Interviews and Reviews

A fellow poet Charles Rhodes told me to ask you about your Greek lemon soup poem, called ‘Avgolemeno’. It opens the book ‘In the Meat Years’, which you mention in another interview as your most personal collection. I really enjoyed… Read more

Interview Conducted by Megan A. Pastore Ariana Benson’s debut poetry collection, Black Pastoral (University of Georgia Press, 2023) won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize, and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for… Read more

I definitely can see an argument for trying to stay free of those influences, but that’s not the way I do it. I like to read anything I can get my hands on and have time for that’s related to… Read more

In 2019, I was offered what I thought was my big break: a position at the Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest daily newspaper. After fourteen years in journalism, it felt like the moment I’d been working toward. But when the… Read more

I started writing for the internet in college—my college newspaper, but also websites that don’t really exist anymore. Then I started writing top 10 lists. It was just a different time in media. I used the word “listicle” the other… Read more

My process tends to start with an idea that I think is viable. I think ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a serial daydreamer, and so there are always ideas. Even walking here, I was like, “oh, what… Read more