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Craft Capsules

In our weekly series of craft essays, some of the best and brightest minds in contemporary literature explore their craft in compact form, articulating their thoughts about creative obsessions and curiosities in a working notebook of lessons about the art of writing.

Craft Capsule: In Praise of Italics

by

Susan Stinson

3.29.21

Close-up of the first page of the prologue from Susan Stinson’s novel Venus of Chalk. The visible body text is set in italics.

The author of Martha Moody writes about the intimacy and queerness of italics.

Tags:

italics | style | epigraph | dedication | queerness | intimacy

Craft Capsule: Body in the Mirror

by

Susan Stinson

3.22.21

A circular mirror lies flat on the grass. In the reflection, a hand reaches toward the viewer.

The author of Martha Moody recalls the challenge of finding language to describe her body.

Tags:

fatness | embodiment | exploration | writing prompts | writing process

Craft Capsule: Junk Drawer

by

Peter Kispert

3.8.21

Discarded household items—including a CRT TV, tires, chairs, a mini-fridge, and other detritus—are piled up in the desert. Everything is cast in warm, late-afternoon light.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am writes about stashing his surplus sentences and character sketches in an electronic “junk drawer.”

Tags:

drafting | ephemera | experimentation | expectations | play | writing process

Craft Capsule: Braided Narratives

by

Peter Kispert

3.1.21

An hourglass sand timer is illuminated by red light.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am recalls his first attempt at writing a braided narrative.

Tags:

time | structure | history | character | short fiction | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Short Short Story

by

Peter Kispert

2.22.21

A white swan dozes on calm waters. Concentric ripples emanate from its resting place.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am praises the unique resonance of short short stories.

Tags:

short fiction | short forms | flash fiction | short short stories | restriction | reverberation

Craft Capsule: Queer Characters Who Behave Badly

by

Peter Kispert

2.15.21

A small twig with several leaves is pressed flat on a white surface by a piece of shattered glass.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am seeks to approach his characters without judgment.

Tags:

queerness | LGBTQ | character | short stories | truth | complexity | self-betrayal

Craft Capsule: Poets’ Prose

by

Khadijah Queen

2.1.21

Inside a woodworker's studio, saws, files, mallets, and hammers are stored in various wall units.

The author of Anodyne takes a poetic approach to prose writing.

Tags:

cross-genre | hybrid text | prose poetry | writing groups | connection | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Arc of Understanding

by

Khadijah Queen

1.25.21

A view of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The top half of the stainless steel monument is visible, while the bottom half is obscured by a large wall.

The author of Anodyne shares her methodology for determining the order of poems in a collection.

Tags:

order | sequence | structure | love | understanding | accessibility | inclusivity | revision | writing process

Craft Capsule: Rethinking Theory and Poetics

by

Khadijah Queen

1.11.21

An open book appears to levitate, unsupported, in the middle of the photo. Around the book are stacks of more books, arranged to form a circular frame.

The author of Anodyne prioritizes joy in her poetics.

Tags:

PhD programs | academia | theory | literary criticism | analysis | racism | Black writers

Craft Capsule: Creating a Seasonal Writing Practice

by

Khadijah Queen

1.4.21

Red-orange leaves, illuminated by evening light, float toward the ground.

The author of Anodyne envisions a new writing practice inspired by the natural world.

Tags:

weather | climate | seasons | deadlines | writing routine | writing practices | drafting | writing process

Craft Capsule: Who Cares?

by

Jordan Kisner

12.21.20

A person, arms raised, balances on a tightrope far above the ground in Smith Rock State Park in Oregon.

The author of Thin Places urges writers to consider the reader.

Tags:

personal essay | inner life | the self | teaching | readership | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Schedule

by

Jordan Kisner

12.14.20

An analog watch face—visually shattered by a kaleidoscope lens—repeats itself across the image.

The author of Thin Places recalls failed attempt after failed attempt to maintain a strict writing schedule.

