October 30, 2020
Interview:
Laura Pretto Vargas
Pregame Interview Questions
Italo-Brazilian artist Laura Pretto Vargas makes abstract and figural paintings that explore feelings of vulnerability, happiness, energy and sexuality. Using mostly acrylic and sometimes oil, Vargas builds the surface of her large-scale canvases with densely textured brush marks and bursts of bold color... read more >
October 26, 2020
An Interview with artist:
Jerry Anderson
Jerry Anderson’s paintings are an expression of his appreciation for the mysteries of life, the cosmos and the continual dance of male and female energies. Working in acrylic on canvas, Anderson creates abstract compositions that sensuously pair color with form... read more >
April 22, 2020
A Sparrow Flying Through Doors:
An Interview with poet Philip Metres
by Kelly McQuain
Originally Printed in Edition 4.4 (2019)
“I wonder if gratitude is the beginning of joy,” muses poet Philip Metres, the author of ten books, including the forthcoming "Shrapnel Maps" (2020, Copper Canyon). “And how quickly it all seems to go,” he concedes. “The days are long, but the years are short, and they shorten with every year. As Bede writes... read more >
October 28, 2019
An Interview with Peter Gerakaris
by Danni Shen
Gouache and gold leaf are meticulously applied to wooden panel in a precision following the traditions of the Cretan-Venetian School of Iconography; this is the most recent painting process of American interdisciplinary artist of Greek descent, Peter Gerakaris. read more >
February 21, 2018
An Interview with Mollie McKinley
by Heather Zises
Fjords’ Contributing Writer Heather Zises visits with Hudson Valley artist Mollie McKinley to discuss her multifaceted practice, personal philosophies and views on feminism. read more >
October 30, 2017
AN INTERVIEW WITH TINA CANE
by Bridget Kelly
Tina Cane is a New York City native whose latest book of poetry, Once More With Feeling from Veliz Books is a reflection of her life growing up in Hell's Kitchen and the East and West Villages "without being sentimental", she observes... read more >
October 26, 2017
Not Short on Talent
An Interview with Gridlock director: Ian Hunt Duffy
By: Jennifer Parker
A short film that is long on talent is Gridlock directed by Ian Hunt Duffy which is a psychological thriller with a comedic overtone. No small feat in a film that lasts less than twenty minutes. This film has all the ingredients of a feature length drama. Written by Darach McGarrigle, the script dares to explore social issues like group think, mob mentality, paranoia and machismo under the umbrella of a traffic jam on a country road... read more >
September 28, 2017
Interview with Tamar Ettun,
by Heather Zises
This fall Tamar Ettun is launching Pink, the latest season in her four-year long performance series, Mauve Bird with Yellow Teeth Red Feathers Green Feet and a Rose Belly? Pink is the third installment in the tetralogy, and incorporates sculpture, performance, video, and works on paper... read more >
September 1, 2017
Introducing Jonathan Reiss—A Writer for a New Century
Getting Off— Book Review and Author Interview by: Jennifer Parker
The book Getting Off is the fictional story of a young heroin addict who is betwixt and between what remains of his upper-middle class background and the likelihood of overdosing on drugs, becoming homeless or dying in a stranger’s apartment. It’s a sort of introspective social comedy, in which an entire subculture is artfully represented by one individual... read more >
June 12, 2017
POETRY INTERVIEW WITH NATASHA DENNERSTEIN
Natasha Dennerstein is a glamorous woman somewhere north of 40. She’s also a poet, an artist, a wife, an Australian ex-pat and a person with multiple degrees. Please, don’t call her a Trans Poet. Seahorse (Nomadic Press 2017), her latest chap book, will make the reader think about what it means to transform... read more >
May 12, 2017
POETRY INTERVIEW WITH CHEN CHEN
Chen Chen’s, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities should come with a warning label: Rated M for Millennial. Chen’s debut book of poetry will make you ex-perience an emotional range that belies his age. One feeling might be envy when you learn that Mr. Chen is a 28-year-old PhD student at Texas Tech University. Joy of what it’s like to fall in love for the first time, “How we fell in love during jumps on his tragic uncle’s trampoline. We fell in love in midair.” ... read more >
December 10, 2016
AN INTERVIEW WTH VADIS TURNER
by Heather Zises
Nashville-based artist Vadis Turner explores the transformative possibilities of feminist materials by creating compositions out of upcycled ribbon, clothing and bedding. By synthesizing abstract expressionism with women’s work, Turner constructs dimensional art works that explode with color, texture and form... read more >
October 03, 2016
Art Interview with Peter Gerakaris
by Andrew Sullivan
There’s been a revitalization of hotel culture in NYC, which started with boutique hotels hiring art curators and commissioning work. And we’re all for this—for increased work for artists and greater pedestrian engagement with contemporary art. Similarly, outside of NYC the art world is expanding via hotel culture... read more >
August 26, 2016
Judy Rifka Retrospective at the Jean-Paul Najar Foundation in Dubai:
How an Artist’s Life Took Shape
by Glynn Pogue
Judy Rifka is a boss--a painter with effortless art-cool whose conceptual study of space, shape and time has been featured in two Whitney Biennials (1975 and 1983) and more than fifty solo shows. Her four decades in the industry landed her in the middle of some of the most important and romanticized art movements in America, from the multi-disciplinary performance events of Fluxus and the artist-driven activism of Colab to New York City’s Lower East Side art scene... read more >
June 17, 2016
Samuel Jablon at Arts+Leisure
April 9 - May 15, 2016
Samuel Jablon’s latest collection Life is Fine was up at Arts+Leisure and featured some great mixed media work on wood. We caught up with him for a few questions.
