JEFF SCHNEIDER was the guitarist for the noise-rock groups Arab On Radar and Made in Mexico, and is the author of Psychiatric Tissues (The Arab On Radar Book), a memoir, and Gallons Per Minute, a collection of short stories. He runs the underground press Pig Roast Publishing, LLC.
Mairead Case’s first novel, See You In the Morning, was a moving and unpredictable coming-of-age story; I spoke with her about it in 2015. Her new novel, Tiny, uses a more formally inventive structure to tell a story of family, grief, and community. (It’s also a retelling of Antigone.) It’s a fantastic work in its own right and an impressive demonstration of what Case is capable of, a work that’s simultaneously intimate and epic. We checked in via email to talk about the book’s origins and the ways in which it resonates right now. Experimental post-punk bands/art projects came up as well, as they tend to do.
BEACH SLOTH is the author of Mark’s My Friend (Dostoyevsky Wannabe, 2019) and It Doesn’t Matter What You Look Like On The Outside It’s What’s On The Internet That Counts (Dig That Book, 2014).
KAT GIORDANO lives in New Jersey, and is the author of The Fountain (Thirty West Publishing, 2020), a novel, and The Poet Confronts Bukowski’s Ghost (Philosophical Idiot, 2018), a poetry collection. Kat works as a legal writer and, in her off time, can be found playing simulation games, working out, or popping off with bad takes on Twitter dot com [@giordkat]. She is an avid fan of psychedelia and teen dramas and will do anything for the bit. Kat is very cool. You like her.
Michael J. Seidlinger is the Filipino American author of Dreams of Being (Maudlin House, 2020), My Pet Serial Killer (Cinestate/Fangoria, 2018), Falter Kingdom (Unnamed Press, 2016), The Fun We’ve Had (Lazy Fascist Press, 2014), and several other books. He has written for Buzzfeed, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, among other places, and has led workshops at Catapult, Kettle Pond Writer’s Conference, and Sarah Lawrence. He is a co-founder and member of the arts collective, The Accomplices, and founder of the indie press, Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he never sleeps and is forever searching for the next best cup of coffee.
Speculate, the new book from Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq, offers a fascinating and often gripping look at literary collaboration. The book is divided into two halves: in each, one author responds to the prose poetry of the other. How those responses work make for one of the book’s most thrilling elements; the other is the stylistic range involved, meaning that some of the prose poems read like dispatches from a more surreal locale and others feel compellingly candid. I spoke with Hecq about the book’s origins and the ways in which it came together.
Charlene Elsby has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from McMaster University and was recently a tenure-track professor. Her first and second novels, Hexis (Clash) and Affect (The Porcupine’s Quill), were published in 2020.<
Nathaniel Kennon Perkins is the author of the novel Wallop (House of Vlad, 2020), the short story collection The Way Cities Feel to Us Now (Maudlin House, 2019), the short novel Cactus (Trident Press, 2018), and the ongoing literary zine series Ultimate Gospel. His creative work has appeared in Triquarterly, Berfrois, Keep This Bag Away From Children, American West, Timber Journal, and others. He runs Trident Press.