William Matthew McCarter, whose story “The Next First Day of the Rest of My Life” can be found in Midwestern Gothic Issue 3 (Fall 2011), has recently released the textbook, Homo Redneckus: On Being Not Qwhite In America (Algora Publishing, available here at Amazon).
Jeff Kass, whose pieces “Buzzard Beater” and “Witness a Boy, Ten Years old” can be found in Midwestern Gothic Issue 5 (Spring 2012), has been selected as a finalist for the Independent Press Best Short Fiction Collection of 2011 Award (for Knuckleheads, published by Dzanc Books).
April 9th, 2012 |
Joe Kapitan’s story “Letter from a Welder’s Son, Unsent” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.
How long have you been writing?
I started writing in March 2009. I wrote a few messy, amateurish pieces and then somehow thought I was fit to participate in Cleveland State’s Imagination Writers’ Conference in July of 2009. I embarrassed myself, I think, but I came out of that experience headed in the right direction. Those five days were crucial to me. I’m not sure where I’d be right now if I hadn’t taken that opportunity.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
Born and raised in Ohio, schooled in Indiana, then left the region for a while, eventually returning to the breeding grounds.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I think that being a Midwesterner colors everything you do with an attitude of no-nonsense, call-it-ugly-if-it’s-ugly realism. You become a half-hearted cynic and a half-assed optimist and I’m comfortable with being both. I think about and talk about (and therefore write about) rusty cars and their rusted drivers and childhood dreams that don’t quite work out as planned, plus getting lost in seas of corn stalks in July and the homeless piling up in front of the Greyhound station and “perfect football weather”.
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 there is a heartland regionalism that has been around for a while, and still is, but it exists under the radar because we (collectively) tend not to draw too much attention to ourselves and our labeling. It’s so Midwest of us, to understate things. So what do I mean by heartland regionalism? I’m thinking about writers like Dan Chaon, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Ander Monson, Roxane Gay, John McNally, Matt Bell, Mike Czyzniejewski. That’s an arbitrary and eclectic sampling, but I think that there is an undercurrent of unflinching honesty that binds them all together as Midwestern writers. They all have dirt under their fingernails, and it doesn’t bother them in the least. In fact, they’re proud of it. That, plus a wicked sense of humor. Being Midwestern means learning to laugh at yourself, not with yourself.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
For me, it’s a necessity and I use it constantly. Since I’m not an MFA, not a literary professional and not even in a writers’ group, I would truly be an island with my internet connectivity. It’s just me and my full-time career and my part-time writing and my wireless-enabled laptop.
Favorite book?
I can narrow it down to three: Pastoralia by Saunders, Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.
Favorite food?
I’d say the entire category of seafood. And I define seafood very broadly. For example, accoutrements like beer and pie both qualify.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Here’s my plan, although it’s cheating the question a bit. First, morning tea with the ladies: Ayn Rand, Aimee Bender and Alice Munro. Then some afternoon red wine and wild imagination with Garcia Marquez, Borges, Murakami and Calvino, and a squad of interpreters (if Neruda crashed our gathering, I’d let him stay). At night, time enough for a few beers and laughs with George Saunders and David Foster Wallace.
Where can we find more information about you?
I’m planning on starting a blog site this year to collect my links in one place, but for now, a Google search will find much of my stuff. Here are a few selections:
http://elimae.com/2011/02/Jardin.html
http://matterpress.com/journal/category/joe-kapitan/
http://emprisereview.com/2011/uncategorized/a-late-winters-conversation/
April 4th, 2012 |
Spring is in the air! And to celebrate? The release of Midwestern Gothic Issue 5 (Spring 2012)!
Hardcopies are $12, and eBooks (in various formats) are only $2.99!
And, as always, digital subscriptions (1 year, 4 issues) are still only $10!
Get a copy
April 1st, 2012 |
If you haven’t noticed, every quarter we like to swap out our header images, not only to keep things fresh, but to give the many photographers that submit to Midwestern Gothic a chance to shine.
