In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Amy Bagan
Your poem “Primate” in Volume 23 explores traits and knowledge, things we learn from each other, from our ancestors. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this poem? Yes, exactly. “Primate” sits atop a mantle of Maker stories, starting from time immemorial. One...
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In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—John Wall Barger
Your poem “We Came to Dinner” in Volume 23 fuses modern and contemporary poetic styles. Can you talk through the inspiration behind this poem? This poem started, as many of mine do, very literally, in this case describing a visit to my parents’ house. My struggle was...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Halee Kirkwood
“Haibun for Early Autumn, Haibun for Buses & Sobriety” from Volume 23 follows the speaker along their bus route—images and sounds, thoughts and memories, included. I also ride the bus and every time I read this poem, I feel that distinction of it having a long...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Sam Stokley
Your poem “Theories and Postulates” in Volume 23 is, as you wrote in your epigraph is, “an rdeb love poem”. You describe this painful scene in which you purposefully hot glue a skin wound shut in an art studio. What did it mean to you to write a love poem to your...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Denton Loving
Your short story “Renunciation” in Volume 23 includes a scene that depicts Giotto di Bondone’s famous painting Renunciation of Worldly Goods. What was your inspiration for incorporating di Bondone’s work? Just prior to writing this story, I read Thomas Cahill’s...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Jason Tandon
Welcome back to Water~Stone Review, Jason! Your poem “I Came Here” in Volume 23 pays homage to Chinese poet Du Fu. What was the inspiration behind this? The inspiration was primarily the natural setting at the time I wrote the poem. I was visiting my parents in New...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Chris Arthur
Your essay “Listening to the Music of a Vulture’s Egg” from Volume 23 takes the reader on a philosophical journey through time and space, and it begins with this griffon vulture’s egg that you bought as a child. Starting an essay from unlikely objects seems to be a...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—JJ Peña
Your flash cnf piece “air in the brain” in Volume 23 feels like this urgent, almost pseudo apology or justification from the speaker who feels compelled to explain their mother’s behavior. Can you tell us how this piece came to be? What’s the inspiration behind it?...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Meg Eden
Your poem “Estate Sale” in Volume 23 starts out really funny and lighthearted until about the time when the speaker finds sales tags on used underwear. Then it shifts into some very thought-provoking territory on the longevity of material objects and our inevitable...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Allison Wyss
Your short story “FastDog Security” in Volume 23 is, as Keith Lesmeister wrote in his editorial letter, “quirky and odd, in the best possible way.” Can you tell us how the idea came to you to write about a public transit security officer with terrible anxiety? What...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors–Alice Hatcher
Your poem “Before the First Incision” in Volume 23 includes a speaker contemplating an impending surgical procedure while walking on the beach. Can you tell us a little bit about how this poem came into existence? What inspired it? The poem is definitely...