How long have you been writing?
I’ve written with the idea of releasing words into the world for about a year, but I have always put words on the page in some manner.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I lived in Indiana for the first thirty years of my life and have spent a lot of time traipsing around the Great Lakes area.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
My writing sensibilities about place come almost directly from the Midwest’s landscape, its people, and its subtle conflicts. It has a landscape that endures, despite often being viewed as unremarkable. Unique to the Midwest, too, is the tangible sense of yielding to machines. An authenticity of character exists there that is unparalleled by other regions. I think I write with particular sensitivity to these elements without suggesting some kind of apology for them. But at the same time, I was one of those Midwestern girls who grew up feeling that a lot of what I was told to believe and ways I was expected to behave weren’t quite right and didn’t translate in the larger world. So in a sense, there’s an ongoing rebellion, or re-learning, happening in my own life that I’m certain comes through in my writing. I think of myself as a recovering Midwesterner.
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?
There seems to be a collective assumption that the Midwest is a place you begin in or leave behind, rather than a place you go to with intention or linger in for a while. And I get that. There is also the suggestion, through lack of a regionalist push, that there is no new earth to overturn—the sense that there’s nothing further to learn from the region. No stories that haven’t been told. These assumptions translate to publishing, but they don’t make Midwestern writers or stories and less valid or any less nuanced. And of course there are great Midwestern writers. So maybe this push has to begin with Midwestern writers celebrating themselves. I took a number of English literature courses in college (in the MW) that focused on particular sets of writers—female writers, Southern writers, black writers, Native American writers. There wasn’t a class that studied Midwestern writers. That class ought to exist in Midwestern colleges.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I do use it. I think it’s important for all new writers coming up through the trenches for a couple of reasons. Social media seems crucial in developing a readership for one’s work, particularly in light of the growth of e-publishing, e-books, and online literary magazines. For writers like myself who work outside of academia and don’t have terminal degrees, it provides a support network. But more importantly, social media connects writers to the pulse of a strong Internet-based literary community made up of real people. I’ve discovered a number of great writers through social media, as well as a network of people whom I consider peers and inculators of literary wisdom. I don’t think it makes any sense to ignore or reject on principle the technological tools de jour. They are only a delivery system.
Favorite book?
Too many to list and all for different reasons. Just as Long as We’re Together (Blume) for making me feel like a normal kid despite all evidence to the contrary, Fury (Rushdie) for its prose style, Sexing the Cherry (Winterson) for its fantastic world-bending, Song of Solomon (Morrison) for blowing up my heart and head.
Favorite food?
Chicago-style pizza.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Flannery O’Connor.
Where can we find more information about you?
angelapalm.com or on Twitter: @angpalm
You may or may not know that our debut MG Press author, Scott Dominic Carpenter, has a follow up to This Jealous Earth: Stories publishing on May 22nd. Theory of Remainders is his debut novel, and today we’ve got a freshly released bit of visual candy for you to enjoy.
Sit back and take in this powerful book trailer, produced by the extremely talented crew at Red 14 Films.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing all my life. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a screenwriter until I realized the limitations of the medium and also that a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re doing get to mess around with your writing. Only in the last few years have I really been writing seriously and I just in the last year have started writing full time.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
Born and raised. I grew up in Troy, a suburb of Detroit, and went to school at Michigan before moving away to the coasts. Not a day I don’t miss it.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
How hasn’t 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?
The same reason they say people from the Midwest don’t speak with accents.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I’m on Facebook and whatnot. I think it’s a great way to get the word out to a limited audience. I haven’t been able to get into the Twitter. When I’m fortunate enough to get something published, I like to promote the magazine more than myself, and I use Facebook, also, to thank everybody that’s helped out by reading my stuff and putting up with my bullshit along the way. At the same time, I’m friends with a lot of emerging writers on Facebook who are trying just as I am to figure out how to do this writing thing and get work published, and I hope that “promotion” and “gratitude” doesn’t translate as “bragging.”
Favorite book?
If I only get one book: The Sun Also Rises—I think I’ve figured out most of how Hemingway does what he does craft-wise, but there’s still about 10% of his work that’s just black magic to me. Beyond that: I’m a big Henry Miller fan; Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard changed my life, as has everything else she’s written; I love Daring Young Man on a Flying Trapeze, the collection of stories by William Saroyan; I don’t know if it’s fashionable now or not, but fuck it I love Jack Kerouac; I had an imaginary love affair with Anais Nin this past summer; it took six years, but I finished Joyce’s Ulysses a couple of years ago — that’s a darn good book; Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and Coming Through Slaughter are fantastic; Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano got me into drinking mezcal. There’s poetry I like, too, I suppose.
Favorite food?
Cherries.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Dead: TS Eliot. Alive: Annie Dillard. Imaginary: Q (from Wonder Boys).
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid—lots of rhyming love poems and sad poems. I finally became a writer when I was in my second year of grad school, around 2004.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
There isn’t much about me that isn’t connected to the Midwest. I was born and raised on a grain farm in southwestern North Dakota, along the edge of the badlands. My Ukrainian immigrant great-grandparents established the farm in 1908, and my folks still live there (and always will). After college, I left North Dakota for South Dakota, where I now introduce college kids to some of our greats like Willa Cather, Louise Erdrich, and Ted Kooser. The Midwest is my home; it’s one of my true loves. I’ll never leave the Midwest, except maybe to live on a beach in Puerto Rico.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
Completely and irrevocably. I can’t imagine that this big sky, this open prairie, those abandoned farmhouses, the Missouri River, sage, antelope, and cheap, canned beer won’t continue to inspire and strike me. I romanticize the hell out of the Midwest in my writing, but I don’t think I am naive. At least, I hope not.
