In the Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Ciara Alfaro
Congrats on your nonfiction piece “When We Were Boys,” which is featured in The Best American Essays 2023! We were excited to debut it in Water~Stone, and we are thrilled it is getting the recognition it deserves. Can you talk about where this piece started when you...
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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 inspired it? Speaking of myths, this is a bit of a long story....
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 abusive relationship. That didn’t make leaving any easier, though, because I...
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. Like Nina, I was also once a female teenager growing up in a sexist society...
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 it at a summer camp? The idea for this story sprang almost fully formed...
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 into these poignant pieces? Thank you, Jenn. I’ve been writing since I was a...
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 footnotes for this poem? Wyeth was born in 1917. By the time he painted...
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 bungling of harm reduction in our city. Parker had announced...
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...