F: In the scope of your latest collection, what did you want to accomplish?... read more >
April 22, 2016
The Life of the Party: In conversation with Tin House’s Rob Spillman on his new memoir All Tomorrow’s Parties
Rob Spillman’s forthcoming memoir is a badass piece of literature. A frank and vivid escapade spanning from the Eastern Bloc to Baltimore's inner city, All Tomorrow’s Parties charts Spillman’s colorful coming-of-age... read more >
March 18, 2016
A Conversation with Esther Naor
Tel-Aviv based artist Esther Naor discusses the creative process behind her solo show Aftermath (on view at Stux + Haller Gallery from February 24th to March 26, 2016) and how it addresses reverberating themes such as immigration, pain, terror, and the current global Refugee Crisis. read more >
December 10, 2015
A Conversation with Amy Sacksteder
Fjords recently spoke with contemporary visual artist Amy Sacksteder to discuss her work and practice... read more >
November 27, 2015
On In the Language of Miracles – An Interview with Rajia Hassib
Rajia Hassib was born and raised in Egypt and moved to the United States when she was twenty-three. Moving from New York to New Jersey to California and finally settling in West Virginia, Hassib has become a keen observer of our country and culture. Her debut novel, In the Language of Miracles (Viking, 2015), paints a tender portrait of an Egyptian-American family’s struggle to move on in the wake of tragedy... read more >
August 20, 2015
An Interview with Stephanie Dickinson
1. Where and how did Heat: An Interview with Jean Seberg begin?
SD: When I was eighteen I took a year off school, saved up a modest sum of money, and set out to Europe to see a bit of the world before I settled back into academia. I started off in Spain, spent some time in Vienna, and Prague.The seeds for Heat: An Interview with Jean Seberg were planted in my Midwestern adolescence. I grew up on an Iowa farm 3 miles from the nearest town, whose population was 100. .. read more >
November 26, 2014
Interview with Robin Richardson
Robin Richardson’s poem, “Sorry to Interrupt,” poem, “Vlad the Uninspired,” appears in, Volume 2, Issue 2.
About Robin Richardson
Seth Clabough is the author of Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis (ECW Press, 2013) and Grunt of the Minotaur (Insomniac Press, 2011). Her work has been shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Award and has won the John B. Santoianni Award (awarded by The Academy of American Poets) and the Joan t. Baldwin Award. She holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence, and divides her time between Toronto and New York.
1. What inspired your piece, ”Vlad the Uninspired”?
SC: When I was eighteen I took a year off school, saved up a modest sum of money, and set out to Europe to see a bit of the world before I settled back into academia. I started off in Spain, spent some time in Vienna, and Prague... read more >
November 01, 2014
Interview with Seth Clabough
Seth Clabough’s poem, “Sorry to Interrupt,” appears in Fjords Review, Volume 2, Issue 2.
About Seth Clabough
Seth Clabough is a professor, editor with the James Dickey Review, and published scholar, poet, and fiction writer. His writing appears in places like New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, London's Litro Magazine, Citron Review, Aesthetica: the Arts & Culture Magazine, Magma Poetry Quarterly, The Chaffey Review, Sixers Review, Oak Bend Review, Routledge Taylor & Francis' Women's Studies, and elsewhere. His debut novel has been picked up for representation by Inkwell Literary Management in New York.
