BackStory: Four Questions with Noa Covo Author of Tussaud What inspired you to write ‘Tussaud’? As a child, I read a book about famous inventions and works of art that included Marie Tussaud’s life story, which I found both gruesome…
Tussaud
Tussaud by Noa Covo She grows up in a house of abandoned arms and legs. She is taught to count on wax hands severed at the wrist, she caresses faces that end at the neck as her mother dusts. As…
BackStory: Five Questions with Mandira Pattnaik
BackStory: Five Questions with Mandira Pattnaik Author of Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope What inspired you to write ‘Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope’? I read a newspaper article about the sandstone forts of Jodhpur and Jaipur, India. The accompanying image of a…
Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope
Regarding Gray, Carmine, Pyrope by Mandira Pattnaik Gray is a morass of doubt and indifference and coot is a water bird with black feathers and a white bill. Black and white. Not Gray. Not in the sunlight. So she’s come…
BackStory: Six Questions with Bryan Harvey
BackStory: Six Questions with Bryan Harvey Author of She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback What inspired you to write ‘She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback’? I was reading Tony Perrottet’s Cuba Libre: Che, Fidel, and the…
She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback
She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback By Bryan Harvey She arrived at the mountain hideout on horseback—rain evaporating from the leaves in a gray shroud. He couldn’t see her. Having tossed his spectacles to the ground, he had…
BackStory: Four Questions with Jac Harmon
BackStory: Four Questions with Jac Harmon Author of 1916 What inspired you to write ‘1916’? The piece was inspired by some research I did for a presentation. I’d volunteered to be an archaeological guide on a dig and part of…
1916
1916 by Jac Harmon You lie on your back, staring up at the sky, an arcing, heart-aching infinity of blue, stretching beyond the limits of your sight, beyond the limits of the mud that sucks and clings, feels its way…
BackStory: Five Questions with Frankie McMillan
BackStory: Five Questions with Frankie McMillan Author of We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960 What inspired you to write ‘We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960’? A friend posted me a photo as a writing prompt. The photo, a woman with…
We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960
We, the School Dental Nurses, 1960 by Frankie McMillan We are the dental nurses, our cardigans tulip red, our feet rubber soled, we are the foot soldiers, we wave to the bomber jets as they unleash their arsenal of bright…