DAVID GUTOWSKI is a writer who lives in New York City and runs Largehearted Boy. His work has appeared at Longreads, The Millions, The Morning News, PBS, and elsewhere.
The Secret History of Naples, Then and Now: An Interview With John Domini
One of the most challenging tasks for any writer is evoking the physicality of life using only words on a page. With his new book The Archeology of a Good Ragù: Discovering Naples, My Father and Myself, John Domini does exactly that. Simultaneously a concise history of Domini’s family, a portrait of contemporary Naples, and an exploration of the region’s food and art, the book seamlessly moves from one topic to the next, memorably evoking a holistic sense of the minutiae of life. Domini and I chatted via email about the long process of writing this book and how it connects to his other works.
“This Mode Can Serve as a Gateway Into a Deeper Honesty”: An Interview With Melissa Wiley
Few essayists blend the cerebral and the visceral the way that Melissa Wiley does in her work. Her latest collection, Skull Cathedral: A Vestigial Anatomy brings together a host of works inspired in various ways by vestigial organs. It builds on the work in her previous collection, Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena, which wrestles with mortality and humanity, along with the complexities of both. I spoke with Wiley to learn more about the genesis of both books and what’s next for her.
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 51: Chase Griffin)
CHASE GRIFFIN is an author from Florida whose debut novel, What’s on the Menu?, was published by Long Day Press. You can find his writing in Oyez Review, Fugitives and Futurists, Funny Looking Dog Quarterly, Sobotka Literary Magazine, Maudlin House, Breadcrumbs Magazine, and elsewhere. The Rocco Atleby Foundation, the podcast he produces with his partner, Christina Quay, can be streamed on Spotify and Apple.
“The Ground Didn’t Stop Moving Beneath My Feet”: Hermione Hoby on Writing “Virtue”
Class and privilege; morality and identity. These are all themes that have fueled novelists and storytellers over the years. But it’s difficult to think of a novel that’s used them in quite the same combination as Virtue, Hermione Hoby‘s new novel. At its center is a young man named Luca, who works as an intern at a prestigious literary magazine and falls into the orbit of two successful artists, Paula and Jason, who are several years his senior. Hoby’s novel offers a stunning take on recent history and a haunting look at interpersonal connections. I spoke with Hoby via email to learn more about how Virtue came to be.
Where Poetry and Film Converge: An Interview With Kai Carlson-Wee
Kai Carlson-Wee’s poetry and filmmaking explore a kind of restlessness that manifests itself in many forms. Robert Bly called his book Rail ” strong and inspired,” and his short documentary film Riding the Highline has won several awards since its release in 2015. What’s behind these different artistic impulses, and where do they converge? Chaya Bhuvaneswar spoke with Carlson-Wee to learn more about these forays into multiple artistic disciplines.
Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 50: Martha Grover)
MARTHA GROVER is an author, poet, and folk artist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of two memoirs for Perfect Day Publishing: One More for the People (2011) and The End of My Career (2016), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in creative nonfiction in 2017. Her work has also appeared in The Collagist, Vol.1 Brooklyn and The Portland Mercury, among other places. She has been publishing her zine, Somnambulist, since 2003. Martha is currently at work on a fantasy novel, and her third book of poetry, illustration and lyric essay, Sorry I Was Gone, will be published in 2021.
“I Love Tense Shifts”: An Interview With Jeff Chon
Jeff Chon’s debut novel proves the need for psychologically dense, overlooked characters in our fiction for the present moment. With Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun, Chon has chosen a very forward-sitting scab to pick at on the forehead of America. Set four days before the 2016 presidential election, Chon’s characters frame our cultural moment in urgent and unforgiving ways, and his dark satire wrestles time and again with humanity’s injurious existence. Bouts of conspiracy rampant and rewriting our present tense, Chon is able to pen these unpopular glooms with a sly humor befitting his all-too-relevant tragicomic study of modern egos.