyva believes we – the human “we” – have been malformed by cruelty in ways that make it hard to recognize the beauty that moves through our lives and through each other.
Kristin Thomson On the Return of Tsunami
For most of the 1990s, Tsunami combined deft lyrics and charged music to create some of that decade’s most enduring work. Now, the group’s discography has been collected by Numero Group as the collection Loud Is As, and the band is heading back on the road with longtime friends Ida. I spoke with Tsunami co-founder Kristin Thomson about the group’s return, the process of assembling the new collection, and the questions of art and ethics that they navigated then and now.
Ursula Villarreal-Moura On Reckoning With Art and Ethics in “Like Happiness”
The work of Ursula Villarreal-Moura abounds with appealing qualities, from formal innovation to a penchant for reckoning with big ethical questions. Her debut novel Like Happiness tells the story of Tatum, a young woman who forms a connection with a writer she’s long admired — and later comes to question certain things she’d long taken for granted about that relationship. I talked with Villarreal-Moura about the genesis of that novel, writing about feeling at home, and finding the right structure to tell this story.
Writing As Restoration: Paula Whyman On “Bad Naturalist”
The title of Paula Whyman’s Bad Naturalist says a lot. It’s a memoir by a person bonded with plants and animals who wants to restore a meadow on recently acquired property in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. What could go wrong? Just about everything. What could go right? Just about everything. The book embraces “failure” with abundant, self-deprecating humor. Along the way, readers get an education in all kinds of natural phenomena, replete with strange facts and curious discoveries. Whyman weaves her personal story in with the history of the region, and the indigenous people whose footprints long preceded white settlers. Through tragedy, mishap, and triumph, Whyman covers the gamut in delightful prose. I caught up with her by email.
Six Ridiculous Questions: Alice Kaltman
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
Kate Axelrod on the Intersecting Lives of “How To Get Along Without Me”
I’ve known Kate Axelrod for ages now, and it’s been a pleasure to watch her evolve as a writer — as well as being able to publish her work in these pages. Her latest book, the collection How To Get Along Without Me, follows a group of people as they search for emotional connections and a better understanding of the world. It’s highly recommended, but don’t take my word for it: Axelrod’s collection was recently longlisted for The Story Prize as well. We chatted over email about the evolution of this collection and what it was like to put it all together.
Christina Cooke on the Genesis of “Broughtupsy”
I first met Christina Cooke when we read together at an event in Woodstock in 2022. That was long before the publication of her debut novel Broughtupsy, about a woman grieving the loss of her brother and seeking to reconnect with her estranged sister in Jamaica. It’s a powerful book with a subtle precision in how its characters interact with one another and make their way through the world. With Broughtupsy now out in paperback, I talked with Cooke about the challenges of writing it, how to best to evoke the recent past, and our mutual admiration of Ali Smith.
Six Ridiculous Questions: Thomas Kohnstamm
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.