In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Victoria Blanco
I love the storytelling in your nonfiction piece "Corn-Yellow Light." You did a lot of research for this piece. How did you sift through everything to create a narrative? What was the process like to piece together your research into something that flowed? I sifted...
Older Posts:
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 the page. What gave you inspiration for this piece? Where did the...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Sam Stokley
What was the spark behind your poem, “Ark/ee/awl/uh/gee,” that appears in Volume 27? The spark was an ancient, buried loneliness that hit me while I was at home on an average day. Other disabled people might experience a similar feeling at times—knowing that every day...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Amy Pence
Your poem, “Red Oak, Black Oak” blends nature and family into a real family tree. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? Thank you for these questions, Jenn. I wrote the poem looking out a picture window in my previous home. I faced 100 acres of woods: in...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Rob Arnold
Your pair of poems, “Chimera” and "Chimera" speak to growing up, terror, and a cycle of life and death. What was the impetus for these poems? How did they evolve from single poems into a pair? These two “Chimera” poems are, in fact, part of a longer sequence...
In the Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—April Darcy
Your fiction piece, “The Bright World,” is about a daughter losing her father to cancer, and how she’s trying to balance her own life, a complicated friendship, and caretaking. How did this story come about? First, thank you for reading and for asking such...
In The Field—Conversations With Our Contributors: Anne Piper
Your poem, “Already all the ghosts,” is a beautiful and haunting look at pre-grief. The speaker compares their past to the present, and looks ahead into the future. What made you write this poem at this time? I wrote this poem in February of 2023, when old age and...
In The Field—Conversations With Our Contributors: Christopher Gaumer
It’s always wonderful to have a graduate of our MFA program in Water~Stone! What sparked the creation of your poem, “On a Farm in Iowa?” Hi, Jenn! It’s wonderful to be close to Hamline again through Water~Stone! My family lived in Perry, Iowa until I was nine. My mom...
In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Davi Gray
Your poem, “Caravan of Wounds,” crafts a dramatic setting and builds a world where pain and injury are clearly visible. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from? I have consumed a lot of dread-inspiring media, more written words than anything else, but it...