Mud Season Review
Q. You told Chuck that “Truth would be easier to tell as fiction.” Generalize on that comment. Why does a fictional rendition of an event often have more impact than its actual portrayal? A. When I first thought about writing the scene of my mother belittling my writing, it was too painful to put on […]
What gave you the idea to write “Two Supplicants in the Queen City?” For the last few years, I’ve immersed myself in a big family-biography project/memoir focused on the first American-born generation on my father’s side. Wading through the extensive archival holdings at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, as well as continuing to sift […]
An Interview with Sarah Harley by Andrew Miller, Mud Season Review, Creative Nonfiction Editor Virginia Woolf obviously inspires you. What about her stream-of-consciousness style particularly lends itself to the issues you dealt with in “The Atlantic Hotel?” I do love the work of Virginia Woolf and the lens through which she sees the world, […]
“…although we cannot escape grief, grief and joy do not contradict each other. They can coexist, and thus we do not need to fear grief.” The first paragraph of your essay suggests a “nature-nurture” question: How much has your life been structured by your mother’s emotional state while pregnant compared to your upbringing? Both […]
An Interview with Brad Shurmantine by Andrew Miller, Mud Season Review, Creative Nonfiction Editor This story is about my mother’s heroism. If I had been a teenager, I would have been telling her what to do and getting us all killed. “Mom! Chill! It’ll blow over!” –Brad Shurmantine At the beginning of “Inconceivable,” you and […]
Interview with Michelle Spokes by Creative Nonfiction Editor Andrew Miller “I’m trying out different versions of the fantasy so it feels right, returning to the beginning of a scene and then varying it. Writing it felt a little like reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book.” “New Girlfriend” is a segmented, primarily chronological essay, with […]
“I think the physical world is on all our minds, we often just don’t know where to drill down, what to look at first. That’s our opportunity.” –Suzanne Siteman You expressed (in “Holy Water”) valid ecological concerns without over-sentimentalizing. Was that an active decision on your part? Should that approach be a goal of good […]
An Interview with Suzanne Siteman by Creative Nonfiction Associate Editor Andrew Miller “I think the physical world is on all of our minds, we often just don’t know where to drill down, what to look at first. That’s our opportunity.” –Suzanne Siteman You expressed valid ecological concerns without over-sentimentalizing. Was that an active decision on […]
An Interview with Libby R. Horton by Andrew Miller, Mud Season Review Associate Creative Nonfiction Editor You have a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and an interest in creative writing. Have you pondered how to reconcile these two disparate fields? I’ve seen creative writing as orthogonal to my work as a scientist. It took me a […]