Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her first poetry chapbook, Objects in Vases, won the 2016 ASPS Award for Poetry Book of the Year. Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Prize and was published in May 2018. Her writing can be found in many diverse journals, and she serves as Poetry Editor for Pidgeonholes. Finally, she’s been a finalist for or recipient of several prizes just this year, and she loves to collaborate across mediums and be the poem she wants to read in the world.
On this episode of ‘Cover to Cover with . . .,’ Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with Stefanescu about her recent publications, gender roles, pornography, violence in America, progressive metal, and much more!…
Karolina Zapal is an itinerant poet, essayist, translator, and author of Polalka (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018). Her second book, Notes for Mid-Birth, is forthcoming from Inside the Castle in late 2019. She is collaborating with the poet CA Conrad on translating their book, The Book of Frank, into Polish. Her work has appeared in Posit, Cathexis Northwest, Witness, Bone Bouquet, Adirondack Review, Bombay Gin, Foglifter, and others. She has completed three artist residencies: Greywood Arts in Killeagh, Ireland; Brashnar Creative Project in Skopje, Macedonia; and Bridge Guard in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She served as the Anselm Hollo Fellow at Naropa University from 2015-2017. She now works in Student Services at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities.…
Diana Raab is a memoirist, poet, essayist, blogger, and speaker. She has a PhD in Psychology with a concentration in Transpersonal Psychology and a research focus on the healing and transformative powers of memoir writing. She’s published nearly a dozen books and over 1000 articles and poems. Her latest book, Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life, was published by Loving Healing Press in September 2017.
In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with Raab about the intersections between psychology and creative writing, including dealing with trauma, getting past mental/emotional roadblocks, and the like.
Jen McConnell is a fiction writer and poet. Her work has most recently appeared in Buck Off Magazine, Luna Luna, Mused, and the Blue Lotus Review. Her debut collection of short stories, Welcome, Anybody, was published by Press 53 in 2012. She’s currently working on her second collection. She earned degrees in English and Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. Be sure to visit her website, too!
In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with McConnell about her story “Yorba, Yorba,’ her MFA, publishing, and mentor experiences, and more!
Tom Kirkham is “a 30-something music obsessive and part-time explorer from North West England,” as well as a musician and songwriter in Silent Alliance, among elsewhere. Most recently, his the author of Pop Life – The Story of a Minor Musical Expedition, which finds Kirkham detailing how, after the deaths of David Bowie and Prince, he ‘learned to love music and life again via an intensive, year-long trawl through the back rooms and bars, concert halls and stadiums of the live gig circuit, searching for transcendence, or at the very least, an unobscured view.”
In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum also puts on his music critic hat to talk with Kirkham about his process and motivations for the book, his love for artists like Bowie, Prince, Kate Bush, Steely Dan, coping with anxiety, depression, and the dangers and polarization of modern society, and much more!…
Nina Murray is a poet and a literary translator, as well as a U.S. diplomat. She grew up in Ukraine and have degrees in linguistics and creative writing. Her debut poetry book, Minimize Considered, was just published by Finishing Line Press and her individual work and translations can be found in a number of venues.
In this episode of Cover to Cover with . . ., Editor-in-Chief Jordan Blum speaks with Murray about her latest poetry collection, the ups and downs of being a professional translator, journal guidelines, and more (including a live reading of her poem “George Washington’s Rules of Civility”).
Dixon Hearne writes the American South. He is the author of seven books of fiction and poetry. His work has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as the PEN/Hemingway and PEN/Faulkner awards. From Tickfaw to Shongaloo was awarded Second Place in the 2014 Faulkner Novella Competition, judged by Moira Crone. His latest book is Plainspeak: New and Selected Poems. Other work appears in Oxford American, New Orleans Review, Tulane Review,Louisiana Literature, Potomac Review, Wisconsin Review, New Plains Review, Weber: The Contemporary West, and elsewhere. He has published five books of fiction, three anthologies, and innumerable short stories in magazines and journals. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and book events, including the 2009, 2015, and 2016 Louisiana Book Festivals. …
