Ask The Author: Shira Richman

Shira Richman’s Five Poems appear in our September Issue. Here she speaks with us about interview questions and where these poems came from.

1. How long would you wait for coffee?

It depends on how delicious the coffee is and with whom I’m waiting to have it. I suppose if my friend is nice about the wait, I’d probably wait the full ten. It’s only if she’s rude when she tells me it’s going to take ten that I might be tempted to drink alone.
 
2.  Why can’t mothers be afraid to tell others what to do?

They have too many other things to fear. I imagine motherhood makes one utterly vulnerable.
 
3. How do you create your interview questions when you are tasked to interview a writer?

I pull lines from their poems and ask about them. And I read other interviews where a question is only partly answered and ask them to finish where they left off. But mostly I listen to what they say and break it up into lots of tiny questions.
 
4. Where did these poems come from? Where do you want them to go?

I wanted them to go to PANK. This could be because PANK is their mother.
 
5. Who are Fifi and Marie?

Stand-ins for Kay and Inga.
 
6. How would you find Carmen Sandiego?

Maybe the same way I’d find Waldo. I guess that means in a book, which is where all the answers are.