This next batch is a real doozy…hope you enjoy as much as we do! (And if you haven’t already, do check out our gallery…many great photographs there!)
April 1st, 2012 |
Previous Midwestern Gothic contributor CJ Opperthauser has created a wonderful site called Mud Schematic, devoted to posting micro-reviews and micro-interviews of those in the literary world.
His most recent interview—with/about Midwestern Gothic—is up now…here. Check it out, pass it on!
March 30th, 2012 |
Scott Carpenter’s story “Inheritance” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.
How long have you been writing?
Depends on how you define writing! Aside from some creative pieces back in my college days (one of my jobs consisted of composing entirely fabricated horoscopes for a newspaper), most of my writing has been in the form of essays and book-length studies. I returned to fiction four
or five years ago—although it’s not as different from my academic work as one might think.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I was born in the Midwest, though I moved away quite early. However, I’ve now lived and worked in Minnesota for about twenty years, which makes me a junior member of the club.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I have family roots in the Midwest, so my upbringing was tinged with Midwesternness no matter where we lived. I think the Midwest seeps into my writing in multiple ways, ranging from locations to characters to patterns of speech.
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?
Somehow (through the media, especially) the Midwest has come to be seen as “typical” America, whereas strong regional literatures spring from areas with strong identities as marginal or atypical cultures. Finding the atypical in the typical, the strange within the familiar – that’s the task of much Midwestern writing.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I prefer it when other people use social media to promote my writing! Seriously, though, I’m starting to do more. However, every hour dedicated to social media is an hour I could have spent writing, so I plan to keep that investment light. I have a Twitter feed, and the Facebook page is, well, “in progress.”
Favorite book?
There’s a lot of competition for that slot, but let me mention one I’ve just re-read: The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster.
Favorite food?
Yes.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it
be?
My agent, Victoria Skurnick.
Where can we find more information about you?
Here’s a good place to start: https://apps.carleton.edu/people/scarpent/fiction/
March 30th, 2012 |
Until the release of Issue 5 (Spring 2012), all back issues of Midwestern Gothic are on sale!
Print | $6
eBook | $1 (multiple formats)
Get ‘em while you can!
March 27th, 2012 |
You heard right, it’s time to stock up on back issues of Midwestern Gothic before the new issue is released. There’s no better time to pick up some of the finest fiction and poetry in the Midwest. Got some extra space on your bookshelf after spring cleaning? Looking for something to enjoy the warm weather with? Look no further, the sale lasts until April 1st!
Hardcopy - $6 (Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4)
PDF – $1.0 (Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4)
iBook - $1.00 (Issue 4)
Kindle - $1.00 (Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4)
Nook - $1.00 (Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4)
Remember, this is for a limited time only, so jump on it while you can!
March 24th, 2012 |
Katie Longofono’s poems “Good Will” and “Split” appear in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing poetry of the awful, couplet-y variety since I was eleven years old. I took a writing hiatus for several years in an attempt to pursue more “practical” career choices, but ended up becoming the poetry nut I am today after taking some workshop courses two years ago.
So, officially: ten years
Seriously: two.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
My family moved to Kansas from the east coast eight years ago. At the time, Topeka and the Midwest represented a very special circle of hell reserved to torture me during my angsty high school years. Now, it’s familiar and in some ways more of a home than anywhere else I’ve lived.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I think the Midwest becomes most apparent anytime I introduce natural imagery into my work. Landscapes, plantlife, etc. are almost always inspired by what I can directly observe in Kansas.
However, frequently the Midwest influences my writing in more subtle ways. There is a distinctive attitude here that is not always present elsewhere in the US; something more open and empathetic in the interactions between people that I’ve noticed. This may play into why I’ve come to consider Kansas a home–my writing reflects and attempts to replicate this straight-forward nature. I don’t think my work would have developed as fully, or felt as comfortable to me, if I had attempted to begin my writing career outside of the unique mindset I’ve experienced in the Midwest.
