Anna VQ Ross (Poetry Fellow '18) writes poems that confront our current climate of apprehension and disconnection in an effort "to pierce it and understand it." In this audio clip, Ross reads her poem Almost a Mothering. She also discusses the poem's origin as well as the questions that drive her work. (Though Mass Cultural Council interviewed her long before the COVID-19 … [Read more...]
Interviews
P. Carl: The Story of Becoming a Man
In a recent feature on WBUR's Radio Boston, P. Carl (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow '18) discussed why he wrote his new memoir, Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition. In part, it was because he didn't see trans stories like his being told, and "any time you're adding to the stories that are missing in our culture, that might be helpful somewhere down the line." It … [Read more...]
Poet Jacob Strautmann: What Changes, What Doesn’t
On March 2, 2020, Jacob Strautmann (Poetry Fellow '18) launches his poetry collection The Land of the Dead Is Open for Business (Four Ways Books) at the Blacksmith House Poetry Series. In this audio clip, Strautmann reads his poem For as Long as it Lasts (and it will Last if Money can be Made). He also discusses the poem's origin as well as his upbringing "in the shadow of … [Read more...]
Lisa Gruenberg: My City of Dreams
In the early 2000s, a family crisis set physician Lisa Gruenberg on the unexpected path to being a writer. In 2012, she received a Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction and in 2019, she published her memoir My City of Dreams. We asked her about the trajectory of that book, her journey as a writer, and other surprising turns in her life and … [Read more...]
Sari Boren: Exhibiting
Sari Boren (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist '14) writes prose and plays and is an independent museum exhibit developer. She's about to perform her one-woman show Exhibiting at the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education in Lincroft, NJ (Monday, December 2nd, 7 PM), having premiered it at the Newton Theatre Company in April 2019. Here, she discusses … [Read more...]