Elissa Cahn’s story “Hanging Man” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 5, out now.

How long have you been writing?
I think I came out of the womb holding a pen. I always wrote stories and poems and kept diaries as a kid, and then I got really serious about writing in high school. I had a really awesome teacher who took the time to read my work and conference with me even though I was writing these really endless story series that were probably kind-of awful. I wrote some in college, but really got away from it for a number of years. I’m incredibly grateful to have
recovered that part of my identity and have been writing seriously again for the past four or so years. When I was trying to figure out a title for a story, I came across an ancient Egyptian quote that begins, “Call yourself back then to yourself,” and that rings very true to me. It’s been my mantra of late, and is the working title of my MFA thesis. But that title might be too
many words. Now I fear I’ve gotten away from the original question.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life. I grew up in Cleveland and attended Beloit College in Wisconsin. After college, I lived in Chicago for nine years, and I live part-time in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Because we can’t seem to stop living in the Midwest, my husband and I are moving to Milwaukee this summer.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I find the seasons and the weather very evocative. The endless and endlessly gray skies of Cleveland correspond to a particular emotional state for me. I feel similarly about the dark, bitter winters in Chicago. I’ve also gotten a lot of material both from growing up in the suburbs and from camping in Michigan. I’m working on my MFA at Western Michigan and
have gotten really excellent mentorship from the faculty here.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
I think people in the Midwest are fairly modest. No one really brags about living in the Midwest. Maybe the Great Lakes just seem less glamorous than oceans. I also wonder if it has something to do with the major publishing houses being in New York and movies being produced in L.A. Even though plenty of writing happens outside of those locations, people may not consider that because of where the final products are packaged. But, if no one is talking about living and writing in the Midwest, then it will go unnoticed. It shouldn’t, though, because we’re the Third Coast. I’m grateful that Midwestern Gothic is giving Midwestern
writers a platform!

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I just got my first publications, so I haven’t had much cause to use social media to promote my writing until now. I have mixed feelings about social media, so I limit myself to Facebook. It’s been a good way to find out about friends’ publications and to share mine, but not much beyond that.

Favorite book?
I don’t think I can list just one. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout, Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving, The Ladies’ Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis, She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb, Rent Girl by Michelle Tea, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff

Favorite food?
Chocolate, coffee, and tea.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Anne Lamott. She just seems so funny and genuine and has this great mixture of reverence and irreverence.

Where can we find more information about you?
I have a piece of flash fiction coming out in NANO Fiction, and there’s a bit about me on Wit Rabbit’s website, which is a great reading series in Chicago. I’m also the nonfiction editor for Third Coast.

Thanks to everyone who submitted—if you haven’t yet heard from us, you should soon. To those who didn’t get a chance to submit…fear not! Submissions will open back up before you know it.

And don’t forget, photo submissions are open year round!

M.V. Montgomery’s story “Hostages for Christmas” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 5, out now.

How long have you been writing?
I am kind of a born-again writer, someone who did a lot of creative writing in high school and college but then put it aside for a couple of decades for the usual reasons—family, career, and the need to focus on the critical and pedagogical stuff in grad school. Case in point: “Hostages for Christmas,” which I wrote an early draft of thirty years ago and then forgot.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I grew up in Minneapolis, where “Hostages” is set. I still travel back every year to visit with family and hang out around the lakes.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I think there tend to be two poles for the Midwestern writer, particularly the Minnesota writer—call them the lyric and the sardonic. Or the Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis zones, if you will: the wish to enshrine the moment of beauty fused to a culture of relentless self-deprecation. It’s like wishing to celebrate the weather when it’s nice, but worrying someone will see you acting up and think you’re a rube. Poetry checked by practicality. Garrison Keillor probably nails this better than anyone.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
Arguably, after Twain, the literary Midwest lost some of its distinct character and instead became the automatic metaphor for Main Street and “small town America” as a whole. Spoon River, Winesburg, Zenith—the state hardly matters. It may also be that the Midwest is simply too big and amorphous a region in the first place to qualify as truly “regional.” In terms of contemporary fiction, the lack of a “regionalist push” probably has something do with people reading to escape, not having a lot of time, and preferring warmer settings that would make better vacation spots.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I’m just getting started on that. Honestly, I don’t like it much because the time I spend on the Net seems to be stealing too much time away from writing.

