Brenda Eisenberg

interviewed by Ryan Gleason

Originally published on July 1, 2010

This feels like an important story to write. For one thing, it offers a fresh angle on the apartheid story, through the eyes of a young orthodox Jew. But also, it looks at powerlessness in the face of a system you feel you can’t change and how young people turn to extreme solutions when they experience that impotence.

Marisa Silver

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on July 1, 2010

Marisa Silver, who made her fiction debut in The New Yorker when she was featured in that magazine’s first “Debut Fiction” issue, is the author of two novels and two story collections, her most recent collection, Alone With You, published by Simon & Schuster earlier this year.
Silver’s first story collection, Babe in Paradise, was named [...]

Indie Spirit Films

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on June 1, 2010

Pif Magazine contributing editor Derek Alger caught up with Aria Alexandra, the creative spirit behind Independent Spirit Films of Seattle. Alexandra recently completed her first short film SPIDER, a neo-noir crime drama, where she served as the writer, director, producer, set-designer, editor, and composer.
SPIDER recently premiered at the NW Projections Film [...]

Lance Olsen

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on December 21, 2009

“Realize, along with T. S. Eliot, that only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. Reach out and support other writers. Understand this writing thing isn’t a competition; all of us can win all the time. Think of yourself as part of a conversation about the big stuff of life and narrative that extends across time and space, and ask yourself where your voice fits in, how you can help other voices be heard. And if you plan to write for fame or fortune, do something else . . . immediately.”

Julie Kane

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on September 17, 2009

“…Diane Ackerman took two of my poems for Epoch when she was the poetry editor — I was an undergrad and she was in the PhD program, so I was thrilled beyond belief that she considered me a “real poet.” T. Coraghessen Boyle, Marilyn Hacker, and Sandra Gilbert all had work in that Winter 1974 issue of Epoch. Maybe I’ll be able to sell my copy on eBay to fund my retirement.”

Charles Salzberg

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on July 31, 2009

“…I’d written an article about street gambling, 3-card monte, and an agent asked me to write a novel based on it. I didn’t really want to, but when she said I could make several thousand dollars, which was a lot of money then, I said yes. I think I wrote it in a month…It was called Street Gambler, and fortunately, I probably have the only copies left.”

Pam Uschuk

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on March 13, 2009

“…Almost too late, I learned to love my mother. Sometimes taking care of her constant needs felt like an imposition, but I’ve come to understand that it was also a huge gift I’m still unwrapping. I’ve written about her in poetry and prose, and I continue to untangle the web of my knotty childhood.”

Greg Herriges

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on March 10, 2009

“…While my students were dying in gang fights, I had to enter a numerical symbol next to each dead student’s name… A big “L” meant the student had left the system. A little “l” meant the student had been transferred to another class in the school. “99″ meant you’d been capped, hacked, and stacked, Jack. It was enough to make you sick.”

Jamie Malanowski

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on October 21, 2008

“No editor or publisher ever wakes up in the morning, looks out his window, and scans the landscape for a brilliant writer who’s just too shy to put himself or herself forward. It’s a put yourself forward business, at every level.”

Molly Peacock

interviewed by Derek Alger

Originally published on October 21, 2008

“I went to the State University of New York at Binghamton and studied with the poet Milton Kessler. He gave me the best advice about my poems. He’d point to something in a poem that he thought was successful and he’d say, ‘See that?’ ‘Yes,’ I’d say. ‘Well,’ he’d say, ‘”do that again.’”