Tags:

writing routine | writing process | rituals | work | deadlines

Craft Capsule: The Arc of Epiphany

by

Jordan Kisner

12.7.20

Several bands of lightning crackle above a field; the sky and clouds glow purple.

The author of Thin Places considers how to write an essay (or essay collection) that follows the arc of epiphany.

Tags:

essays | essay collections | narrative | argument | epiphany | structure

Craft Capsule: Writing Hot

by

Jordan Kisner

11.30.20

A fabric of purple, pink, and gold sequins glimmers under a cool interior light.

The author of Thin Places celebrates hot-blooded writing.

Tags:

intensity | emotion | queerness | style | writing process

Craft Capsule: Against Universality, in Praise of Anger

by

Chen Chen

11.16.20

Captured in 1984, the image shows astronaut Bruce McCandless floating far above the earth, making history as the first person to complete a spacewalk without being tethered to a spacecraft.

The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities embraces and develops a queer Asian American poetics.

Tags:

language | multilingual | pop culture | Sailor Moon | love | anger | loneliness | Identity | racism | Asian American | Asian diaspora | Asianness | queerness | writing community

Craft Capsule: On Nightmares

by

Chen Chen

11.9.20

A student walks down an empty, sunlit school hallway. Most of the image is blurred, such that the viewer can only discern general shapes and colors.

The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities explores personal and collective nightmares.

Tags:

dreams | nightmares | coronavirus | fear | family | high school | education | experimentation

Craft Capsule: On Becoming a Pop Star, I Mean, a Poet

by

Chen Chen

11.2.20

A view of the sky through a large circular opening; wisps of cloud drift at the left edge of the frame.

The author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities traces his origins as a poet.

Tags:

ars poetica | childhood | language | queerness | Asian American | Asian diaspora | home

Craft Capsule: The Writer’s Mind on Music

by

Jenny Bhatt

10.12.20

An abstract image; flecks of fluorescent blue and other bright colors appear against a dark background

The author of Each of Us Killers reflects on how music has informed her fiction.

Tags:

music | memory | annotation | translation | story collections | writing process

Craft Capsule: Revising Folktales and Myths

by

Jenny Bhatt

10.5.20

Illustrations from the cover of Jenny Bhatt's debut story collection, Each of Us Killers

The author of Each of Us Killers shares strategies for reinventing folktales and myths for contemporary times.

Tags:

revisionism | myth | folktales | archetypes | adaptations | story collections | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Art of Literary Criticism

by

Jenny Bhatt

9.28.20

Close-up view of an Olympia typewriter, which holds a single sheet of paper with the word "Review" typed in the center.

The author of Each of Us Killers shares a manifesto for literary criticism.

Tags:

literary criticism | literary community | imagination | close reading | writing process

Craft Capsule: We Are All Translators

by

Jenny Bhatt

9.21.20

A dozen or so books lie open and are arranged in a grid-like pattern

The author of Each of Us Killers explains why reading and writing are forms of translation.

Tags:

translation | close reading | voice | imagination | language | writing process

Craft Capsule: Racial Markers and Being Marked

by

Will Harris

9.14.20

A person with their back to the camera gazes up at a stack of large shipping containers

The author of RENDANG consults poems by Monica Youn, Meiling Jin, and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge to analyze how racial markers function in poetry.

Craft Capsule: Possible and Impossible

by

Will Harris

9.7.20

Will Harris

The author of RENDANG reflects on the value of uncertainty in his reading and writing lives.

Tags:

close reading | surreal | joy | frustration | writing process

Craft Capsule: Witness vs. Withness

by

Will Harris

8.31.20

A starry sky; blurred leafy branches and a single flower appear in the foreground

The author of RENDANG considers the complex relationships embedded in the act of looking.

Tags:

poetry of witness | subjectivity | embodiment | writing process

Craft Capsule: Lyric vs. Narrative

by

Will Harris

8.24.20

Red apples hanging from a tree glow in the sunlight

The author of RENDANG blurs the boundary between narrative and lyric.

Tags:

narrative | lyric | interdisciplinary | Identity | writing process

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