We were so excited to have this great story from Jared Yates Sexton in the March Issue, “A Man Gets Tired.” We were also excited about Jared’s answers to these questions.

1. How do you look when you get drunk?

When I get drunk I feel like I look like Clark Gable, but it’s probably closer to WC Fields. And it depends whether I’m drinking beer or whiskey. The former brings on a rather sad-sack, the latter an angry idiot.

2. What would be on the mixtape that sets the world on fire?

That’d have to have some early Stones on it and a whole lot of old country. More than a few by Johnny Cash.

3. Would you date someone who constantly got you into fist fights?

I’ve been down that road and it’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth. Continue reading →

These two photos from Christopher Woods were a part of the March Issue. Now Christopher answers our questions about them.

1. What made you get started with photography?

I have always been interested in visual art. In fact, years ago my wife and I owned a small art gallery. But I have always been a writer, and I wondered if personally entering the visual arts might hamper the writing. Wasn’t writing vice enough for one person? Then, in the last few years, my attitude changed. For one thing, my wife and I bought an old farmhouse in the Texas countryside, between Houston and Austin. This transformed our lives. I had always lived in a city, so the new setting, both the beauty and harshness of nature, made an enormous impression on me . My wife is a very fine photographer, and she gave me one of her old cameras. So I began taking photographs in earnest.

2. Who are your biggest influences?

Earlier photographers, like Eugene Atget for his architectural images, certainly impressed me. Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans made me keenly aware of the social statements one could make with photographs. But honestly, I look at the work of all kinds of photographers. I have been impressed with so many of them. As a writer learns by reading the work of other writers, photographers have much to learn from both classic and contemporary photographers.

3. How did you conceptualize these photos?

The two photos that appear in PANK, while different in subject matter, have much in common. Both are from small town life, and both are night photographs. I love nights, and I always find it intriguing when looking for subjects. Nights are mysterious and illusive by nature, aren’t they? I like to capture the sense of that when I can. “Boots” was taken at a county fair. Two girls moved through the midway crowd. Their boots made a statement about them. In fact, between the boots and their skimpy western clothes, they gained some attention. The close-up of them was my intent to capture their elemental appeal. The other photo, “Yellow Building, November,” is an urban image perhaps, but it was actually taken in a small Texas town, right off the square. Once again, night is the overall theme. The variations in light and shadow give this building a sense of magic. In both of these photos, I try to frame my subjects, much like one does in a poem or a story. I attempt to make them the whole of their world, separate from everything else that so often clutters our field of vision. Continue reading →

(Yet, while my father is a great archer who has killed an elk with one arrow, I have terrible aim. And my lover-husband is 6’7” and I’m a great deal shorter, which throws the angles off. So I’m thinking we shouldn’t plan on setting this up. Please, no one send me a mica owl in the mail. At least not one you want me to destroy. Though I would love to have one.)

“A New Person” from Alexander Allison appeared in the March Issue.

1. What if I wanted to pity your narrator in “A New Person?” What would you do about it?

Pity is powerless and self-abasing. Pity seems like a condescending emotion, a lazy feeling. Rather,I would encourage compassion and sympathy for Robin. The most powerful forces for good come from when one makes the effort to understand life from a position of otherness. David Foster Wallace’s polemic, ‘This is Water’ deals with this matter rather wonderfully.

2. Are you no more fucked than the rest of us?

I anticipate that the next decade of my life will be a process of recovery from what I’m doing tomyself now. Culture is all that keeps me sane. Culture allows me to fuck back.

3. What would you sculpt a robot out of?

I would sculpt a robot out of my many discarded narratives. It would be a lumbering, over written beast, yearning after something indistinct and musty. Continue reading →

Joshua Dalton’s great piece, “The Showrunner,” is from the February Issue.

1. Who is going to play you in the made-for-cable movie? What network do you hope picks it up?

I’d love to say Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but Philip Seymour Hoffman would probably be more true to life.  I’d definitely want it to air on HBO.

2. What would be your catchphrase?

“I’m worried that . . .”

3. How much truth is in “The Showrunner”?

Unfortunately, I too am unemployed and still living with my parents, but, while I’d love to be a showrunner, my dream show would hopefully be more like Six Feet Under than a regular network sitcom.  Also, when I daydream like Marshall, it’s usually about being interviewed by Brad Listi or Terry Gross, not executives at a pitch meeting. Continue reading →

These three wonderful poems by Eduardo Gabrieloff were published in the February Issue.

1. What have you walked into lately?

I walked into the darkest catacombs this side of the Mississippi. Let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty. The stench of evil down there was thick. Evil, it turns out, smells like dog poo. But dog poo does not smell like evil.