1. What inspired your poem, “Sorry to Interrupt”?
SC: I was driving and on my cell phone with the radio turned down low when I thought I heard the lady on NPR say something like and girls rush off to polish the shoes of evening."... read more >
September 05, 2014
Interview with Dan O'Brien
Dan O’Brien’s , “The War Reporter Paul Watson’s Cold Open” and “The War Reporter Paul Watson Waits in Line,” appear in Fjords Review, Volume 2, Issue 2.
About Dan O’Brien
Dan O'Brien's play The Body of an American recently concluded an acclaimed run at the Gate Theatre in London, and the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton, England. The play has been nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play. The Body of an American premiered at Portland Center Stage in 2012, and in 2013 received the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize, as well as the PEN Center USA Award for Drama. O'Brien's debut poetry collection, War Reporter, was published last year by Hanging Loose Press in Brooklyn and CB Editions in London. War Reporter was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and received the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize from the UK's Poetry Trust. O'Brien will serve on the playwriting faculty at the 2014 Sewanee Writers' Conference. Website: www.danobrien.org
1. What inspired these pieces, ”The War Reporter Paul Watson's Cold Open“ and ”The War Reporter Paul Watson Waits in Line”?
DO: These poems are from a kind of ongoing project about Canadian Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter Paul Watson, which includes poems, a play, and a libretto. These two poems are included in my debut poetry collection, War Reporter, which came out last summer with Hanging Loose Press in Brooklyn and CB Editions in London... read more >
August 14, 2014
Interview with Maureen Sherbondy
Maureen Sherbondy’s poem, “Humor Finds Their Marriage,” appears in Fjords Review, Volume 1, Issue 2.
About Maureen Sherbondy
Maureen Sherbondy’s books are After the Fairy Tale, Praying at Coffee Shops, The Slow Vanishing, Weary Blues, Scar Girl, The Year of Dead Fathers, and Eulogy for an Imperfect Man. She received her MFA degree from Queens University of Charlotte. Maureen lives in Raleigh, NC with her three sons. www.maureensherbondy.com
CM: What inspired "Humor Finds Their Marriage"?
KN: The poem was inspired by hearing incorrectly. Conversations became funny when my ex-husband misheard what I was saying... read more >
July 24, 2014
Interview with Kirk Nesset
Kirk Nesset’s translations of Edmundo Paz Soldán’s poems, “Disappearances,” “Man of Fictions,” “In the Library,” “Pilar,” and “After the Breakup,” appeared in Fjords Review, Volume I, Issue 3.
About Kirk Nesset
Kirk Nesset is author of two books of short stories, Mr. Agreeable and Paradise Road, as well as a book of translations, Alphabet of the World: Selected Works by Eugenio Montejo; he is also author of a nonfiction study, The Stories of Raymond Carver, and a book of poems, Saint X (forthcoming). He was awarded the Drue Heinz literature prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His stories, poems, translations and essays have appeared in hundreds of journals, including The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Agni, The Sun and Prairie Schooner among others. His short short fictions have been widely anthologized, appearing in W. W. Norton's Flash Fiction Forward, New Sudden Fiction, Sudden Fiction Latino and elsewhere. https://kirknesset.com/
CM: How did you come across Edmundo Paz Soldán's writing?
KN: I heard him read at Allegheny College, where I teach, and I found his fiction compelling. This might have been eight or nine years ago... read more >
June 18, 2014
Interview with Peter Tieryas Liu
Peter Tieryas Liu’s story, “Sketches from a Beijing Romance,” appeared in Fjords Review, Volume I, Issue 2.
About Peter Tieryas Liu
Peter Tieryas Liu once wandered Beijing and Shanghai, but has now settled on being an alligator feeder in a city in Pattaya, Thailand. He has something called Bald New World coming out in 2014 in both book and video game form. He hopes he doesn’t turn bald before 2014. He rants about David Ogilvy quotes at tieryas.wordpress.com.
CM: What inspired "Sketches from a Beijing Romance"?
PTL: The first night I landed in Beijing, I saw a guy on a bicycle singing a song to his girlfriend who was riding on the back seat. He was terrible and sounded like cats when they’re horny and screaming in the middle of the night, but she still seemed enraptured by his effort. I saw skyscrapers everywhere, bigger than the ones in Manhattan, than even the ones I saw in comic books by Frank Miller... read more >
May 29, 2014
Interview with Kristina Marie Darling
Kristina Marie Darling’s poems, “A History of Melancholia: Glossary of Terms” and “Footnotes to a History of the Beloved” appeared in Fjords Review, Volume 1, Issue 3.
