The wonderful Aria Curtis, incoming International Editor, spoke with intern Sarah Todd Stansbury about travel, writing, and reading.
STS: What drew you to the position of International Editor?
AC: Oh, wow. Where to start. I think my upbringing had a lot to do with it. My mother is Iranian and my father is American, and I went to an International School where I was in a Spanish-English bilingual program.
Read MoreOur new International Editor, Sue Hyon Bae, discusses Mark Doty, Korean euphemisms, and the lack of seasons in the desert with intern Michael Cohen.
Michael Cohen: You’re the new International Editor at HFR—what does that title mean to you?
Sue Hyon Bae: Being constantly surprised, from the moment I accepted the position and every time I look at the queue and find a new amazing translation. I’d applied for poetry editor initially and was flattered but alarmed to be made international editor. It’s also a lot of responsibility; since we don’t have international readers, my fellow international editor Aria and I are solely in charge of choosing which translations to publish, without any third opinions.
Read MoreOur new Managing Editor, Dustin Pearson, discusses adult-like things, sushi rice, and the most important thing he’s discovered since joining HFR (himself) with intern Michael Cohen.
Michael Cohen: You’re the new Managing Editor at HFR—what does that title mean to you?
Dustin Pearson: Well, right now it means doing all the correspondence between our contributors. So the way that our process works is: the genre editors, they’ll go through the material—after it’s been passed up from the first, second, and third readers—and they’ll go through it, basically decide which pieces that they want, and then they’ll accept the piece initially.
Read MoreOur new special projects editor, Kevin Lichty, discusses top secret plans, old radios, and Toy Fox Terriers.
Shelby Heinrich: Special projects editor sounds like a very interesting and important title. What exactly does this title entail?
Kevin Lichty: The special projects editor is job made and remade every year. Essentially, any idea that an editor has (as an individual or as a collective "editors") that falls outside of the traditional pages of HFR and everyone loves, it is the special project editors job to make that idea happen.
Read MoreHFR: I love how this poem explores magical realism in its address to “you.” It speaks to the imagination of the girl and calls attention to the more quiet, realistic line: “In you mother’s circle you are the one / with bad breath, dirty fingernails, red stripes on your shoulders.” Can you speak a little about the pairing of this imagery? I am also interested in the inciting incident of the photograph and how the events begin to overlap in each stanza. Did you begin writing this poem with this incident or did it develop through revision, and did that influence the form?
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