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?
Because everyone else thinks we’re a bunch of ignorant, racist, homophobic, anti-women hicks with nothing to say. This is largely because whenever we make the news, it’s probably because of some ignorant, racist, homophobic, anti-women incident. People mistakenly believe that fly-over country has nothing to contribute, or that we couldn’t possibly understand how the world works. I also think literary magazines in places like Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota are hesitant to publish Midwest-themed literature because they don’t want to be labeled as hokey. It seems one can’t be edgy and write about the farm at the same time. This makes me sad.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I think it’s a fine tool to use. If I have a reading coming up, or am presenting at a conference, or have a poem published, or discover a great literary magazine (like Midwestern Gothic!) I’ll certainly post about it on Facebook. I probably should use social media to network more, but Words with Friends takes us so much of my time.
Favorite book?
I get to choose more than one, right? John Irving’s The World According to Garp. Annie Proulx’s collection, Close Range. Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent. Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. I better stop now. Oh, and the Harry Potter series.
Favorite food?
Pizza loaf. I bet I’ve piqued your interest!
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Willa Cather. Goldang, I love that woman.
Where can we find more information about you?
I don’t have a website, and I don’t blog anymore. Google me, I suppose?
Join us in welcoming some new members to the Midwestern Gothic team: Emily Paull and Kayla Silverstein!
Emily and Kayla are two of the University of Michigan’s best and brightest, and they’ll be interning with us this summer, helping us promote our mission and learning a bit about the inner workings of a literary journal along the way. We’re thrilled to have them on board.
Kayla Silverstein will be going on her fourth year of undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan in fall 2013 and is pursuing multiple degrees in English, Creative Writing, and French. Born in Miami but raised in Michigan, the Midwest is where she calls home. At UM, she works as a paid blogger for Arts at Michigan, reviewing performances around campus. She is also an intern at the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor and an active participant in the UM Women’s Glee Club.
Emily Paull is a student at the University of Michigan, pursuing a degree in English and French, as well as a Secondary Teacher certification. She is a native Michigander from the west side of the state who enjoys writing fiction and playing the cello.
How long have you been writing?
Not nearly long enough.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I am a daughter of South Dakota: born, raised, and educated. I was born in central South Dakota, grew up west of the river in the Black Hills, and earned my degrees east of the river in the big cities of Sioux Falls and Vermillion. I was lucky enough to return to the hills to teach writing. The Huses and Wikas have long-standing histories of being SoDakian farmers and teachers, and I always felt very strongly that connection to this land and that family history.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
When I was a kid, I honestly thought the world ended just beyond the hill near my grandparents’ house in Pierre, South Dakota. I would stand with the Missouri River at my back and peer into the distance and see nothing—just an unending expanse that could easily swallow me up. I learned quickly that this land demands respect, demands to be known. Eudora Welty once wrote, “Location is the ground conductor of all the currents of emotion and belief and moral conviction that charge out from the story in its course.” The history here—my own and beyond—is inescapable. My characters can’t help but inherit it for their own.
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?
Probably because Midwesterners would have to be the ones to push—to say, Look at what we’ve created and all that we can share with you—and we’re not big on being braggarts.
In all seriousness, I don’t know the answer to this. That Midwestern writing has yet to be wholly embraced like that is a great tragedy.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I admire people who are savvy with these kinds of things. My Facebook page is mostly full of complaints about SoDak weather, Saturday Night Live episode reviews, and cat pictures.
Favorite book?
Oh, no! This is impossible to answer; how about we compromise and I give you (very short) list? Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Rushdie; House on Mango Street, Cisneros; Of Bees and Mist, Setiawan; Oryx and Crake, Atwood; If the River Was Whiskey, Boyle.
Favorite food?
My grandmother’s strawberry jam and egg-on-toast.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Joss Whedon, and it would be a beer, specifically a Shiner, preferably a Shiner Cheer.
Where can we find more information about you?
You can take one of my writing or literature courses at Black Hills State. Or, if the description above didn’t drive you away, you can friend me on Facebook.
Angela Palm’s story “Shoes For All Time” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 9, out now.
Matthew Fogarty’s story “The Brinkmans Abroad” appears in 
Lindy Obach’s piece “In Case I Croak” appears in 
Kayla Silverstein will be going on her fourth year of undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan in fall 2013 and is pursuing multiple degrees in English, Creative Writing, and French. Born in Miami but raised in Michigan, the Midwest is where she calls home. At UM, she works as a paid blogger for Arts at Michigan, reviewing performances around campus. She is also an intern at the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor and an active participant in the UM Women’s Glee Club.
Emily Paull is a student at the University of Michigan, pursuing a degree in English and French, as well as a Secondary Teacher certification. She is a native Michigander from the west side of the state who enjoys writing fiction and playing the cello.
Courtney Huse Wika’s poem “In the Beginning” appears in 