Favorite book?
As a World Lit teacher, I get to cycle through a good chunk of the canon every year and couldn’t possibly choose (although my students would probably say, don’t get him started on Don Quixote.)

Favorite food?
I need to watch myself here. I grew up with a mother who is a fabulous Italian cook, but my fiancée is Ethiopian, and I love and eat that food all the time.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
I think the coffee house pantheon would have to include Samuel Johnson, who could be allocated the opening remarks; Swift and Pope, to keep the conversational ball rolling; Woolf and Borges, to mediate the discussion; Joyce to sing and quip; and Zen master Mummon to stand up finally and pronounce the session over.

Where can we find more information about you?
I have a blog at mvmontgomery.wordpress.com and an author page at Winter Goose Publishing.

We are excited to announce a few festivals we’ll be taking part in! As always, if you can make it out, we’d love to see you!

And, as we do with all festivals we’re part of, we’ll have free goodies at our table, as well as reduced-price issues (both print and e-versions). So come on down!

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Midwest Small Press Festival

Enjoy literature? Appreciate small presses? Like cheese curds? Then you should come check out the 1st Annual Midwest Small Press Festival held in Milwaukee June 1st-3rd.

For a full listing of presses that will be attending, or if you want more information, check out the official event site here.

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Printers Row Lit Fest

This festival runs June 9-10, 10 AM – 6 PM both days, and the best part…all events are FREE!

For more information about the fest, click here. And stay tuned to our website/Twitter, as we’ll post more information the closer we get.

Craig Workman’s story “Linus and Lucy” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 5, out now.

How long have you been writing?
I guess since I was eight years old, so 29 years. Yikes. I think my first short fiction was a horrible little piece about a wizard and a cowboy, but I could be wrong. Glad I can’t find that one in any boxes in any attics or basements. Ever.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I was born in Harvey, Illinois, spent some time off-and-on in Chicago, but spent the vast majority of my time in Missouri (UMKC, where I teach and am a PhD student) and Kansas (Osawatomie, where my folks live and I went to high school and Prairie Village, where my family and I reside).

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
The Midwest is very important to me as–other than lots of traveling–it’s all I know. I find immense pleasure in the cities as well as the small towns and the country, the forgotten and broken-down places and things and the newness, the food, the music and a scene that’s fantastic if you open your eyes and look for it.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
Well, while we certainly did/do have some incredible writers in the Midwest, such as Ander Monson, Mark Twain, Daniel Woodrell, Vonnegut (that’s right) and Hemingway, I think quite a bit of it relates to stereotypes. I’ve heard it said that there’s nothing in the Midwest but Chicago and lots of farmers and fields. The South has the tried-and-true Gothic mystique and the West Coast has L.A., the home of—among other things—noir. In other words, too many people rely on American Western film and Cather’s O, Pioneers! and assume that’s all the Midwest has to offer. Sad, sad mistake in my opinion.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I think social media is fantastic. I’m a bit of a luddite, and I try my best to keep up with it. I try to push info about my work on Facebook and Linkedin. I have a Twitter account, but keep forgetting my password. Ha. Anyway, I’m working on a website, but it isn’t complete yet. Hopefully, I’ll become a computer genius in the near future.

Favorite book?
That’s a tough one. Right now it’s The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Some of the best voice and characterization I’ve ever seen.

Favorite food?
Oklahoma Joe’s barbeque, 3002 West 47th Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas 66103. Worth its weight in gold.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Charles Bukowski circa 1970, just when his career with Black Sparrow Press was starting to take off. We’d probably be having lots of wine, though. He loved the French stuff.

