R. Flowers Rivera

Poetry

R. Flowers Rivera is native of Mississippi, she completed a Ph.D. at Binghamton University and an M.A. at Hollins University. Her short story, "The Iron Bars," won the 1999 Peregrine Prize, and she has been a finalist for the May Swenson Award, the Journal Intro Award, the Naomi Long Madgett, the Gary Snyder Memorial Award, the Paumanok Award, as well as garnering nominations for Pushcarts. Currently, she is a Lecturer of Literature and Composition at the Center for American Education in Singapore. View more of her work by visiting http://www.promethea.com.

Five Four Pressing Questions from Paper Darts.

1) In your youth (or now-this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
No imaginary monsters...but, here in Singapore, I despise the roar of muscle cars in the middle of the night.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Deep space—I have trouble conceptualizing an infinite universe without edges, without boundaries.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you're not proud of.
Lenny Kravitz and almost all the female prosecutors on Law & Order—but I'm not ashamed.

Lisa Gordon

Fiction
Lisa Gordon is from the East Coast but now lives and writes in San Francisco, where she received her MFA from California College of the Arts. She has been published in The Rumpus and 34th Parallel, and is working on a collection of stories.

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
The imaginary monsters were—and still are—in my head.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Aren't they kind of the same?

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Probably anything by Joy Williams.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
I'm pretty proud of all of them.

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
Most fashion trends have returned, especially here in SF.
Instead, can I say that basically anything from the early 2000s should never, ever come back?

Paul Foster

Screenplay

Paul Foster’s work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, film and in the many letters that he writes by hand. He encourages filmmakers to contact him about making The Eleventh Summer of Theo Loudermilk their next project. Write to 11thloudermilk@gmail.com for details.

Five Pressing Questions From Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
I had a recurring dream that there was a gateway in the floor of my bedroom, between the desk and closet. Blinding light would shoot out of it and I was both intrigued and terrified about where it might lead. My guess is the monster lived in there.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Deep space because it would have required an adaptation to living without internal organs, including the human heart.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others by Mike Mignola.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
Rick Steves. But I am proud.

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
Invisible-dog leashes.

Timothy Otte

Poetry
Timothy Otte is a poet and playwright, and contributes book reviews and curates the Calendar of (Un)Deadlines at Hazel & Wren. He's a 4th-generation St. Paul resident, on his mother's side. Don't mind the f-words on his Twitter: @mrtimothyotte.

Five Pressing Questions from Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
I had a recurring nightmare about the alien from Alien stalking me around my house while my parents went about their daily chores ignorant of the terror. That's the only monster I remember growing up.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
That Alien nightmare traumatized me, so deep sea, no doubt.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Literally: a dictionary. For the legroom. Figuratively: Harold & The Purple Crayon. For the footie-pajamas, purple, and magic crayon.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
I got ridiculed by my friends, but I thought Evanna Lynch was a babe in the last few Harry Potter movies.

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
It was never here in the first place, but I'd love for seapunk to become a real thing. It'd make my Lisa Frank-style dolphin tattoo relevant.

Caitlin Bailey

Poetry

Caitlin Bailey is a 2012 assistant poetry editor for Water~Stone Review. Her work has previously appeared in or is forthcoming from Bateau, Lumina, Poetry City, USA, Vol. 2, and elsewhere. She is learning to live in the woods after many years in the city.

Five Pressing Questions from Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
The house I grew up in had a strange room in the basement. The walls were covered in old newspapers and it was always dark and damp. Ghost territory.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Deep sea, definitely.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. I would never be bored.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
Steven Tyler. I had a picture of him on my trapper keeper in 4th grade.

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
Sweaters with animals on them.

Phyllis Green

Fiction

A Pushcart Prize nominee, Phyllis Green is published in Epiphany, Parting Gifts, Prick of the Spindle and The Blue Lake Review, with upcoming stories in Bluestem, The Sheepshead Review, and The Examined Life: Literary Journal of the University Of Iowa Carver College Of Medicine.

