1. Tell us about your fiction piece, “The Harlow Postcards,” in Volume 21. How did it come to be? As an Iowan by birth I had always been interested in the actress Jean Seberg, another native Iowan, and created an imaginary interview with her. I knew nothing about...

1. Tell us about your poems in Volume 21, “That Far North” and “Drought.” How did they come to be? Both “That Far North” and “Drought” are typical and not-typical for me. Many of my poems arise from particular and beloved landscapes, and these two definitely do: the...

1. Tell us about your poems in Volume 21, “My Boss Tells Me She Prays for Me” and “When I Say There Is Desire.” How did they come to be? “My Boss Tells Me She Prayers for Me” is actually a true story. I worked in her office as an assistant and spent most of my time at...

1. Tell us about your fiction piece, “The Man from Lowville,” in Volume 21. How did it come to be? “The Man from Lowville” is one of those stories you decide to abandon only to return to years later. In fact, so much time has passed since the initial drafts that it’s...

Tell us about your poem in Volume 21, “Sunrise Village.” How did it come to be? It came into being the way most of my poems do: over time, various images lodge themselves in my mind and coalesce into something like a seed. When I feel it sprouting, I try to coax it...

One way to swirl up imaginative juices with your partner, in times of potential lackluster fluttering or in a dry spell on romantic river beds, is to share in the experience of mutual poetic expression. An easy introduction to this exercise is...

  In The Field is a blog series devoted to highlighting the writing life and artistic process of our contributors. This week we continue with our series now featuring contributors from our most recent issue, Vo. 21 "Bodies Worth Defending".     1. Tell us about your...

No, you’re not technically writing, but creating “magazine poetry” is a good exercise to get you out of your own head. Experiencing writer’s block? Spread out, use new tools and muscles, find words that aren’t your own and claim them. Here’s a...

1. Tell us about your poem in Volume 20. How did it come to be? “You’re the deciduous forest” was written a few years ago while I was writing a lot of poems that were basically litanies of contradictory statements. In truth, I tend to write quite a few of these. This...