December 2003 
"Imp of Verbal Darkness": Poetry Hoaxes & the Postmodern Politic
Rebecca Warner
"One of the two poems below is by a highly respected contemporary poet," wrote John Ashbery on an exam for MFA students at Brooklyn College. "The other is a hoax originally published to spoof the obscurity of much modern poetry. Which do you think is which?"
Read more...
Somebody Else
Clayton Eshleman
I am lousing myself up as much as I can these days. Why? I want to be a poet, and I am working to make myself a seer. the point is, to arrive at the unknown by the disordering of all the senses.
Read more...
An Interview with Novelist and Critic Thomas Mallon
Michael McGregor
Actually, there were many good things about my days at Vassar. Undergraduate teaching was a pleasure, especially with freshmen. I liked teaching them basic texts of English and American literature they didn't know.
Read more...
Virgil Suárez and the Duende of Memory
Ryan G. Van Cleave
My goal is to continue writing in all the genres, though fiction these days comes a lot slower, takes more time I suppose because I have so many other things that I am interested in. Eventually my next novel will be done. Hell, it's been twelve years in the making, so what's the hurry?
Read more...
All that is Seen and Unseen: Negative Space in Fiction
Jennifer Grow
In my home, I have a reproduction of a Gustave Klimt painting, Portrait of Sonja Knips, painted in 1898. A woman in a light pink gown is leaning forward out of her chair as if she's about to speak.
Read more...
An Interview with Ai
Tomas Q. Morin
Well, the first writing experience I had was when I was twelve in Catholic School. One of the nuns asked us to pretend we were martyrs and go home and write our last letter. We were to pretend we were going to be fed to the lions the next day.
Read more...
Writing and Moaning
Alan Cheuse
All writers have pet peeves. My biggest annoyance of the past few years was gifted medical students who write wonderful novels on the side.
Read more...
