account_circle by Derek Alger

One on One

Gary Fincke

Issue No. 209 ~ October, 2014

Gary Fincke has published some 25 books of poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction, and his novel, How Blasphemy Sounds to God was published earlier this year by Braddock Avenue Books.

Richard Kramer

Issue No. 207 ~ August, 2014

Richard Kramer, an Emmy and multiple Peabody award winning writer, director and producer of numerous television series, is the author of These Things Happen (Unbridled Books, April 15, 2012), his first novel.

Cynthia Atkins

Issue No. 206 ~ July, 2014

Cynthia Atkins' most recent poetry collection, In the Event of Full Disclosure," has been featured in the Huffington Post and Bill and Dave's Cocktail Hour, founded by Bill Roorbach and Dave Gessner at http://billanddavescocktailhour.com.

Ross Klavan

Issue No. 204 ~ May, 2014

Ross Klavan's novel Schmuck was published by Greenpoint Press earlier this year. His work spans film, television, and radio, as well as print, and also live performance. His original screenplay for the film Tigerland was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

Alfred Corn

Issue No. 203 ~ April, 2014

Alfred Corn has published several collections of poetry over the years, including his first collection All Roads at Once (1976), A Call in the Midst of the Crowd: Poems (1978), The Various Light (1980), Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), and Tables (Press 53, 2013). Other collections are The West Door: Poems (1988), Autobiographies: Poems (1992), Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, and Contradictions: Poems (2002).

Mark Statman

Issue No. 201 ~ February, 2014

Mark Statman's most recent books are the poetry collection, A Map of the Winds (Lavender Ink, 2013), and Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of Jose Maria Hinojosa (University of New Orleans Press, 2012). He is also the author of the poetry collection, Tourist at a Miracle ((Hanging Loose, 2010), as well as a translation, with Pedro Medina, of Federico Garcia Lorca's Poet in New York (Grove, 2008).

Travis Cebula

Issue No. 200 ~ January, 2014

Travis Cebula resides with his wife and trusty dog in Colorado, where he founded Shadow Mountain Press in 2009. His poems, photographs, essays, and stories have appeared internationally in various print and on-line journals.

John Dufresne

Issue No. 199 ~ December, 2013

John Dufresne's most recent novel is No Regrets Coyote (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013). He has written four previous novels, including his first novel, Louisiana Power & Light (1994), as well as Love Warps the Mind a Little, (1997), which were both New York Times notable books. His other novels are Deep in the Shade of Paradise (2002) and Requiem, Mass. (2008).

Jack Smith

Issue No. 198 ~ November, 2013

Jack Smith is author of the novel Hog to Hog, which won the George Garrett Fiction Prize (Texas Review Press. 2008), and also is the author Write and Revise for Publication for Publication: A 6-Month Pan for Crafting a Publishable Novel and Other Works of Fiction, published earlier this year by Writer's Digest Books.

Patty Dann

Issue No. 197 ~ October, 2013

Patty Dann is the author of the novel, Starfish (Greenpoint Press, 2013), a sequel to her novel, Mermaids, a coming of age novel about a teenage girl which was published in 1986. In 1990, Mermaids was made into a movie of the same name, starring Cher, Winona Ryder, Bob Hoskins, and Christina Ricci.

Nick Antosca

Issue No. 196 ~ September, 2013

Nick Antosca is the author of four books, including his recent short story collection, The Girlfriend Game (Word Riot Press, 2013). His novella, Midnight Picnic (Word Riot Press, 2009) was winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for best Novella.

Sharyn Wolf

Issue No. 195 ~ August, 2013

Sharyn Wolf, a practicing psychotherapist in New York City, is the author of the memoir, Love Shrinks: A Memoir of a Marriage Counselor's Divorce (May 3, 2011).

Kelle Groom

Issue No. 194 ~ July, 2013

Kelle Groom (http://www.kellegroom.com) is the author of the memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Free Press/Simon & Schuster 2011), which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great Writers pick, as well as a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice selection, a Library Journal Best Memoir of 2011, a Barnes & Noble Book of the Month, an Oxford American Editor's Pick, and Oprah.com O Magazine selection.

