Category: Sweet Connections (Page 11 of 12)

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

 Name: Lesley Wheeler
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  “Feeling Good”
Issue:  10.1

Find her: 

Twitter
Instagram

One might usually find Lesley “in some corner of Lexington, Virginia, trying to get some reading or writing done”.  Check out more on her website https://lesleywheeler.org/.

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

In January I had a poem featured on Poetry Daily, and in February an essay—that felt like a rare conjunction! I also gave a craft talk and a reading as Visiting Faculty at the very first residency of the brand-new Randolph MFA program. Director Gary Dop is doing terrific work there and I was honored to be a small part of it.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I hope “Feeling Good” will be part of a poetry collection with the working title Turning Fifty in the Confederacy, which is probably self-explanatory. In addition to figuring out the transitions of middle age, I’ve been thinking hard about where I live. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson haunt my campus and my small town.

Who is your favorite author?

Emily Dickinson!

What is your favorite sweet?

The sweet she craves most often, sadly, is Giapo’s chocolate-hazelnut sorbet in Auckland, New Zealand, but she is willing to consider substitutes.

Thank you, Lesley, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Meghan O’Dea
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  Downstream in Highland Park
Issue:  10.2

Find her:

Twitter
Instagram

Since we saw her last, Meghan moved across the country to Portland, Oregon from Tennessee. “I had only two weeks to plan the whole leap. It was wild, but now I’m settling in and love the Pacific Northwest. All the grey and the mist and the proximity to this cold, wild ocean really feeds me in a way I would never have expected.”.  Find out more about Meghan on her website www.meghanodea.com.

 
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

All kinds of things. I’ve earned some dream bylines with Yoga Journal, Bustle, Eater, and Chowhound. I also broke into travel writing, which is a dream come true. I’ve had the chance to travel to Mexico, Arizona, Ohio, the Willamette Valley, and Jamaica on assignments. I still can’t believe it.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

The reason I moved to Portland so suddenly was to start a new chapter in my career. I get to write about camping all day for a company called The Dyrt. After years of covering the good, bad, and ugly as a journalist and news editor, it’s really nice to spend my day steeped in a pastime that makes people happy and more in touch with themselves and the world around them.

Who is your favorite author?

Probably Karrie Higgins. The things she does with language, incorporating artifacts and other documents into her essays, with intermedia, with disability and mental health and the taboo and geography…it’s all just really incredible and like nothing else anyone is doing.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

That answer totally depends on the day I’m asked. My favorite poem of all time might be “The Horse Latitudes” by Susan Firer. I read it when I was maybe 15 and I never forgot the imagery of women with wings made of all sorts of things, even toast, and this marvelous feminine diversity. Really everything from that collection of hers, The Laugh We Make When We Fall has stuck with me since my teens. Years after my first readings and re-readings, I’m still trying to process Sara Majka’s Cities I’ve Never Lived In, which is this incredible blend of fiction and nonfiction that explores our sense of home and memory and self and the nature of space and place. I also just discovered the wonderful Genevieve Hudson by happenstance at a reading at Powell’s recently. She just released the funny, sad, beautiful, grotesque Pretend We Live Here, a collection of stories that are all kinds of embodied queer Southern gothic goodness.

What inspires you to write?

Writing is kind of like breathing— something I have to do just to keep existing, even if no one ever sees it. But for the stuff I put out there in the world, I always keep in mind that being a human can be lonely and a writer more so. I write to make connections between people and ideas and words and moments, between ways of being and the places we inhabit. I write to understand the things that make me feel lonely, which ironically are often what you think would eliminate loneliness, like family and home and love. I want my work to communicate about and build community around different forms of resilience.

What is your favorite sweet?