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 don’t really feel qualified to answer (being such a young writer, I’m not as informed on the writing movements as I’d like) but I’ll give it a shot. I think it’s because many writers leave the Midwest in order to get recognition for their work, and it’s easy to forget those roots. There are a lot of stereotypes associated with the Midwest that may compel these writers to attempt to disassociate themselves. I imagine, for some, it would be easier to embrace the writing culture in NYC (or the west coast, south, etc) rather than attempt to return to the Midwest and create that push.
That being said, in recent years the writing community in the Midwest has been gaining attention. I think there’s a big shift coming our way–I hope so, anyway. I love all the regional journals popping up!
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I love it–I use it all the time. I try not to be “that girl” on Facebook that spams like crazy, but I definitely think it is a unique tool for promotion. I tend to use Facebook and Twitter more to promote journals–I disperse information about Blue Island Review, the journal I edit with Mary Stone Dockery, or if somebody I know is published in a cool journal I’ll link to it. I like to think of social media as a way to give everybody on my friends list some new reading material for the day.
Favorite book?
This is never an easy question; there are so many books that I adore. However, I continually return to The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Not the most sophisticated piece of literature out there, but it resonated with me when I first read it and continues to with each re-read. The title for my first chapbook was actually inspired by a poem in this novel, so I guess it has been a pivotal book in terms of my own work.
Favorite food?
My grandmother’s sunday meat sauce with pasta. I could eat Italian food every day of the week (and, uh, sometimes do).
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Sylvia Plath. I want to get inside that lady’s head.
Where can we find more information about you?
I’m ashamed to say that I am a failed blogger, so I don’t really have anything exciting to link to. You can friend me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter (@longofonz). Or write me a letter–that would be cool.
March 22nd, 2012 |
Nancy Reddy’s piece “The Scene Of” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 4, out now.
How long have you been writing?
Probably forever. I remember proudly giving my fifth grade teacher a short story that turned out to be a really bad Rats of NIMH knock-off (though it wasn’t intentional, she was not amused) – though I didn’t start writing seriously until later in high school. I was lucky, growing up in Pittsburgh, to participate in an apprenticeship program that sent me to the University of Pittsburgh campus once a month to be part of a poetry workshop. I remember getting back the first poem from my instructor, and it had red ink all over it – and I thought, oh, this is what it’s like to have your writing taken seriously and really be pushed. And then I attended the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts the summer after my junior year of high school, and it was an amazing thing to be part of this big mass of 200 kids running around the tiny Catholic college that hosted the program. Everyone was dying their hair and holding drum circles by the fountain and sneaking off to make out in the grotto in front of a shrine of the Virgin Mary. (There were nuns in residence, too. I’m sure they were horrified.) And when you introduced yourself, you’d say, “I’m so and so and I’m an actor” (or painter or pianist or whatever) and it was the first time I’d really thought of myself that way. Saying “I’m a poet” was really important for me.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I’ve lived in Madison for the past two and a half years. My husband and I came here for my MFA, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and we’ve stayed. I’m now in a doctoral program in composition and rhetoric at Wisconsin, so we’ll be here for a while longer. (Between five years and forever, I like to say when my family asks how much longer I’ll be in school.)
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
First, I was really lucky to have an amazing MFA cohort, and I learned so much from each of them, as well as from the fabulous faculty here at Wisconsin.
I’ve also been really influenced by the landscape and weather in Madison. Though I grew up on the East Coast, I lived in the South for five years before moving here, and the winter still feels really dramatic to me. The lakes freeze over and kids and hockey teams skate on the pond at a park near our house – the city’s like an entirely different place in the winter! And I also just love living in a place that actually has terrain and geography and neighborhoods. Growing up in Pittsburgh, the hills and rivers and bridges are so much a part of the landscape, and they create this network of really finely defined neighborhoods. When I lived in Houston, I really missed that. I’d be driving through downtown on an overpass and it would feel like there should be a river beneath me – but it would always just be more highway! And now when I ride the bus to campus I go past Lake Mendota and I can see its character changing with the seasons and the weather. I think that heightened attention to place has entered my writing. The manuscript I’m working on now is full of snow and ice and tree branches.
