Issue #35

It was a huge and generous response. He helped me to see my own story. The most important thing he told me was that it could be bigger, that the people and the place were more surprising than I realized. It was a gift to have somebody say, “This is extraordinary material.”—Melanie Rae Thon, interviewed by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais

When I first work with a character, he/she is flat. The character begins by speaking in ways that feel directed by the author. The dialogue is horrible and no one seems to be speaking convincingly. I have to stay with these people until they come alive on the page, until they begin to speak and act in ways that are more their own.—Elizabeth Cox, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

I think most if not all writers must go through a phase of assimilating and emulating their favorite writers if they’re to have any chance of finding their own voices…

So if you’re going to do it, you have to give over to what is meaningful and authentic, for both your readership and for yourself. And that means letting go of your need to be like any other writer.—Frederick Reiken, interviewed by Eric Wasserman

I felt on top of the world, but then I went two more years without an acceptance. You start thinking, “Okay, it’s over. That was it.”—John McNally, interviewed by Stephanie Kuehnert