My grandmother made this bizarre dessert called Hopscotch that I just love. It’s one of those midcentury confections where you combine a bunch of seemingly random stuff from the grocery store, and the recipe probably came off the back of a pack of a Nestle Toll House package in 1962 or something. It involves butterscotch, chow mein noodles, marshmallows, and peanut butter. I like it because it’s a little savory as well as sweet, it’s got a nice crunch, and eating a square always blasts me back to Western New York in the 1990s, with the smell of boxwood and birch bark and the musty basement at my grandfather’s house. It’s probably my favorite place on earth, so being able to eat something that makes me feel like I’m there at the time when that place was the happiest, that makes me smile.

I grew up with those, too, but they were called Haystacks.  We found a recipe online that calls them Hopscotch Haystacks, so I’m guessing different locations must have adapted the name. 

 Thank you, Meghan, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Paul Crenshaw
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  Highwire
Issue:  8.3

Find him:
Twitter

You can find this four time Best American Essayist in Lawrence, Kansas, which was the location for many of science fiction writer, James Gunn’s novels, including The Immortals (1964).

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

I have two collections of essays coming out in 2019: This One Will Hurt You, runner-up in the Gournay Prize, will be published by The Ohio State University Press.

Pre-Order

And This We’ll Defend, a collection of essays on my time in the military, will be out later in 2019 from University of North Carolina Press.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I’m working on revising a memoir about growing up next to an old tuberculosis sanatorium that was converted to a home for the developmentally disabled in the early 70s. Most of the buildings are boarded up and sealed off. I lived in a rented house on the grounds for a few years. It’s a strange place.

Also working on a new collection of pop culture essays.

Who is your favorite author?

Right now I’m re-reading John McPhee—he’s certainly close.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

I just finished Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm.

What is your favorite sweet?

This is the best candy bar in the world, ever:

Hazelnut Five Star Bars

Thank you, Paul, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

 Name: Joel Long
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  Late Life Winter
Issue:  10.3

Find him:

 Instagram

Joel says you can usually find him on the shores of the Great Salt Lake and if it’s with these cute puppies, we would be too!

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

Aside from getting my daughter married in France, I had some poems and photos appear in Terrain.org.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I’m constantly working on new poems and essays.  I have a several manuscripts that I am revising and shopping, but now, I want to turn toward a prose manuscript as well.

Who is your favorite author?

Oh, such a difficult question.  In a pinch, I always return to Virginia Woolf or Annie Dillard.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

I love Rilke’s “Ninth Duino Elegy.”

What inspires you to write?

The mystery, terror and beauty of the everyday.

What is your favorite sweet?

Pistachio gelato in Florence, Italy, Gelateria La Carraia.

Oh my, that looks heavenly!

Thank you, Joel, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Joey Chin
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  For the Love of Loss (and Vice Versa)
Issue:  9.3
 

Find her:

Instagram

Joey is currently based in Wakefield, UK as an artist-in-residence. Sounds like a tough gig, Joey! You can find out more about Joey on her website www.joeychin.com .

 
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

Last year, two of my poems were featured in an anthology, Inheritance (Math Paper Press, 2017) which was launched at the Singapore Writers Festival.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I am currently an artist-in-residence in The Art House Wakefield, working on a conceptual project that involves donated books, with dedications written on its cover. This project will explore acts of reading, giving, and give-away.

Who is your favorite author?

I don’t have a favourite, although I must have read all the books written by Ha Jin, Julian Barnes, and Hanif Kureshi.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

I find myself returning to the anthology, Language for a New Century, edited by Tina Chang, Ravi Shankar and Natalie Handal, for its depth of contemporary poetry from Asia and the Middle-East, and also their diaspora. There are also thoughtful essays interspersed throughout the book written by the editors as an introduction to each section. Each essay is well-crafted, lyrical and sensitive.

What inspires you to write?

The books and poetry, that I read, and the art I encounter.

What is your favorite sweet?

My partner, Romanos is Greek, and has introduced me to a wonderful sweet, kataifi (καταϊφι). It is a pastry-sort of dessert packed with nuts, full of sugary-buttery goodness. I liked it so much that many years ago, I packed it back with me from Athens, onboard a flight home to Singapore. Of course, it was a terrible idea, as the syrup leaked out, ruining my books, clothing and souvenirs.