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’m not sure that I feel qualified to answer that. While I love living in Madison, I wouldn’t say that I really identify as a Midwesterner. I remember when I was in college at Pitt and my roommates and I had moved to the South Side, an old neighborhood across the river from campus, and a neighbor – one of these old ladies in a babushka who sweep their front stoop and eye up everyone walking by – told my roommate you don’t really live on the South Side until you’re third generation. And I think the Midwest is a bit like that. (The novelist Susanna Daniel, who also lives in Madison, had a great article in Slate last year about living in the Midwest and not feeling as if she quite belongs here, even after ten years.) So I’m not sure I can speak for Midwestern writing in any big way.
I would say, though, that there’s a ton of great writing happening in the Midwest. (And not just in Iowa City!) Here in Madison, there are several really great reading series – more, in fact, than I can feasibly get to! There’s a really wonderful sense of community here, even among writers whose aesthetics and backgrounds are quite different. I’m just not sure that there’s a feeling that we need to define ourselves specifically as Midwestern writers.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I think that’s tricky. I find that I’m really easily turned off by blogs or Facebook posts that seem too transparent in their self-promotion, so while I like seeing people’s updates about publishing success and so on, I also want to know something about who the writer is as a person. The use of social media I find most satisfying is for community-building. I was the reviews and interviews editor for the first two years of Devil’s Lake, a literary magazine out of the MFA program here in Wisconsin that my cohort founded, and what I really loved about that role was the opportunity to develop relationships with writers, presses, and other magazines. (We’re co-hosting an off-site reading at AWP with Black Lawrence press, who we’ve gotten to know through emails and facebook and skype – and I’m so thrilled to be actually meeting the writers and editors in person after lots of lovely electronic communication.)
I think social media can work really well for that kind of community-building. I’m a bit of a shy friender, but I really like getting friend requests from editors who’ve accepted my work or from people who have seen my work online and liked it. I’ve learned about lots of great new books and readings and literary magazines (including Midwestern Gothic, actually) through writer-friends who’ve posted information about them. I also think it’s really important to share good news about your friends – if you’re using facebook or your blog or whatever to share your own successes, you should also be really quick to congratulate others.
Favorite book?
I’m terrible at favorites, so I can’t list just one, or even say these are definitive favorites. However, I find that I’m drawn to books that create a complete world with its own coherent set of rules. I really love Cormac McCarthy’s The Road for that reason. It’s so sparse and haunting. I’ve read it three times, and the third time was when I was teaching high school English and reading it with my students. I won’t read it again, because I’m afraid of wearing it out or taking away some of the power and shock of it, but I think about it a lot. In terms of recent poetry, I found Traci Brimhall’s Rookery really gripping. It’s so gorgeous and also so horrifying. I also quite like Sabrina Orah Mark’s Tsim Tsum, which is an odd book and very different from my writing. But she does really interesting work in world-making – she has all these crazy characters, and it manages to be funny at times and also really poignant and sad. And Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life. Those ham flowers (“each petal a little meat sunset”) in the first poem, “Implications for Modern Life,” get me every single time.
Favorite food?
Madison has great Laotian, and I’m a sucker for a really spicy curry.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
I’ve loved Anne Sexton forever and ever, though I suspect she’s the kind of character who brings her best and most interesting self to her writing, rather than to a coffee date. So I think my actual pick would be Anne Bradstreet, who I find fascinating. When I’m feeling too busy or overwhelmed to write I think about her composing poems in her head all day while she cooked and cleaned and cared for all those kids in the New England wilderness, and it reminds me to get back to work.
Where can we find more information about you?
I’ve got poems online in several places: Anti, Linebreak, and Memorious, among others. After being selected by D. A. Powell for this year’s Best New Poets I was included in Flavorwire’s Best of the Best. And I’m on the advisory board of Devil’s Lake. We just launched issue 4, and we’re really proud of it.
March 15th, 2012 |
