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The Personal is Political: Karyn Kloumann, Nauset Press, and Fierce
by Lisa Peet 1. In troubled times, looking for redemption through personal narrative can be a delicate business. On the one hand, everything now is more broken than ever—children are being tear-gassed...
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A State of Dreaming: Q&A with Jasmin Darznik
by Shoba Viswanathan A primary joy of reading is getting to visit new worlds, and living lives that are different from our everyday realities. Then there are those moments when you realize that no...
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Discovery Channels: James Mustich, A Common Reader, and 1,000 Books to Read...
by Lisa Peet 1. My mom was a reader, and would hand me books regularly. She also made the public library give me an adult card when I was about ten, so my books wouldn’t fill up her card and keep her...
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“One of My Joys is Compression”: Q&A with Devi S. Laskar
by Shoba Viswanathan Devi Laskar’s debut novel The Atlas of Reds and Blues (Counterpoint) can be described as her exploration of an alternative sequence of events, inspired by her family’s experience...
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“Closest to Raw Reality”: Gary Pedler on Memoir, Novel Writing, and a...
Reading Gary Pedler’s debut book, Couchsurfing: the Musical, (Adelaide Books, 2019), we’re reminded that the most enjoyable travel writing is not just about an alluring place. It’s about what it’s...
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Trusting the “I”: Nancy Mitchell on Adjacent Lives, Personae & Final Truths
by Annie Kim To say this was not the visitation I had hoped for would be ungrateful. Mother took care to be scrupulously fair, but how can this compare to my sister’s account of being roused from sleep...
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The Best of Us: REMEMBERING PATRICIA DOBLER
By Nancy Koerbel In the middle of my life I can look down time’s tunnel and find her, but I can’t grab her by the hair and shake her free from the desk where she works or writes in her secret journal...
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The Vulnerability of Human Dignity: Q&A with Sujatha Gidla
by Shoba Viswanathan The power of finding representation in the written word is critical for both writer and reader, but is still not always accessible. While there is growing talk of #diversevoices,...
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The Secret Story: K. L. Cook on What’s Hidden
K. L. Cook is the author of six books. His first, Last Call, a collection of linked stories, won the inaugural Prairie Schooner Prize in 2004 when he was 40 and was published by the University of...
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Secretary to the Thousand Things: A Conversation with Jeff Oaks
By Nancy Koerbel How much I miss being the little boy whose father with his bare hands could repair anything that broke. I’m still the child who listens to birds before morning, who prefers to watch...
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Remembering, Revering, Revealing Pauline Kael: Q & A With Rob Garver
by Sonya Chung Pauline Kael (b. 1919, d. 2001) was the most renowned film critic of the 20th century. It’s a strong statement, but inarguable: you may not have loved or agreed with or even respected...
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Discipline and Magic: Q & A with Karen Craigo
In November 2019, Missouri’s governor announced the selection of Springfield, Missouri, poet Karen Craigo as Missouri’s poet laureate for 2019-2021. Among her credentials, Karen has worked as a...
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Don’t Just Pass ‘Em By
By Martha Anne Toll Please don’t just pass ’em by and stareAs if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello” “Hello In There,” John Prine And then I turned sixty. I don’t know how. I was just...
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Mr. Fing Goes to Hell: Q&A with Y.S. Fing, son of D. Selby Fing
by Tyler C. Gore Take a journey into a uniquely American hell with Perdition, D. Selby Fing’s modern take on Dante’s Inferno. Guided by Abraham Lincoln, Fing slogs through the bowels of a bizarre,...
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Countering the Stereotype of “Caught Between Two Cultures”: Q&A with Eman Quotah
By Alice Stephens When Muneer, a Saudi student studying in Ohio, and Saeedah, his bride who is also his first cousin, welcome a baby daughter, their marriage is already falling apart. Muneer returns...
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There’s a Kind of Magic in Blooming Late: Q & A with Morowa Yejidé
by Alice Stephens On the banks of the Anacostia River, a young boy talks to a man no one else sees. When news gets to Nephthys that her grand-nephew Dash is talking to himself, she knows he is actually...
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BEST OF BLOOM: Walker Percy, The Original Moviegoer
Periodically, we revisit some of the “best of” Bloom from previous years. Following is an encore post, originally published on November 12, 2012. * Walker Percy, author of the 1962 National Book...
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Everyone’s Got a Story: Q & A with Maisy Card
by Martha Anne Toll As a reader, writer, and reviewer, it’s always a joy to find and share a fresh voice. I was delighted to discover Maisy Card’s debut novel, These Ghosts Are Family, which I...
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Not a Word Wasted: Q&A with Brian Phillip Whalen
Brian Phillip Whalen is a writer from Vestal, New York. His work has previously appeared in The Southern Review, Creative Nonfiction, Copper Nickel, North American Review, the Flash Nonfiction Food...
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Perils and Paradoxes of Adoption: Q&A with Megan Culhane Galbraith
I first met Megan Culhane Galbraith over 20 years ago when I was a returning student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We bonded over the weird intersections of being both left- and right-brained,...
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