Five Pressing Questions from Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
Monster, under my bed.  Unknown shape but very scary. This was in childhood. Now I'm brave.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Deep thoughts.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Books to live in: Ron Hansen's MARIETTE IN ECSTASY, Paul Bowles's UP ABOVE THE WORLD, and all books by Anita Brookner with women protagonists.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
?

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
Flat shoes.

Gregory Lawless

Poetry

Gregory Lawless is the author of I Thought I Was New Here. His poems have appeared in the National Poetry Review, Third Coast, Zoland Poetry, Sonora Review, La Petite Zine, Gulf Stream, Cider Press Review, InDigest, H_NGM_N, Artifice, and many others. Poems are forthcoming in Devil's Lake, the Cincinnati Review, burntdistrict, and Thrush. He is a four-time Pushcart nominee. He lives in Waltham, Massachusetts, and teaches writing and literature at Suffolk University.

Five Pressing Questions from Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was 
the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
The attic door was in the corner of my bedroom. It would jostle and budge every time someone opened the front door or basement door, but it was years before I knew why that happened. In the meantime, I quaked.  I didn’t know what was up there, but it was up there. I had a Charles Barkley poster on the door to protect me. Long live Sir Charles!

2) Deep sea or deep space?
Space. Without question. See my Star Trek poem. 

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
I don’t read habitable books, I guess. By which I mean I mostly don’t want to live where I read. But. I might want to walk around in William Kennedy’s Albany novels or Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm, just to look at all the suits and saloons. I’d like to spend time on a planet written by Jonathan Lethem, maybe. Pre-Austerlitz Russian society parties, a la Tolstoy. But one book forever…I don’t know. How bout a hypothetical Borges “novella” called The Tigers of Time, in which The Republic of Mirrors achieves a lasting truce with an obscure Babylonian sect (which has prospered greatly since antiquity) after years of war. And now without the diversions of battle, the two peoples must amuse themselves by watching tigers prowl the Mirror Corridors in the middle of the Republic’s great city and contemplate the infinity of their gazing… 

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
None of your business. Markie Post from Night Court. And none of your business. 

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
1970s mustard-colored cars. Round-framed 90s glasses. La Gears. Short-sleeve dress shirts. 1960s NASA flattops. 

Pat Perry

Featured Artist for May

Pat Perry is an artist and illustrator who calls Grand Rapids, Michigan home. The lands of the north, colorful people, music, and the ordinary streets of the Midwest have always moved him. In between showing his art from coast to coast or working with an assortment of clients, Pat travels as much as possible. Although he is happy to be able to speak and have an audience through his artwork, he does his best everyday to listen and learn from the world he lives in.

Visit his website and then find him on Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.

Sally Franson

Contributing Writer

Sally Franson is an MFA candidate at the University of Minnesota. Her work has appeared in elimae and BAP Quarterly, among other publications.

Five Pressing Questions from Paper Darts:

1) In your youth (or now—this is a safe space), where in your home was the [imaginary] monster located, and what kind of monster was it?
Hid in the dryer; had big teeth with which to eat my socks.

2) Deep sea or deep space?
SPACE. Although, for a Virgo who needs two feet on the ground at all time, this question gives me the sweats.

3) If you could live inside one book forever what book would it be?
Little Women fo'sho.

4) Confess a celebrity or fictional character crush you’re not proud of.
Michael Dukakis (this is really embarrassing).

5) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
JNCO jeans. Think of how many snacks you could carry around inside the pockets!

Letitia L. Moffitt

Culture

Letitia L. Moffitt has run a marathon in Iceland. She also reads, writes, and teaches fiction.

Five One Pressing Question from Paper Darts

1) What fashion trend are you hoping will return?
Hats! I have a photo of a busy San Francisco street in the very late 19th century and everybody, men, women, children, they're all wearing hats. And I mean real hats, not baseball caps. The only time I wear a hat these days is Kentucky Derby Day. That's sad.