Houston-based Lacy M. Johnson’s recent essay collection, The Reckonings, grapples with vital questions: the concept of evil, police killings, the BP oil spill, and the complexity of speaking truth to power. Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in the category criticism, Johnson’s essays move between the personal and the political with deftness and precision. This interview was conducted via email where we talked about Johnson’s curatorial project, the Houston Flood Museum, … [Read more...] about A Person Who Looks: An Interview with Lacy M. Johnson
writing
Web Exclusive Interview: Keenan Walsh
January's Web Exclusive, "Flood," describes a significant moment of change in a troubled family's life. It's notoriously hard to master a run-on sentence, but author Keenan Walsh does it here. In editing, we realized there was no way to break it up without losing its very necessary urgency, that the whole thing was an intricately woven tapestry that needed to stay intact. What's more, the form forces the modern, harried reader to slow down and take in shimmering details that they might otherwise … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: Keenan Walsh
Web Exclusive Interview: G.E. Stiteler
"Sickness had reached our valley at last." In August's Web Exclusive flash fiction, "Father as Astronaut," a young woman mourns the loss of her father in an increasingly hostile world where everyone is fighting for survival. It's a story that's wildly imaginative, unsettling, and full of heart. We talked to G.E. Stiteler about this story, about a world in trouble, and what gives her peace. Erin McReynolds: What led you to decide to set the narrator's loss in the midst of widespread … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: G.E. Stiteler
Web Exclusive Interview: Tyler Stoddard Smith
"I aspire to dread . . . " begins June's online short story, "Knausgaard in Space." And with these words, we knew author Tyler Stoddard Smith had nailed the Nordic icon and we were in for something very funny. And boy, did we need it. Here we talk Weird Al, the legendarily awkward meeting between Knausgaard and Jeffrey Eugenides, and the potential hilarity of having no escape. — Erin McReynolds: This story is hysterical; do you have a background in improv or writing parody or … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: Tyler Stoddard Smith
The House in the Woods: An Interview with Jane Delury
In her lush debut, The Balcony, author Jane Delury offers readers wide-angle and macrocosmic glimpses of life in and around a French manor house over the course of more than a century. A novel-in-stories, The Balcony examines the changing fortunes of families who've come and gone over the manor's history, looking both at the occupants of the main house as well as those who've lived in the cottage on the grounds of the estate. Both the fictional village of Benneville and the surrounding woods … [Read more...] about The House in the Woods: An Interview with Jane Delury
Web Exclusive Interview: Nathan Go
In May's Web Exclusive, "The Blind Oracle of Mactan," author Nathan Go takes us to an island in the Philippines, to a fantastical man who just, as it turns out, wants what any of us wants. The prose is light and funny, winding lithely around something that reveals itself to be as profound and enduring a problem as human beings have ever known. Even a human who has lived many, many lifetimes over. We talked with Nathan about how this strange and wonderful story came about. Erin McReynolds: The … [Read more...] about Web Exclusive Interview: Nathan Go