{"id":547,"date":"2015-04-17T20:42:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T00:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/?p=547"},"modified":"2025-01-09T20:42:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T01:42:33","slug":"mar-asks-nina-boutsikaris-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/mar-asks-nina-boutsikaris-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Nina Boutsikaris: On Nonfiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nina<\/a>
Nina Boutsikaris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nina Boutsikaris is a nonfiction MFA candidate at the University of Arizona, where she is the nonfiction editor of Sonora Review<\/em>. Her recent work appears or is forthcoming in The\u00a0Los Angeles Review<\/em>,\u00a0Puerto del Sol<\/em>, Hobart<\/em>, Brevity<\/em>, Booth<\/em>, Phoebe<\/em>, Spartan<\/em>\u00a0and elsewhere. Her short nonfiction piece, \u201cWhat Doo-Wop Does\u201d was a finalist in MAR<\/em>\u2019s 2014 Fineline competition and appears in issue 35.1. First line:<\/em> \u201cI loved that summer because of the Slovaks, eight sinewy dancers who came to live at a defunct farm up the road from my family\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick! Summarize \u201cWhat Doo-Wop Does\u201d in 10 words or fewer.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

July brings heat, dancers and endings. I take it in.<\/p>\n

What can you share about this piece prior to its MAR publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This piece came out of one specific memory, one brief moment in deep summer when I caught my mother spying on my father. They were not divorced yet, but I think they were separated at the time on some kind of trial period. Or at least, she hadn\u2019t moved out, but they were sleeping in separate beds and the boundaries of our family unit had begun to blur. I was on high alert to the changes. In a way, I have always sort of thought of my mother as this strong force of energy and will who had to leave my father because she was the one who needed a new life. But this memory pokes holes in my whole fantasy about both her and my father. I tried over explaining this, writing it in a more expository way, but in the end the version that made the most sense was mostly imagistic and fleeting, especially as told through the eyes of a child.<\/p>\n

What was the worst\/best feedback you received on this piece?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone told me I had to include more back-story about my parents\u2019 relationship, but I think you get everything you need to know in this vignette. Sometimes less is more\u2026right? Right??<\/p>\n

You\u2019re at a family reunion and some long-lost relative asks about your writing. What do you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m obsessed with loneliness, intimacy and power, whatever those things mean. I don\u2019t know how else to talk about this but to tell it through things I witness or experience, things that really happened\u2014meaning they both actually happened and deeply happened.<\/p>\n

What do you consider your biggest writing-related success? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The opportunity to teach creative writing is probably the greatest writing gift I\u2019ve ever received. Teaching has forced me to become a more eloquent and thoughtful editor and reader not just of others\u2019 work but of my own as well. Every day I\u2019m challenged to be an ambassador to the genre and that has to be one of the best ways to learn what awesome things are happening with nonfiction, what\u2019s happening today and what\u2019s happened in the past and why.<\/p>\n

Do you have another favorite piece of writing in this MAR issue? If so, name it and tell us why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I adore Allison Adair\u2019s \u201cLetter to my Niece, in Silverton Colorado.\u201d In this very short piece Adair makes gorgeous leaps of association with images and poetry that are so beautiful and tragic and wise. She is able to take us on a deep and cosmic journey in just a page. She writes, \u201cI\u2019m trying to say that the waves used to roll in, and then back out.\u201d And I know exactly what she\u2019s trying to say.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the interview, Nina!<\/em><\/strong>
\nLaura Maylene Walter, Fiction Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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