Today we are pleased to feature author Joh
n Clayton as our Authors Talk series contributor. In the podcast, John discusses the subjectivity of memory and the dynamic nature of family as seen in his short story, “Memory Loss.” “Memory Loss” describes the journey of a son to understand the truth of his own experience in the midst of family members attempting to “rewrite the narrative” of their own history. Thus the question is, as John states: “Who is truly distorting the past? Whose memory has gotten ‘lost?'”
John notes that we “don’t remember our lives by means of a clear, objective lens,” and that everything in our lives is seen through the prism of our own subjectivity. He states that “observation is filtered by memory, and memory is always distorted.” However, he concludes by saying that, when authors make the choice to share these distorted and sometimes-painful memories, the memories are “given shape, sweetened, and made tender. The author stands apart from them, and the pain is temporarily assuaged.”
You can read John’s story, “Memory Loss,” in Issue 21 of Superstition Review.
Today we are pleased to feature poet Jessica Mehta as our Authors Talk series contributor. Mehta talks about her poem “Bars and Planets” and how her writing is connected to her childhood and family history. Mehta mentions in her talk “everything I write stems from my perspective and my lens of growing up in an abusive household, in a household full of substance abuse, as a Native American woman, as someone who has seen these very specific traumas,” which provides a “marker” of her work.
Today we are pleased to feature artist Jenny Day as our Authors Talk series contributor. In this short interview, Day talks about her five art pieces from her “Nearly Somewhere” series and “Forgotten Topographies” series featured in Issue 19. Day expands on her own artistic background, influences, goals, and the places and memories that inspired her art pieces.
Today we are pleased to feature poet Anne Champion as our Authors Talk series contributor. Champion talks about the personal events, thoughts, and external influences that led to the creation of her poems “False Idols” and “I get pneumonia and ignore politics for a month.” She as well expands on the importance of political poetry and “the empathizing process” of reading.
Today we are pleased to feature poet Jane Satterfield as our Authors Talk series contributor. Satterfield discusses the process and inspirations apocalyptic literature and her project book played on the creation of her poem “The Zombie Skateboarder at the Bus Stop.”
Today we are pleased to feature Rosaleen Bertolino as our Authors Talk series contributor. Currently in Mexico, Bertolino gives a short talk on her writing preferences and why she likes to “bend reality” in her short stories such as in “Children” featured in Issue 21.
Today we are pleased to feature poet Brandon Amico as our Authors Talk series contributor.
Today we are glad to feature poet Margaret Young as our Authors Talk series contributor. Margaret offers thoughts on her poems, “September Diary, Dreams and Walking” and “Moving On.” She identifies her mother’s absence as well as images and ideas of nature and its non-human elements as recurring characters in both poems. Margaret concludes her talk by discussing the challenge of writing about living family so directly and inviting her father’s poetry into her own work.