Clifford Brooks

Issue No. 192 ~ May, 2013

Charles Clifford Brooks III, a true poet from the Georgia landscape, has been published in The Dead Mule, Eclectica, Gloom Cupboard, Red Fez, Zygote in My Coffee, and The Cartier Street Review, just to name some.

Ani Gjika

Issue No. 191 ~ April, 2013

Ani Gjika was born and raised in Albania, before moving to the United States with her parents at the age of 18 and studying poetry at Simmons College and Boston University.

Charles Baxter

Issue No. 191 ~ April, 2013

Charles Baxter is the author of Gryphon: New and Selected Stories, released in paperback by Vintage Contemporaries in February of 2012, as well as five novels. His novels include The Feast of Love (2000), nominated for the National Book Award, The Soul Thief (2008), Saul and Patsy (2003), Shadow Play (1993), and First Light (1987).

Eve Bridburg

Issue No. 190 ~ March, 2013

Eve Bridburg is the Executive Director of Grub Street in Boston, an independent center for creative writing, dedicated to proving an innovative, rigorous, and welcoming community for writers to create their best work, find an audience, and elevate the literary arts for all.

Lee Martin

Issue No. 190 ~ March, 2013

Lee Martin is the author of the novel, The Bright Forever (Broadway; Reprint edition, April 4, 2006), a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and three other novels, including Break the Skin (Broadway; Reprint edition, April 7, 2009). His other novels are River of Heaven (Broadway; Reprint edition, April 7, 2008) and Quakertown.(Plume, 2001).

Susan Tepper

Issue No. 189 ~ February, 2013

Susan Tepper (http;//www.susantepper.com/) is the author of From the Umberplatzen, published by Wilderness Press in 2012, and Deer & Other Stories (Wilderness Press, 2009), in which most of the stories take place on Long Island or are connected to the Island, where Tepper was raised.

Okla Elliott

Issue No. 188 ~ January, 2013

Okla Elliott, author of the story collection, From a Crooked Timber (Press 53, 2011), is the Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois, where he works in the fields of comparative literature and trauma studies.

From the Editor

Take me out to the Ballgame

Issue No. 207 ~ August, 2014

My mother was the baseball fan, grateful for the arrival of the Mets as an expansion team in 1962 after the loss of her beloved Dodgers who left Brooklyn for Los Angeles at the end of 1957 season.

The Last Time

Issue No. 202 ~ March, 2014

My grandparents on both sides had names from a distant past, names more likely to be found in history books than at contemporary social gatherings.

A Birthday Competition

Issue No. 201 ~ February, 2014

While in the military service, my father was stationed at Army Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, where both my younger sister and I were born, a year apart.

Magician Dad

Issue No. 199 ~ December, 2013

So, my father went to medical school, and worked as a magician on the side, which I’m sure he’d had an interest in since childhood, and to top off the act, he became a psychiatrist.

Connecting through an essay

Issue No. 197 ~ October, 2013

I have never been a great proponent, nor participant, of doing things for the sake of doing things under the guise that such activity is something other than it really is, and for me, at least, usually means killing time while convincing oneself whatever one happens to be doing is beneficial.

A late night boat ride

Issue No. 195 ~ August, 2013

Events were out of my control. All I could do was keep swimming, and eventually, I would come up to the rocks on the shore by the cabin at Rocky Point.

The AWP and Me

Issue No. 190 ~ March, 2013

I am definitely a literary outsider, and as such, I’ve been able to attend AWP Conferences sort of like an anthropologist studying the natives – it was alien territory to me and I had no one to answer to or to try and impress.

Seeing Things Differently Than Most

Issue No. 189 ~ February, 2013

Bob was a gigantic bulk of a man, his body like a perfectly proportioned concrete block, and he had one of the largest heads I'd ever seen, but it didn't seem abnormal because of his sheer size.