Oooh, it’s like the Asian bird’s nest meets baklava!  That sounds amazing.

Thank you, Joey, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Emily Brisse
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  To Be Held
Issue:  10.3

Find her:

Instagram

Emily is currently a teacher at Breck School in Minneapolis, MN. You can find out more about Emily on www.landingoncloudywater.blogspot.com, even though she claims the posts are few and far between. We firmly believe in quality over quantity, Emily, so you’re still amazing in our book.

 
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

Emily was a finalist in December Magazine’s Kurt Johnson Prose Award contest.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I’m working on a novel, set in the early 1990s, that examines one young woman’s experience with harassment in the workplace.

Who is your favorite author?

Louise Erdrich

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

Impossible to answer, but I’m currently reading Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, and it is keeping me up way past my bedtime.

What inspires you to write?

Many, many things; if I’m feeling stuck, though, going outside and writing by hand helps the words start moving again.

What is your favorite sweet?

Sebastian Joe’s raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.

We love local favorites, especially when it’s ice cream!

Thank you, Emily, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Anne Champion
Title of Piece published in Sweet: Florence Nightingale: The Lady With A Lamp
Issue: 9.3

Find her:
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

Anne resides in Boston, and teaches both at Emerson College and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. You can find out more about her at anne-champion.com.

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

I published The Good Girl is Always a Ghost with Black Lawrence Press—it contains the poem that was published in Sweet.

I also have a collaborative collection written with Jenny Sadre-Orafai, Book of Levitations, which will be published by Trembling Pillow Press next summer.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I wrote a chapbook of feminist hagiography to female saints in Christianity. I’m still looking for a publisher for it and hope it finds a home someday!

I’m currently writing a lot of political work: anti-colonial, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism poems.

Who is your favorite author?

Sylvia Plath.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

Ooof! Tough question. There’s so many! But I love the Ariel poems by Sylvia Plath, Rookery by Traci Brimhall, Seam by Tarfia Faizullah, and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith.

What inspires you to write?

Destruction: the best thing you can do in the midst of so much destruction is to create. Creating art is a message to the world that you refuse to be destroyed.

What is your favorite sweet?

I love all sweets! I’m addicted to any and all chocolate, but I have to say a sweet that has a special place in my heart would be Baklava.

Ooh, we love all that honey goodness, too. Kudos to those who are brave enough to make it!

Thank you, Anne, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future! 

**Be sure to be on the lookout for an upcoming interview with Anne on October 15th and a book review in the near future!**

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Nicola Koh
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  Kiss
Issue:  9.3

Find her:

Twitter

Nicola resides in Twin Cities, MN: “Technically Saint Paul, but it is all one city, don’t let the persnickety locals tell you otherwise.” You can also find her on her website nickolakoh.com.

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

Chronologically:

1. Finalist for the 2017 Glimmer Train Fiction Open
2. Graduated from Hamline University’s MFA program (Fiction)
3. VONA/Voices 2018 fellow
4. Became a teaching artist at the Loft Literary Center
5. A CNF piece forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

Doing some research for a potential literary enterprise.

Who is your favorite author?

Katharine Patterson

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

“Small History”, by Deborah Keenan (Happiness, 1995)
“Eleven Stories of Water and Stone”, by Aurvi Sharma (Prairie Schooner, Spring 2015)
“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies, 1999)
Bridge to Terabithia, 1977

What inspires you to write?

Obsession with the narratives that shape life.

What is your favorite sweet?

Cadbury Milk Chocolate Minis

Thank you, Nicola, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.