About Kristina Marie Darling
Kristina Marie Darling is the author of fifteen books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and a forthcoming hybrid genre collection called Fortress (Sundress Publications, 2014). Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Poetics at S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo.
CM: What inspired "A History of Melancholia: Glossary of Terms"?
KMD: A few years ago, I was preparing to move from St. Louis, Missouri to Buffalo, New York. I was excited to start graduate school in Buffalo, but sad to leave someone who was an important part of my life... read more >
April 24, 2014
Interview with Juned Subhan
Juned Subhan’s short story, “Little Birds” appeared in Fjords Review Volume 1, Issue 2.
About Juned Subhan
Juned Subhan is a writer from England and a graduate of Glasgow University. His fiction and poetry has been published in numerous literary magazine including Joyce Carol Oates's Ontario Review. He is currently working on a novel and studying for a teaching diploma in education to teach English as a foreign language and hopes to combine writing with teaching in the future.
CM: What inspired "Little Birds"?
JS: Little Birds" was inspired by feudal Bengali culture which is dominated by men who own land and property and consequently women also. What isn't usually known is that within that power structure there is often a hidden power structure between women/wives, including an insidious rivalry and bitterness and the intention of the story was to expose this... read more >
March 28, 2014
Interview with Vanessa Blakeslee
Vanessa Blakeslee’s poem “The Room of Gold” appeared in Fjords Review, Volume I, Issue 3.
About Vanessa Blakeslee
Vanessa Blakeslee's debut short story collection, Train Shots, is forthcoming from Burrow Press in early 2014. Her writing has appeared in The Southern Review, Green Mountains Review, The Paris Review Daily,The Globe and Mail, and Kenyon Review Online, among many others. Winner of the inaugural Bosque Fiction Prize, she has also been awarded grants and residencies from Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Banff Centre, Ledig House, the Ragdale Foundation, and in 2013 received the Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. Vanessa earned her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, she is a longtime resident of Maitland, Florida.
CM: What inspired "The Room of Gold"?
VB: The inspiration for this poem occurred while I was in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in the autumn of 2009, writing the first draft of my novel. Just before arriving at the VCCA, I had performed in a dance show and brought several props to the residency—finger cymbals, scarves, and a gorgeous golden veil make of silk. On several afternoons, after writing, I would play music in the fellows’ hall and get my exercise fix by rehearsing choreographies. So the poem is in fact quite literal, in that one day when these two young male residents walked by, the mood shifted entirely from the freedom of expressing oneself alone to becoming aware, suddenly, that you are being watched... read more >
February 05, 2014
Interview with Jonathan Greenhause
by Caitlin McGuire
Jonathan Greenhause's poems, "A Period of Regression," "At the End of Things," and "On Days Like These," appeared in Fjords Review, Volume I, Issue 2.
CM: What inspired "At the Edge of Things"?
JG: Most likely loneliness. I’m not positive, since the poem was written in 2006, and I have no way of knowing exactly what I was thinking and feeling... read more >
About Jonathan Greenhause
Jonathan Greenhause won Prism Review’s 2012-2013 Poetry Prize and was a finalist for this year’s Gearhart Poetry Contest from The Southeast Review. He's received two Pushcart nominations, is the author of a chapbook Sebastian’s Relativity (Anobium Books, 2011), and his poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Artful Dodge, The Malahat Review (CAN), The Moth (IRE), Rabbit (AUS), Willow Review, and elsewhere. .
Interview with Jessica Treadway
by Tara Menon
About Tara Menon
Tara Menon is a freelance writer based in Lexington, Massachusetts. Her book reviews have appeared in Na'amat Woman, Calyx, India Currents, Parabola, and Hinduism Today. Her poetry has been published in the following publications: Azizah Magazine; Aaduna; Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves; the view from here; and 10x3 plus poetry. Additional poems are forthcoming in Lalitamba, Damazine, and Cartys Poetry Journal. Tara's fiction has been published in the following journals and anthologies: Contemporary Literary Review India; Catamaran; The APA Journal; Elf: Eclectic Literary Forum; Many Mountains Moving; India Currents; The South Carolina Review; Living in America; and Mother of the Groom.
Q. Elizabeth, who is dying of cancer in the story "Oregon," wants people to know her life on earth wasn't in vain and, in order to achieve that aim, makes an unusual request to her friend's daughter. I wonder whether you knew someone like her. Are any of the characters in your collection are based on any people you know?
I would say that my characters - like, I suspect, the characters of other fiction writers - are based less on whole, real-life people than on specific traits or attributes those people might have... read more >