by WaterStone Review | Oct 6, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Josh Nicolaisen Your piece, “Sometimes I Walk Barefoot Through Freshly Tilled Soil,” wraps up Volume 27. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? Yes, and thank you so much for such a...
by WaterStone Review | Oct 1, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Abie Irabor In your poem, “Movie Star,” you create a spotlight of excitement surrounding a parent coming home. What sparked this poem’s creation and the comparison of the homecoming to a celebrity?...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 25, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Jennifer Bowen There are so many facets of your nonfiction piece “Just the Song.” Where did the spark for this piece come from? The pressure to write it came while watching my kid perform in Cabaret on the...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 17, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Lisa Higgs Your two poems, “About Nothing” and “Pandemic Dreams” are beautifully-worked pieces. Where sparked the creation of these pieces? As one might imagine with “Pandemic Dreams,” I wrote this poem at some point...
by WaterStone Review | Sep 3, 2025 | featuredpost
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Jennifer Militello Your two poems, “Wax Self Portrait/” and “Wax Portrait of a Marriage/” are beautiful short prose pieces. What inspired you to write them? These two pieces are centered...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 26, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Bill Marsh In your piece “Water Striders,” you emphasize the steps involved “in learning, once again, how to love.” Where did the idea for this piece come from? I wrote the first draft in early...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 22, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Jonathan Wittmaier “Terrarium” really reflects the chaos of the family cooped up during a summer COVID lockdown. What prompted you to write this story? Being cooped up myself during that initial COVID...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 6, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Todne Thomas Your poem, “day of the dead,” tells a story within a multi-generational family structure. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? The inspiration for this poem came from my son. His...
by WaterStone Review | Aug 1, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Sheila McMullin Your poem “Thank You” blends the telling of past histories and the present conflict in a relationship, as well as imaginative statements. What was your inspiration for this poem? What was your...
by WaterStone Review | Jul 23, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Judy Kaber Your poem that appears in Volume 27, “Cracking the Lid,” is after Lois Dodd’s painting “Lifting the Lid.” What drew you to that painting, and what sparked this piece from it? Do you often find inspiration...
by WaterStone Review | Jul 15, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Marc Nieson Your story “American Standards” involves a man balancing his daily corporate job, his aging mother, and his newish relationship. What sparked the creation of this story? Aptly, this story’s ‘spark’...
by WaterStone Review | Jul 2, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—G C Waldrep Your poems, “Night 410” and “Night 550” are from a work titled Plague Nights. What does Plague Nights entail? As with every other writer and artist I know, the lockdowns of...
by WaterStone Review | Jun 24, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Carla Panciera Your poem “Smart Girls Always Have a Plan” blends math and myth in one of my favorite lines, “Math, after all, is one letter removed / from stories of the gods.” Where did this poem come from? What...
by WaterStone Review | Jun 19, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Jana-Lee Germaine “February at the Johnsons’” is about a woman going through a divorce. Where did this poem come from? I was right out of college when I married for the first time. It was a disaster, an...
by WaterStone Review | Jun 11, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Cristina Herrera Mezgravis Where did your inspiration for your fiction piece, “Ninina,” come from? I drew inspiration for “Ninina” from my own relationship with different women in my life—my mother, tías, and abuelas....
by WaterStone Review | Jun 6, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Stephanie Early Green Your fiction piece tells the story of Sabrina, who begins a new job after the trauma of her last one where she was forced into sex work. Where did the idea of “Nojento” come from? Why did you set...
by WaterStone Review | Jun 3, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Sasha (Oleksandra) Lavrenchuk Your poems, “Algae” (Algae untranslated) and “Babylon,” (Babylon untranslated) blend distinctly sharp images with emotion. How have you honed your writing and editing over the years...
by WaterStone Review | May 29, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Janée J. Baugher Your poem, “Andrew Wyeth’s Footnotes to Goodbye My Love 2008,” blends loss and love in a unique format. What inspired this poem from the painting of Wyeth’s? What made you choose the format of...
by WaterStone Review | Apr 23, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Sadie Dupuis What is the story behind your poem, “Most of Last Year and the Years Before It,” that appears in Volume 27? I wrote this poem in March 2024, in response to Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker’s ongoing...
by WaterStone Review | Apr 16, 2025 | blog: all
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—JC Talamantez Welcome back to Water~Stone! You had a piece last year, “Learning to Live With a Clockwork Orange,” in Volume 26. This year, your poem, “Half-Life of Krill,” puts oceanic and celestial imagery on...