2. Which dictator do you smirk like?

I’d like to say Mussolini, as he had a perfectly measured little smirk, one that he must have practiced for hours in front of the mirror before he marched on Rome. But mine is involuntary. The true answer is Saparmurat Niyazov. Of all dictators, he seemed to be the most fun loving. And while he was a dictator, his self-obsession seemed the least harmless of all recent dictators. And who doesn’t love a man who bans lip synching?

3. How has being fluent in two languages influenced your writing?

Being able to read South American poets in their native language, particularly Nicanor Parra, has pushed me toward a new kind of minimalism. Though I’m still too self-obsessed to melt totally away from show-boating. Otherwise, it helps me approach topics from more than one philosophical background (as I think each language’s grammatical rules are manifestations of culture). For example, the word to vote in Spanish is votar. The word for throw away is botar. B and V make the same sound. To drink in Spanish, tomar, is also the verb for to give. Another example: pecueca. It means stinky foot smell in Colombia. There’s a specific word for it! Top that, English. Continue reading →

From February, “Hikikomori Romance,” by Reed Gaines.

1. How did you react when you got the acceptance letter?

At first, I was ecstatic. Then, I had to roll my eyes. This poem is the only thing I have in publication, so of course it’s the one that makes me seem like a lonely pervert.

2. Are you Hikikomori?

I go outside. I have friends and a girlfriend, all of which are corporeal. So, by definition, no.

3. What fictional character do you have a crush on?

This is where I implicate myself as a weirdo, isn’t it? I guess I may as well jump right in. The first fictional character I ever had a thing for was Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. Nowadays, I do a little better: I like April in Parks and Recreation and Annie in Community. I think that Aragorn made the wrong choice of spouse in The Lord of the Rings. I’ve always had an innocent infatuation with Lyra from His Dark Materials. As far as anime characters, Minori in Toradora! and the eponymous protagonist in Paprika both come to mind. Continue reading →

Carol Deminski’s “The Price of Luxury” was published in the February Issue.

1. What would be your other other car?

The International Space Station. I’d love to be a space tourist.

2. How would you feel about knowing a man who is macking on mother and daughter at the same time?

I must be out of touch because I never saw the word ‘macking’ before and I thought you made it up. Then I thought about the song Mack the Knife, but I don’t know if the character in that song was a ladies man? The Urban Dictionary says it’s a Pimp Daddy. There is also, god help us, a Macking Dictionary with The Ten Mack Commandments by The Rum Dog Crew online. It’s dispicable, as you’d expect.

3. Would you rather be rakish or foppish?

Rakish. Although Oscar Wilde pulled off foppish so well, it was tempting to answer foppish. I resisted. Continue reading →

Ryan Bradley answers questions about his story, “West,” as seen in the February Issue.

1. The narrative of “West” is very puzzle piece like, slowly coming together to give us a full picture. How did you go about structuring “West” like this? Did you try other structure ideas first before sticking with this one?

I can’t recall exactly, but I believe I knew as soon as I had a rough idea for the story that I wanted to tell it in pieces. What those pieces would be I didn’t really know. When I wrote the first section of the story and it was time to move to the next it felt like the natural progression was to tell the event in fragments of multiple characters experiencing the same pieces of time. The story is about the convergence of a tragedy, and I think the form of the story was the best way to show that. I didn’t try any other structures, I lucked into the right one for this particular story.

2. What firearm do you prefer? What would you shoot?

I prefer no firearms. I don’t like guns. I’ve shot a few in my lifetime. Hard to grow up in Alaska and not have guns be some part of your life. I’ve had neutral experiences with guns and some bad ones. I’d be perfectly happy never seeing a gun in person again. But they show up in my fiction for many reasons, especially when writing about Alaska, because they are so prevalent there.

3. How was your high school experience? Did it push you toward a certain direction?

I didn’t have a great time in high school. I loved a lot of my teachers and the school I went to, but it wasn’t a good life period for me. I played four sports and did drama and speech and debate. But I also had some pretty serious injuries, was constantly harassed by other students, and had a lot of social awkwardness that I didn’t get over until I reached college. Continue reading →

From February, “Ancient Steps,” these photographs from Eleanor Bennett.

1. What got you into photography? Who are your influences?

I started taking photos four years ago for a project in which you had to capture the biodiversity in your neighbourhood.
I am heavily influenced by Rankin, Alexander Rodchenko, Cindy Sherman and Joel Sartore.

2. How did you get the photos to appear the way they do? What tools did you use?

Windows photo gallery and irfanview.

3. What other mediums do you work in?

Mixed media and I used to paint and design. Continue reading →