Interviews

On shedding and transcendence By Laura Anne Bird Andrew J. Graff loves a good coming-of-age story. “A big part of any coming-of age story is the question of whether the characters are going to ‘make it.’ Will the relationship survive? Will she get the job? Will Frodo and Sam ever actually get rid of that ring?” says Graff. Publishing his debut novel, Raft of Stars, in March has been like Graff’s own coming-of-age moment. “I spent over a decade writing, studying, reading, and writing again—with no guarantees that I’d ever publish,” he says. “There are plenty of dark nights of [...]

A celebration of family, food, and art By Laura Anne Bird If you’re itching to run off to Italy and not come back, Angela Paolantonio is your girl. If you love cured meats and pasta, even better. Paolantonio was born in Brooklyn to Italian American parents. While growing up, she didn’t know much about her Italian grandparents, but as an art and history student in high school and college, she developed a reverence for the past which led her to wonder about her extended family. “I held this curious flame inside me. Who were my grandparents, and where did they [...]

The Emigrant/Immigrant Experience: On hardships, bravery, and chutzpah By Laura Anne Bird “I've been thinking about some version of this novel since I was a little girl,” Juliet Grames says about her riveting debut, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna. “When I was five, my grandmother had a traumatic brain injury that made me obsessed with the idea of capturing and preserving her life story. What I knew about her upbringing in impoverished southern Italy in the 1920s as well as her emigration to the U.S. fascinated me.” Grames spent years collecting stories from her extended family in [...]