Where can we find more information about you?
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/craig-m-workman/42/46b/413
http://www.facebook.com/craig.m.workman
http://www.kerouacsdogmag.com/craig-m-workman/
http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2012/02/mr-snowballs-miracle.html
http://issuu.com/litmags/docs/apr2010
http://www.literaryjuice.com/#/the-path/4560057988
http://www.stanleythewhale.com/StW/index.php/issue-5/issue-5-short-stories/220-the-red-portfolio

Rachael Warecki’s story “A Month of Drunken Sundays” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 5, out now.

How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was 7 years old. I started off writing short stories about anthropomorphic animals, and then segued into (very bad) novel-writing when I was about 12, around the time I became fully aware that people could write novels and get them published. I’m still writing novels—hopefully better than the ones I wrote in my teens—but I’ve lately been focusing on short stories again.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
The short answer is that when someone yells “O-H!”, you bet I’ll respond, “I-O!” I’m a California native, but my mom was born and raised in Lima, Ohio, and my dad’s family immigrated to Cleveland when he was young, so my parents’ house was a small slice of the Midwest in the middle of the West Coast. Most of my extended family, including both sets of grandparents and many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, still live in Ohio, so we visit when we can. I’m also a rabid Cleveland Indians and Ohio State Buckeyes fan—so much so that many people just assume I’m a native Ohioan because those aren’t exactly teams that spawn bandwagon fan bases.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
There’s something wonderfully quiet about certain parts of the Midwest. On one hand, it’s the kind of quiet that allows ideas to ruminate and settle, but there’s also an ominous quality just beneath the surface that could raise its head in an instant. It’s a beautiful stretch of country, but there’s also a lot of poverty in some areas, and then there’s the threat that a tornado could destroy everything you have, even if you don’t have all that much to start with. But folks in the Midwest seem to get right back up when they get knocked down–at least my mom’s family does–and I think that’s the kind of fortitude that writers need in order to keep writing and submitting in the face of rejection. Also: a few years ago at the Iowa Summer Writers’ Festival, I heard a meteorologist on TV say, “It’s always tornado weather!” Which is a terrifying idea, but I sat down that day and wrote urgently. That should actually be my new motto: What would you write this afternoon if you knew a tornado was coming tonight?

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
I think that people who aren’t from the Midwest don’t find the region as interesting or endearing as Midwesterners do, and there’s not really a schtick, for lack of a better word, that drives the Midwestern literary identity. Southern literature kind of embraces everything that’s dark and grotesque about the South—”A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and some of Faulkner’s short stories, for example—and you’ve got a number of really diverse writers coming out of the West Coast and New York City, so the identity there is one of continual freshness and novelty and surprise. But I feel like non-Midwesterners look at the Midwest and think: Well, it’s not as outrageous as the South and it’s not as diverse as California and it’s not as erudite as NYC, so what does it have to offer? It’s the same thought process that makes some people call all of the Midwest the “flyover states”—as if they’ve forgotten that Chicago’s in the Midwest, too.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I do use social media to promote my writing, but I much prefer following writers who mainly post their witty thoughts and then promote their work almost as an aside. As I (hopefully) start to publish more, I’ll strive to be more like that, but since Midwestern Gothic was one of my first publications, I’m afraid I got a little excited about spreading the word. I had two stories picked up in a 60-hour period—I felt like a special snowflake.

Favorite book?
I have a lot of favorites, but since you’re making me choose: Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

Favorite food?
Strawberry-banana smoothies. They’re technically not a food, but I’m the only person I know who has to set a monthly smoothie budget.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
David Foster Wallace. I interviewed him once when I was in college, during the period when I was least serious about my writing, and I should have asked him so much more than I did. Rest in peace, Dave.

