Interviews with Robert Anthony Siegel and Raza Ali Hasan on Setting
Robert Anthony Siegel is a writer and writing coach. He is the author of a memoir, Criminals, and two novels, All Will Be Revealed, and All the Money in the World. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian Magazine, The Paris Review, The Drift, The Oxford American, and...
An Interview with Gabrielle Bates
Gabrielle Bates is the author of the poetry collection Judas Goat (Tin House, 2023), a New York Times ‘The Shortlist’ pick and a Chicago Review of Books ‘must-read’ book of 2023. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Bates currently lives in Seattle, where she works for Open Books: A Poem Emporium, co-hosts the podcast The Poet Salon, and teaches occasionally through the University of Washington...
An Interview with Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason
Matt Mason has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department and his poetry has appeared in The New York Times. Matt is the Nebraska State Poet and has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work...
An Interview with Marisa (Mac) Crane
If you’re looking for a beautifully queer abolitionist novel that isn’t afraid of asking hard questions, Marisa (Mac) Crane’s debut I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is for you. In the world of this novel people who commit acts considered punishable by the government are assigned an extra shadow by The Department of Balance and...
An Interview with Jeff Fearnside
Jeff Fearnside, author of Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air, A Husband and Wife are One Satan, and, most recently, Ships in the Desert, is a writer of fabulous range and grace. After his poem “What We Call Home” was featured in Mid-American Review Vol. XLI, Jeff agreed to speak to a...
Spotlight on Teresa Dederer, Fiction Editor
Mid-American Review welcomes our new Fiction Editor, Teri Dederer, to the staff! Teri grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently a second-year graduate student pursuing an M.F.A. in fiction from Bowling Green State University, where she takes long walks alongside...
An Interview with writer Sam Martone
In this interview, Former fiction editor Lydia Munnell chats with Sam Martone. Martone’s fiction story “Night Watch at the House of Death” appears in Volume XXXVI, issue 1. I’m interested in the way ideas happen for writers—do stories start with an image or a character or a situation or are they fully formed for you?...
Outwitting the Abused Writer’s Brain: MAR Speaks to Tessa Mellas
Today on the MAR blog, we’re bringing some words of wisdom (and more than a few words about cats and worms) from author and BGSU MFA alumna Tessa Mellas. Tessa won the 2013 Iowa Short Fiction Award judged by Julie Orringer, and her debut story collection, Lungs Full of Noise, was published by the University of Iowa Press. She holds a...
Interview with MAR Editor-in-Chief Abigail Cloud
Abigail Cloud is Editor-in-Chief of Mid-American Review. A native of Bath, Michigan, she holds a BA in English from Michigan State University and an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Bowling Green State University. Her debut poet collection, Sylph, won the 2013 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize and was published by Louisiana State University Press in April....