Research Notes
I Keep My Worries in My Teeth by Anna Cox
My novel, I Keep My Worries in My Teeth begins and ends inside a camera obscura. A camera obscura is a simple thing that produces big wows.
Fiction
What the Jesus Man’s Eyes Won’t See by Joshua Jones
The girl sees it first, a smudge of fur along the gravel shoulder. She stops, and Small almost walks into her, then he sees it too. Yes, it’s real.
Research Notes
Teresa Milbrodt on Instances of Head-Switching
The best way to research physical disability is to be alive for awhile. At minimum you’ll wear out your eyes or ears or joints, need glasses or hearing aids or a cane, and be warmly weled to the world of prosthetic devices.
Fiction
Before a Little Bit More by Michelle Morouse
I talk to Haruki Murakami at the culvert by the bridge over Stickler’s Creek. Usually.
Research Notes
Tea Hacic-Vlahovic on Life of the Party
What does a writer do? Not a goddamn thing. They know how to think or how to drink. That’s our talent. I didn’t research Life of the Party. I lived it, bitch!
Fiction
So Many Holes in This Our Universe by Kenton K. Yee
Father seldom came home for dinner. Now, he never es home, and Mother gets a phone call every evening during dinner.
Fiction
Biology is Rarely Kind by Corey Farrenkopf
Something pulls seagulls beneath the surface of the pond. I watch through my bedroom window.
Research Notes
Margo Orlando Littell on The Distance from Four Points
My novel The Distance from Four Points is about a wealthy suburbanite who unexpectedly bees a small-town landlord after her husband’s tragic death. I based the small town of Four Points on my hometown in southwestern Pennsylvania, though Four Points is a little poorer, a little rougher, than its real-life counterpart.
Fiction
The Adventures of Amaan as Told By Someone Else’s Mother by Sara Levine
That kid Amaan stood on the playground, pushing kids over as they ran past. Children fell like daisies under the scythe.
Research Notes
Juditha Dowd on Audubon's Sparrow: A Biography-in-Poems
Ten years ago, on a bone-chilling winter night in New Jersey, I was rummaging on my husband’s nightstand for something new. Although admittedly bored and restless, I wasn’t seeking inspiration; I just wanted a good read. Randomly I settled on Richard Rhodes’ biography John James Audubon: The Making of an American, a Christmas gift from a daughter.
Fiction
Pinch by Rachele Salvini
My mom used to pinch me so hard that her fingers would snap.