by WaterStone Review | Jan 11, 2019 | blog: all
I wish I was a morning person. I really, really do. I wish I rose early enough to witness the morning sun kissing the horizon on its way up, to hear the birds early morning chatter. But I am not a morning person. Not even a little bit. I’ve tried everything from...
by WaterStone Review | Jan 7, 2019 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? My poem, “Aftermath,” was written the night of the election in 2016. I was in the process of writing a poetry collection about women who have suffered infertility and I had read some very negative...
by WaterStone Review | Jan 3, 2019 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your essay in Volume 20. How did it come to be? My essay, “Verdure,” is about the color green in different places I’ve been. It has a very mundane origin story: It was my turn to send some work to my writing group, and I didn’t have anything new to...
by WaterStone Review | Dec 17, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? The heart of “The Wild Plum” came from an actual experience I had, probably at age five or so, of coming across a wild plum tree while out walking, and my dad picking plums for my sister and...
by WaterStone Review | Dec 10, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your fiction piece in Volume 20. How did it come to be? When I was teaching at Hamline in 1994, Jimmy––an inmate at Oak Park Heights Maximum security prison––took two classes from me, one in the MALS (Master of Arts of Liberal Studies) program and the...
by WaterStone Review | Dec 4, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poems in Volume 20. How did they come to be? Both of my poems in this issue stem from contemplating the complexities of international adoption and examining my position of privilege within that system. While we were in the middle of a years-long...
by WaterStone Review | Nov 5, 2018 | blog: all
Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? In November 2014, my beloved grandmother was diagnosed with terminal uterine cancer and given 3-4 months to live. This was a tremendous blow––not only because she was almost 100 and still fit enough to be...
by WaterStone Review | Oct 29, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? Believe it or not, the inspiration for “All Saints” came from those sensationalized stories from my youth warning about the dangers of Halloween candy. Though such crimes only happened a few times that...
by WaterStone Review | Oct 22, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your short story in Volume 20. How did it come to be? I thought about this story for a long time before I began writing it. I’ve worked for years—in various roles—in the mental health field, and I’ve always been interested in the family dynamic...
by WaterStone Review | Oct 16, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? I dread that day each fall when all color fades to phantom. I wrote this poem with Keats’ ode “To Autumn” as a reference point, but instead of earnestly reveling in fall’s beauty, I decided to approach...
by WaterStone Review | Oct 8, 2018 | blog: all
Tell us about your poems in Volume 20. How did they come to be? There’s Nothing Wrong comes from considering what lying means, and also, as for many white writers, trying to understand through image how privilege works, or doesn’t. I also think about the power that...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 24, 2018 | blog: all
Tell us about your short story in Volume 20. How did it come to be? A few years ago I was working on a play about rape culture—the heinous scourge of sexual violence throughout the world—writing in a variety of voices, exploring fictional characters from vastly...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 17, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? I have been thinking and writing (in scholarly ways) about post-9/11 poetry for years, but I could never figure out how to write a poem about that topic. Thinking about the Rapture as an allegory for...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 10, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? The impetus for this poem came out of reflecting on a time when I was part of a group that traveled together.It is a compilation of places but Spain in particular. One young woman and I would gather up...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 4, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your essay in Volume 20. How did it come to be? “Alive Girl Walking” is about a trip I took, alone, when I was eighteen years old. That trip basically shaped my view of the world as I entered college. There were moments in that trip that seem to me,...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 27, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your essay in Volume 20. How did it come to be? “On the Other Side” is the result of a lengthy contemplation. It began when I heard the news about my cousin, and it took about two years for me to finish the thinking process, find what was there for me...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 21, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? My poem “Late August, Uncomplicated by Desire” came about through a process of avoidance, meaning I was supposed to be cleaning my back bedroom, but instead I sat down in the rocking chair and hand-wrote...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 14, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your essay in Volume 20. How did it come to be? “Another Way” is a lyric essay about the acceptance of life as it is, a letting go that opens new possibilities for discovery and love. I remember when I wrote it that I wanted to draw on a lively mix of...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 7, 2018 | blog: all
1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? My third child was born in the springtime. The weather was absolutely luscious, and I spent a few days cuddling her in bed as my milk came in and I recovered from her birth. We left the windows open day...
by WaterStone Review | Jul 31, 2018 | blog: all
In The Field is a series devoted to highlighting the writing life and artistic process of our contributors. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? “Joy, Apoptosis” came out of a need to imbue my writing with some amount of joy and...
