What happens when two poets whose acclaimed work spans numerous themes and images meet? Elizabeth A.I. Powell, author of Atomizer and Dana Roeser, author of All Transparent Things Need Thundershirts convened to discuss American culture, feminism, spirituality, God, online dating, authoritarianism, olfactory art, Personism, and poetry.
TROY JAMES WEAVER is the author of Visions (Broken River, 2015), Witchita Stories (Future Tense, 2015), Marigold (King Shot, 2016), Temporal (Disorder Press, 2018), and Selected Stories (Apocalypse Party, 2020). He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife and dogs.
Keith Rosson is equally at home writing about the trials and tribulations found in everyday life as he is the bizarre and uncanny. His characters range from a once-beloved painter fallen on hard times to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on a team-building retreat; one of the things that makes his work so compelling is that he finds the same empathy for both. I spoke with Rosson on the occasion of the release of his new collection, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, about his distinctive approach to fiction.
Jeff Jackson is the author of Destroy All Monsters, a heady yet visceral take on rock music, violence, and the nature of communities. Jeff Jackson also plays music in Julian Calendar, a postpunk band whose music could also be described as heady yet visceral. Since 2017, the group has released 5 records, including 4 EPs in the Crimson Static series.As an admirer of Jackson’s work in both spheres, I reached out to him about discussing the evolution of his foray into music, and how it’s affected his writing.
LINDSAY LERMAN is a writer, teacher, and translator. Buzzfeed Books called her first novel, I’m From Nowhere (Clash, 2019), “a heartbreaker of a debut.” Aside from co-editing Black Telephone Magazine, she has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
JOSHUA DALTON is the author of I Hate You, Please Read Me (House of Vlad, 2021). He lives in Texas. Follow him on Twitter.
CLAIRE HOPPLE lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and is the author of It’s Hard to Say (word west, 2021), Tell Me How You Really Feel (Maudlin House, 2020), Tired People Seeing America (Dostoevsky Wannabe, 2019), and Too Much of the Wrong Thing (Truth Serum Press, 2017). Her fiction has appeared in Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, New World Writing, Timber, and other places. She’s just a steel town girl on a Saturday night.
MILA JARONIEC is the author of Plastic Vodka Bottle Sleepover (Split Lip, 2016). She teaches fiction at Catapult.