Name: Caitlin Scarano
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  “Did You Hear the One About the Man Who Killed the World’s Tallest Tree?”
Issue:  10.3

Find her:

Twitter

Caitlin lives between the Skagit River and the border of Canada, which is on the West Coast for those of you who need to look that up (I did).  This September you can also find her at the Montana Book Festival in Missoula.   Check out more on her website www.caitlinscarano.com.

What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

I am really, really excited to go to Antarctica this fall as a participant in the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists & Writers Program. I’ll be based in McMurdo Station. If you readers want to follow my adventures, I’ll be blogging about it on my site while I’m there!

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I’m working on an essay right now about shadow blisters.

Who is your favorite author?

This changes all the time. I’m digging everything Kristin Chang is putting out lately.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

This also changes frequently! I recently found this essay by Jennifer Cheng and think it is a beauty.

What inspires you to write?

That damn barred owl outside my bedroom window each night.

Recently, I’ve found myself writing to the young woman my niece, who is currently six, is going to become, especially about lessons (related to gender, sex, love, self-accountability, addiction, etc) I’ve learned the hard way.

What is your favorite sweet?

Bread pudding is life.

Thank you, Caitlin, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
 
Name: Marlena Maduro Baraf
Title of Piece published in Sweet:  The Diner
Issue:  10.3

Find her:
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook

Born and raised in Panama, Marlena now calls the United States her country of residence. You can find out more about her and her native roots on her website https://www.breathinginspanish.com.
 
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?

Ah, after a few days’ escape to the marshy bays and flat, quiet lengths of ocean in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I must gear up to button up any rough patches of manuscript in my memoir, At the Narrow Waist of the World, to send to my publisher for the process of book creation to begin. The memoir will be published in the early fall of 2019. This is my most exciting news.

The memoir is a coming of age story set in the steamy tropics of Panama and populated by a lively family of Spanish-Portuguese Jews. The girl’s mother is mentally ill. The girl pulls away from her and lands in the United States.

Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?

I continue to interview ordinary Hispanics, Latinos, Latinx, in a series called Soy/Somos (I am/We are). Some of these essay/interviews first appeared in HuffPost. Others continue via my blog and can be found on my website. My most recent conversation for this series took place a couple of weeks ago with Nico, a Colombian composer living in Boston who plays el Arpa Llanera, a harp with origins in the folk music of the plains of Colombia and Venezuela. I have quite a collection of voices in the series, and I’m hoping to find a home for more individual pieces and for the series as a whole, maybe in book form.

Who is your favorite author?

There are so many, but one that sticks way up there is W.G. Sebald, German author of Austerlitz, The Immigrants, Vertigo, and another book. Austerlitz died in an accident at the height of his powers. You can’t pin down his work; he mixes fiction, memory, photographs, history. There is a dreamlike quality to his stories. I just finished a book of stories, The Mountain, by Paul Yoon, recently published that reminds me of Sebald’s work.

What is your favorite poem/essay/book?

A book I do still love dearly, though I read it long ago, is Julia Alvarez’ How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, because the family life of these girls is populated by very important tías and tíos (aunts and uncles) and primos (cousins), so close to my own experience growing up in a large extended family. There is a lot of resonance here with my own memoir that will be published next year.

What inspires you to write?

The need to uncover what I am seeing. We do get to live a second time when we write.

What is your favorite sweet?

My tía Mimí, my father’s sister who never married, put her heart and soul into pastries. She made the most delicious lemon meringue pie. The closest thing I’ve found in the US is a key-lime pie, though the crust here is a Graham Cracker thing and hers for the pie was pastry–delicate and delicious. I love the combination of the tart and sweet of key lime pie and like to visit Steves Authentic Key Lime Pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where we can sit on wood benches along the water’s edge and see the Statue of Liberty not too far in the distance.

This is a view of the old brick and metal warehouses in Red Hook, Brooklyn, (where I get the key-lime pie), an old and magical place.

We found the recipe online from an episode on Food Network about the owner, Steve Tarpin.

Thank you, Marlena, for taking the time to reconnect with us.  We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!