Hanna Komar
In August 2020, hundreds of thousands of Belarusians marched in a peaceful protest against dictatorship and were met with immense violence. I found myself actively involved in the resistance and in the women’s movement: at the peaceful protest, in solidarity groups, and ultimately, in jail. For months and months, the personal stopped existing for me,…
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Full Fadom Five
The ending to Full Fadom Five came to me on a long drive. I dictated an outline for the final pages as my wife took notes in the passenger seat. Many of the details eventually changed, but many didn’t; and, crucially, until I changed them they were an impetus while I wrote the latter stages…
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Send Me Into The Woods Alone
You see all of these gorgeous pregnant celebrities posing naked or appearing in public looking the same as they always did but with a cute baby bump. The vibe is very much empowerment, beauty, womanhood. There is this goddess-like presentation that implies that if you ‘take care of yourself’ while pregnant, you’ll thrive. I knew…
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Shashi Bhat
For my characters, though, their ethnicity is a part of their identity…it’s rarely the story’s main conflict or focus. With my first book, I was basically told to make it “more Indian.” At festivals I’ve been put in the immigrant literature category, though neither I nor my protagonists are immigrants. During Q&As, I often get…
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Grant Us Tomorrow
I am a risk-averse emergency room doctor who is not much fun in Vegas. In deciding to write this book, I was in a terrifying place. I felt compelled to share something with the world. Still, I knew it would require me to move away from the emotional, personal, and professional safety I had fiercely…
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It Is What Is, What Is It
Movement and growth are, thematically, a huge part of my writing. The idea of hopefully “getting better” takes a ton of twists and turns as we look deep within ourselves. These poems crawling up the page like vines are a good representation of both the drive to keep reaching for better days and clinging to…
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James Vescovi on Radical Editing
In his 1955 Paris Review interview, William Faulkner claimed that a great writer must be ruthless. With fiction, everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness. I’d suggest nothing as draconian as making life miserable for yourself or loved ones for the sake of fiction. Rather, ruthlessness should be exercised on the written…
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