Willie VerSteeg discusses the epigraph, formal technique, & Donald Justice

KJB: Like the epigraph that opens the piece, there is a diffusion of things seen in this poem. If the light that Justice speaks of conveys happiness, the speaker in "Porch Season” seems to diffuse the scene with a tone that is almost-sentimental ambivalence. The dusk “tumbles in”, the flower petals get stuck like “misplaced romance”, even the boy ignores the speaker. Yet, the ending carries readers to a sense of relief, which can quite easily be associated - though isn’t parallel to - happiness. Was this poem an attempt to rectify these two similar emotions with one another, or to hold a mirror up to Justice’s concept of happiness?

InterviewsHaydens FerryMay 8, 2016

A Mini-Q&A with Kate Greene

DOCK CONTRIBUTOR KATE GREENE EXPLAINS complicity in an age of mass-media

KJB: In Pierogies from the Old Country, the speaker seems to torn by their complicity in the creation of disaster. Yet, the exit from the poem pushes the idea that our voyeuristic tendencies can both highlight a problem while making it seem distant/other. Do you find this happening more and more in an age of what some pundits term “slack-tivisim”?

InterviewsHaydens FerryMarch 19, 2016The Dock, kate greene, Q&A

Sitting on Palimpsests: An Interview with Alvin Pang

Singaporean poet Alvin Pang met several HFR editors at AWP in Minneapolis and, upon discovering that many of us would be in Singapore that summer on various fellowships, casually suggested meeting up. One May afternoon, he kindly crammed as many of as us as we could fit into his car and took us for a tour of Singapore. Between pointing out the most haunted building in Singapore, lunch at a hawker center, and wine at the Flower Dome, he sat down with us in the National Library for a conversation.

-Sue Hyon Bae

InterviewsHaydens FerryMarch 17, 2016Interview, International, awp, singapore, Alvin Pang, Sue Hyon Bae

A Mini-Q&A with Muriel Nelson

DOCK Contributor Muriel Nelson shares the secret behind the delicious final stanza in her poem, "On Silent Haunches"

KJB: The line from Psalm 19:2 seems to be a perfect companion for the way in which you respond/pay homage to Sandburg’s, “Fog”. Did you find any of the rest of the Psalm informing the poem, or did the line just spring out to you organically?

InterviewsHaydens FerryMarch 2, 2016The Dock, Poetry, Interview, Q&A, murielnelson

Rebecca Wood Interviews Dinika Amaral

RW: The story focuses on food and household items rather than people, is there a specific value you are trying to place on objects in household routines, maybe more so than the actual people?

DA: I was trying to prioritize objects over people, but couldn’t manage it. After the idea for SoBT was born I stuck with revising it for a couple years because I wanted to write a story without people that was still interesting for the reader.

JUST PULLED INTO PORT: MEGHAN E. GILES | RECEPTION

This months featured poet is Meghan E. Giles, a comrade in arms from The McNeese Review. Make sure you go check it out over on The Dock, then feel free to keep browsing (or maybe even buy a subscription...!)

Enjoy the interview with the poet below.

InterviewsHaydens FerryNovember 3, 2015The Dock, Poetry, Reception, Meghan Giles, The McNeese Review

JUST PULLED IN TO PORT: Trevor Ketner | Erode

A surprising take on the dance of continents, Trever Ketner's poem Erode is one you're not soon to forget. He is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2015, we're just happy we got to him first.

Check out the interview between Kyle Bassett and Ketner below, then head over to The Dock for a fresh catch.

InterviewsHaydens FerryOctober 24, 2015The Dock, Poetry, Interview, Trevor Ketner

A Mini-Q&A with Angela Hine

Here's a mini Q and A with our poetry editor, Jackie, and Angela to get you excited. Read the piece here.

JB: The poem is based on a real event which I heard about from someone, who had heard from someone, who had heard from someone else. Some details, such as the setting, are factual: I knew what the weather was like that day and I was familiar with the creek and the dam. The omniscient speaker, I think, was born of my struggle to imagine what everyone in this unimaginable situation was feeling. Mortality and weakness were both the inevitable conclusion and discovered through the process. I think that’s why that line, “you see where this is going,” got in there—there was no other conclusion, no other way for the story to go.

InterviewsHaydens FerrySeptember 1, 2015The Dock, Poetry

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