1/Your protagonist, Sam, has had three fiances. Would you describe her as practical or impulsive? I know this sounds like a cop-out, but I would say both. She tends to be really impulsive about the decisions she makes but then approaches the aftermath of these decisions in a really calculated way. She agrees to marry [...]

1/There are two plots at work in “The Tea Party” and both are filtered through a free-indirect perspective with the nurse, but she’s stressed and going through the motions of helping a patient die. One has to ask–how trustworthy is she? Wow. Off with a bang. How trustworthy is she? Well, my first inclination is [...]

1/“Evinrude” starts out carefree, but ends on a darker note, yet the narrator technically gets what he wanted. Is the narrator’s end proof of his failure or should we take a more optimistic view? For me, “Evinrude” says we all chase something unattainable.  We don’t think our object is unattainable, and that’s why we pursue [...]

1/In “Stairs, Seizing,” the reader goes through a courtship, honeymoon phase, and eventual divorce with a staircase. What made you want to write so actively about something inherently passive? When did you realize the stairs had become their own character? The stairs were the first character. Even before I started writing the piece, I knew [...]

1/Oak-handled umbrellas, bare-knuckle boxing, a population crippled by loans, and a burgeoning free market economy–something about “Investment Banking in Reverse” brings to mind the US in the late 1800s. Can you tell us how time and setting figure in the story? “Investment Banking in Reverse” proposes a future wherein the banking and loan system is [...]

Meg Taintor is the Artistic Director at Whistler in the Dark, a theatre company in Boston for whom she has directed eleven productions (including the Norton-nominated The Possibilities and IRNE-nominated Tales from Ovid), and appeared in A Hard Heart, Don’t Exaggerate (FeverFest 06) and The Psyche Project (FeverFest 07). Meg has also directed for Mill6 [...]

1/You illustrated Dolan Morgan’s “Investment Banking in Reverse” delicately, but with purpose. Would you tell us about how you chose which passages to illustrate? I think this was the hardest part!  Dolan’s story was really visually and thematically complex and rich, so I was pretty spoiled for choice. I started by just reading it, without [...]

We’re incredibly pleased with the first print issue of apt and the feedback we’ve received has confirmed that our readers feel the same. The issue’s success is largely due to the talent of our contributors. To further that point, we’ll be interviewing each of them over the next few months and posting the results here. [...]

1/The success of “God Is in Agriculture” depends on the cyclical failure we experience regardless of our pursuits, but also on the cyclical optimism that encourages us to continue. Tony has learned to accept the former, whereas Linda acknowledges the latter instinctively. How much of their conflict stems from their mismatched perspectives? I’m glad that’s [...]

1/There’s a great amount of movement in Some Produce and Stranger Glances, which is impressive since you capture that animation in both charcoal and oil paint. Is that an effect that you strive for in all your work or was it a facet of this specific pair? It really depends on the subject of the [...]