X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine | INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS

INTERVIEW WITH SIMON HAN with Taylor Hickney

Simon Han, an Asian-American writer whose critically acclaimed debut novel, Nights When Nothing Happened, comes out on November 17th, took the time to speak to me about growing up as an immigrant in Plano—a suburb of Dallas, Texas—the racism of the American Dream, his craft decisions, and more. *** Taylor Hickney: To me this novel is about loneliness, families, the immigrant experience in America and the racism that goes along with it, the facades of the suburbs, and more. Where did the kernel of this story come from? How long did it take you to nurture it until it became what…

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“FIND THE PATTERNS”: A Review of Chloe N. Clark’s Collective Gravities by James McAdams

Posted: July 28, 2020 · Tagged: CHLOE N. CLARK · INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · JAMES MCADAMS · UNDER 1000 WORDS

To lift one particularly apposite description of a character in “Like the Desert Dark,” Chloe N. Clark “likes thinking about ‘ifs.’” Collective Gravities, her third collection (The Science of Unvanishing Objects, Finishing Line Press; Your Strange Fortune, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), posits a world replete with paranormality. Like a symphony, these stories repeatedly touch upon the same subjects, explored, revealed, and experienced from a diverse variety of narrative perspectives. We can represent the frequency and range of this symphonic collection numerically. Subjects (admittedly subjective): # Stories these subjects occur in: astronauts/paranormal investigation…

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INTERVIEW WITH JAMES McADAMS by Jo Varnish

Posted: May 25, 2020 · Tagged: INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · JAMES MCADAMS · JO VARNISH

James McAdams’s Ambushing the Void is released this month by Frayed Edge Press. I caught up with him for a chat about his book, his writing process, and his inspirations. JV: Ambushing the Void is a collection of stories drawn together by themes such as relationships, loss, and nostalgia, and told through truly memorable characters. Professor Pankova and Teo are two of many that will stay with me. Did you draw from real life counterparts for these and other characters? JM: It’s pretty easy for me to look at a person, or read/hear about a person on a podcast or Tweet,…

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PETS: AN ANTHOLOGY edited by Jordan Castro (Review by Matthew Boyarsky)

Posted: April 14, 2020 · Tagged: JORDAN CASTRO · MATT BOYARSKY · REVIEWS · TYRANT BOOKS

Pets: An AnthologyEdited by Jordan CastroReview by Matt Boyarsky I’ve been bitten by a dog exactly once. The dog’s name was Nelly. She jumped on me in what I thought to be a gesture of playfulness before she tore into my forearm. Nelly’s owner screamed. How could someone so good at making her happy do something horrible? “Do you need help?” she asked. I told her I was okay, that the dog was just doing her job. A dumb thing to say. The owner seemed the type of person to have her animals up to date on their shots, and…

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INTERVIEW WITH JEFF JACKSON: “HOW DO YOU MAKE ART THAT HAS STAKES WHEN PEOPLE AREN’T PAYING ATTENTION?” with Chris Gugino

Posted: December 17, 2019 · Tagged: CHRIS GUGINO · INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · JEFF JACKSON

jeff jackson is a writer/playwright/artist/musician. he lives in charlotte, NC, and sings, writes, and performs with the group julian calendar. in october of last year, he released his second novel, destroy all monsters, which is a beautifully twisted novel with two sides, like a record (literally, you finish reading the first side and then flip the book over and read it from the back cover, returning to the middle of the book). destroy all monsters concerns an epidemic of musicians being murdered during their performances. there’s no tangible link between the victims, their killers, or the method in which said…

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INTERVIEW WITH NOAH CICERO by Benjamin Scott

Posted: August 4, 2019 · Tagged: INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · NOAH CICERO · NONFICTION

Noah Cicero has a new book out called Give It to the Grand Canyon, published by Philosophical Idiot in July (available here). It is his first fictional book in several years. I interviewed him about the book, his writing process, and his views on the current state of America. BS: How would you categorize Give It to the Grand Canyon? Is it fiction, a short story collection, a memoir? At first I thought it was a memoir because the narrator doesn’t state his name until a couple chapters in. Are the characters based on people you met? NC: It definitely is…

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INTERVIEW WITH SAM PINK by Benjamin Scott

Posted: May 1, 2018 · Tagged: INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · ISSUE 3 · NONFICTION · SAM PINK · UNDER 1500 WORDS

Sam Pink is the author of a dozen books, including Person, The No Hellos Diet, Hurt Others, and Witch Piss. I interviewed him about his latest book The Garbage Times/White Ibis, his paintings, and his time living in Florida. BS: You lived in Chicago for a while but several years ago you moved to Florida. What sparked the move and why have you moved back to Chicago? SP: I moved to Florida for the person I was dating. I moved back when we broke up. BS: Sorry to hear about that. Does Chicago seem different? Where is the best place to…

Benjamin Scott

A FEMININE DARKNESS REBORN: REVIEW OF MOTHER! by Christina Antonovskaya

Posted: April 21, 2018 · Tagged: CHRISTINA ANTONOVSKAYA · INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · ISSUE 4 · NONFICTION · UNDER 1000 WORDS

(Warning: spoilers) We were looking for the room at Champagne Centre for the appointment, and I found a pin on the ground that has “I feel it all” written on it and an image of a woman smoking printed on it. I took it and put it in the left pocket of my pea coat and will probably keep it there. This quote resonates with me and also with the themes of the script and film. Impurity, more exact, the myth of pureness is depicted through Mother’s character with physiology, vicarious causation of surroundings, and the creator of Mother himself,…

Christina Antonovskaya

INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT MCCLANAHAN

Posted: April 2, 2018 · Tagged: 1500+ WORDS · CHRIS DANKLAND · INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · NONFICTION · SCOTT MCCLANAHAN

Scott McClanahan is the author of The Sarah Book, The Incantations Of Daniel Johnston, Hill William, Crapalachia, and The Collected Works of Scott McClanahan Vol. 1. He is the owner the finest small volume library in the state of West Virginia. What’s a book that first put the hook in your heart? Or if there isn’t a single book or author that got you hooked on reading, maybe you can tell me what age you were when literature started playing the pied piper song to you. I think I’ve always fetishized books. There was a ton of children’s stories my mom…

Chris Dankland

PENNY GORING’S hatefuck the reader REVIEW by Chris Dankland

Posted: March 15, 2018 · Tagged: CHRIS DANKLAND · INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS · NONFICTION · PENNY GORING · UNDER 750 WORDS

GET THE BOOK (read online + download epub and mobi versions for free) LENGTH: 7,000 words PUBLISHER: 5everdankly publications, 2016 YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE: Kathy Acker, Édouard Levé, Sarah Kane Penny Goring’s book ‘hatefuck the reader’ starts with the sound of someone talking so close to your ear that you can feel hot breath: when i was invincible i believed beauty lasts forever and i died every day. you gave me nothing. i prefer to think you hit me because you are ill. i prefer to stroke my cold pillow. i prefer to sit on a chair…

Chris Dankland