Where can we find more information about you?
My website is http://www.rachaelwarecki.com/ and I’m on Twitter at @RachaelLaWriter.

Joan Colby’s poems “Black Stallion” and “Feud” appear in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.

How long have you been writing?
50 years!

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I was born in Chicago and have lived in rural northern Illinois for 40 years.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
It’s my home.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
It’s baffling. There are many writers identified with Chicago, but few with the Midwest in general.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
Yes, I do. I have a blog and post poems and info on publications on both Facebook and Twitter.

Favorite book?
Anna Karenina, the poems of Pablo Neruda, and zillions more.

Favorite food?
Special K cereal.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
William Shakespeare.

Where can we find more information about you?
Facebook, LinkedIn, or just Google my name.

Our very own Copy Editor Ashley Bethard’s has an absolutely wonderful story, “Salted Wounds,” over at PANK.

Pass it on!

David James’ poem “A Man Tries Not to Die” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.

How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first poem about 40 years ago as a sophomore in high school after my girlfriend dumped me. It was a pining love poem and I wrote dozens of them (all since burned). But I got hooked on the act of purging my emotions and ideas onto the page. Even so, when I left for Western Michigan University, I was a physics major, math minor. After taking a creative writing course from Stu Dybek, I decided to pursue writing, much to the dismay of my parents. They’ve since forgiven me.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I was born, raised, went to school, and worked in Michigan my whole life. I am the Midwest.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
The landscape and mentality of the Midwest is all I know. It’s infused in me. The physical elements of the area—the lakes, fields, flatness, hawks, woods—find their way into almost every poem. I’ve personally found that our region, brilliantly coined “the third coast,” is perfect for writers for two reasons. One, the pronounced seasons bring a new flood of writing every year—the first snow, the leaves falling, the tulips rising, the ringing of a heat bug. It would be hard for me to live in a state with muted seasons. And two, as writers here, we’re isolated. We’re left to drift on our own, away from the trends and fashions often found on the east and west coasts. That’s a good thing. We’re left to find our own voice and polish it.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
As Midwesterners, we’re too nice and humble; it’s a regional trait. We wouldn’t presume to believe our work was more important or representative of the country than any other area. If Midwesterners have a tragic flaw, it’s humility.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
Social media excites and frightens me in equal amounts. I publish in online ezines and have a Facebook presence. Does that help me as a writer? I doubt it. Writing is a solitary practice. I need stillness, quiet, time to think, ponder and imagine. Social media cannot help me with any of those things; in fact, social media is a temptress, luring me away from a sustained focus on my work. Sure, the internet might be able to get me a wider audience and some book sales, but I’m not savvy enough to have accomplished either.

My longing is to write deeply, not to post that I just stepped out of the shower and hit my big toe.

Favorite book?
This is an impossible question, so I’ll do this: here are a few authors whose work continually draws me in. In fiction, John Irving, Annie Proulx, and Julio Cortazar. In drama, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Ed Albee. In poetry, James Wright, Richard Hugo, Anne Sexton, James Tate, Galway Kinnell, and Pablo Neruda.

Favorite food?
I’m a breakfast man (eggs, hash browns, toast) when it comes to food, and I absolutely love corned-beef hash.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
I’d have several pints of Guinness with Samuel Beckett. I view him as one of the Picasso’s of the literary world, someone who dared to take writing and drama into a completely new direction, fueled by his own unique imagination. I want to know how he had the courage or stubbornness to do that.

Where can we find more information about you?
There’s a review of my latest book, She Dances Like Mussolini, in Rattle at
http://rattle.com/blog/2009/09/she-dances-like-mussolini-by-david-james/#comments

My college website is
http://www.oaklandcc.edu/OR%2Deng/FullTimeFaculty/dljames/djhome.htm

Guess what? It’s that time again! Submissions for Midwestern Gothic Issue 6 (Summer 2012) are now open!

For more information about what we’re looking for, check out our Submissions page here, and submit your work to us here.