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CRAFT

Image is the book cover for GLORIA PATRI by Austin Ross; title card for conversation with Aaron Burch.

Conversations Between Friends: Aaron Burch and Austin Ross

August 25, 2023

  Aaron Burch and Austin Ross first became acquainted when Burch accepted one of Ross’s short stories at Hobart in 2018. Here, they discuss Ross’s debut novel, Gloria Patri, which deals with the aftermath of religious extremism and domestic terrorism.…

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Image shows a starry backdrop with pine trees in the foreground; title card for the new craft essay, "Life, the Universe, and Everything: A Primer on the Writing of Autofiction," by Sarah Twombly.

Life, the Universe, and Everything: A Primer on the Writing of Autofiction

August 23, 2023

  By Sarah Twombly • I am at work on a novel, and have been for more than a decade. It is autobiographical fiction, which is to say it’s about me, but also, it isn’t. The same way Einstein might…

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Image shows the book cover image for BE BRIEF AND TELL THEM EVERYTHING by Brad Listi; title card for April Sopkin's new interview with the author.

Interview: Brad Listi

August 4, 2023

  I’ve been listening to Brad Listi’s Otherppl podcast for years, very used to his voice and candor, but I didn’t pick up his fiction until he flipped the script and sat as a guest on his own show. In…

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Image shows three book covers for a new interview called "Conversations Between Friends: Tara Lynn Masih, Stacy D. Flood, and Kim Chinquee."

Conversations Between Friends: Tara Lynn Masih, Stacy D. Flood, and Kim Chinquee

May 31, 2023

  Wheels, puzzles, the art of Zen—how do these seemingly unrelated topics pertain to the craft of condensing prose? Three authors and friends who bonded over their love of writing “short” explore how writers can fine-tune their flash or novella…

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Image shows vintage photographs and cardstock overlapping on a table, a twig of pine in the foreground; title card for the new craft essay, "On Crafting the Memoir in Pieces," by Beth Kephart.

On Crafting the Memoir in Pieces

May 24, 2023

  By Beth Kephart • The writer of the memoir in pieces is an assembly artist—a hunter, a gatherer, an arranger, a culler, a keeper. They are not at work on a collection of essays loosely bound by voice, style,…

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Image shows the book cover for MEN I TRUST; title card for Erin Vachon's new hybrid interview with Tommi Parrish.

Hybrid Interview: Tommi Parrish

May 5, 2023

  Essay by Erin Vachon • The opening panel of Tommi Parrish’s brilliant graphic novel Men I Trust—out now from Fantagraphics—centers a clothesline, laundry drying in spare daylight. Parrish populates the world with bodies soon enough. Eliza is a single…

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Image shows the front face of an old cash register with dollar symbols on the buttons; title card for the new craft essay, "Inherited Language," by Nick Almeida.

Inherited Language

March 29, 2023

  By Nick Almeida • If you had grown up in my house, “You’re dollaring me to death” would forever echo in your head. The phrase is one of my mother’s favorites, inextricably linked to any requests for small amounts…

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Image is the book cover for CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS; title card for A. D. Carr's new hybrid interview with Priyanka Kumar.

Hybrid Interview: Priyanka Kumar

March 1, 2023

  Essay by A. D. Carr • “Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”  —Priyanka Kumar I didn’t start to have an interest in birds until my midthirties. No doubt this shift coincides with the transition from…

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Photograph depicts grassy hills where cattle stand in a row; title card for the new craft essay, "Belt Buckles and Sad Songs: Manifesting the Past in Annie Proulx’s 'Brokeback Mountain'," by Daniel Abiva Hunt.

Belt Buckles and Sad Songs: Manifesting the Past in Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain”

February 14, 2023

  By Daniel Abiva Hunt • When I first began writing seriously, I was obsessed with character histories. Nothing would make my character feel more real and fully formed than a detail-oriented past, I felt, and I would turn over…

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Image is the book cover for CLEAN AIR; title card for Melanie Pierce's new interview with Sarah Blake.

Interview: Sarah Blake

February 6, 2023

  In Sarah Blake’s sophomore novel, Clean Air, the cause of the climate apocalypse comes as a surprise. It’s not rising oceans or wildfires or air pollution. The trees release enough pollen to suffocate humankind: a drawn-out, mass-casualty event known…

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