“Heaven is a Photograph”: An Interview with Christine Sloan Stoddard

Sally Brown had the opportunity to interview Christine Stoddard about her recent book, Heaven is a Photograph (2020 CLASH Books), a book of poetry and photography exploring the relationship between an artist and her craft. In this very personable interview, Stoddard shares how the project came about, how the poems relate to her life experience, and so much more. Your work seems to be autobiographical,…

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“What Our Mothers Prepare For Us”: A Review of Jihyun Yun’s Some Are Always Hungry

In her debut collection, Some Are Always Hungry, Jihyun Yun explores a sense of longing and belonging in a constant state of flux—through experiences that are specific to being a Korean-American, immigrant woman. Yun’s speaker visits the persistent hauntings and bodied histories that have made her who she is, compelling the reader to consider the numerous ways in which the past is unfinished.  I read…

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Explosive Fragments: An Interview with Cooper Lee Bombardier

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a transgender writer, artist, and activist. In this interview with Alexis Garrett, he discusses the making of his debut memoir-in-essays, Pass with Care, which traverses terrain from working-class New England to the queer punk scene of early-nineties San Francisco. In your memoir, Pass with Care, you combine personal essays, poetry, and lyrical nonfiction to create a modern blend of genres and storytelling techniques. This…

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Submissions Open

Portland awoke to yet another bleak day of trapped smoke, but we’re still eager to read your words! This fall, we’re looking for work born out of grief and a rage for justice. Work born out of boredom and loneliness, joystick escapism, essential labor, and kitchen-table kindergarten-by-Zoom. We want the fragments you composed mentally while tending your community and the epic you penned in isolation….

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On Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes

The central object of Samanta Schweblin’s latest novel, Little Eyes, is the kentuki, a smart-speaker-cum-Furby available in a variety of adorable skins. From pandas and moles to crows and dragons, customers can purchase their own personal smart pet, a device capable of moving around and responding to their every interaction. But owning a device, what Schweblin calls being “keeper,” is only half of the kentuki…

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