Interviews

  1. Problak and GoFive - Boston, MA, USA, 2013, via Art Crimes. Thumbnail image: Alivixi - Mr. Miyagi character by GoFive, Boston, MA, USA, 2014, via Art Crimes. Twenty years ago this fall, Susan Farrell created Art Crimes, the first webpage devoted to street graffiti. What began as a photo gallery with “no explanations offered” soon became the hub of an emerging conversation, complete with how-to guides, interviews and manifestos. Through Art Crimes, Farrell became a…

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  2. Lynn Lurie is the author of Corner of the Dead, winner of the 2007 Juniper Prize for Fiction, University of Massachusetts Press (2008) and Quick Kills, Etruscan Press. We recently had a delightful conversation about her writing, which I am happy to share with you. I'm sure you're asked to talk about the framing of Quick Kills often, so I apologize if it's become tedious, but the use of vignettes and the ordering…

  3. Stacey May Fowles' previous work for The Toast can be found here. This is her first piece for The Butter.

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    Women’s stories, the reality of our lives too often appears to have no value to the reading public, who it seems don’t want to read such boring, painful stuff. Really? We can dismiss the reality of women’s lives so easily? Unless there is a major

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  4. Rion Amilcar Scott's previous work for The Toast can be found here. This is his first post for The Butter. Robert Sylvester Kelly—more commonly known to the public as R. Kelly—has been celebrated most of his adult life as an innovative R&B singer, songwriter and producer. His songs have topped charts and he’s been tapped to write and produce for music royalty such as Michael Jackson, Ronald Isley and Celine Dion. Sadly though, a…

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  5. Why did you name this project The Butter? Because butter is delicious and perfect on toast. What other names did you consider? The Jelly, The Jam, The Spread, The Preserve, The Toaster, The Oleo What is your vision for The Butter? The Butter’s vision is something I’m going to shape as I go along. I’m not a planner. What I do know is that we’re going to publish excellent writing with heart, grit, and intelligence.

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  6. What happens when you revisit the woefully misremembered science fiction of your youth? Joe Howley (Latin teacher) and Johannah King-Slutzky (internet wraith/underachiever) asked adults to re-read their genre favorites from childhood. For the first in our Time Quartet series, we talked to bona fide adult Kate Franklin, an archaeologist who for the past seven years has worked for the Medieval Archaeology of the South Caucasus at the Oriental Institute (whew!) studying Medieval Armenia.

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  7. "Like, Daisy Miller ended up being a four-parter, which is really funny because I don’t think of Daisy Miller as being one of the biggest names in the canon. But something about that book cracks me up. Everyone is such a dick to Daisy Miller! She literally dies from having a friend who’s Italian."

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  8. The first question could be an easy or hard one: why witches? You’ve written novels about witches several times before, including The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which takes place partially during the Salem witch trials. What draws you back to witches again and again?

    Part of it has to do with personal context. I started writing Dane while in graduate school for American Studies. I was living in Marblehead,

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  9. Friends and well-wishers, what ho! You are no doubt aware that Texts From Jane Eyre is widely available for purchase beginning November 4th. Should you like to acquire a copy for yourself, I recommend following the words of Wodehouse, which are as true today as they were eighty years ago.

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  10. An interview with self is up at the Washington Post about the book (which comes out next week! Why isn't it out now?), and it's full of wisdom just like this.

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  11. Toastrons in the Bay Area and surrounding environs! What are you doing tonight? Do you want to come to the Booksmith in San Francisco at 7:30 and listen to The Toast's own Alexis Coe and self discuss lesbian murderesses?

    Of course you do. [Miranda Priestly voice] Everyone wants that.

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  12. Interested parties would do well to saunter over to Book Riot's Reading Lives podcast, should they wish to hear an interview with me about reading P.G. Wodehouse for the first time, hating The Mists of Avalon, and getting your copy of the Divine Comedy confiscated at Christian sports camp during a very specific summer.

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  13. Tanuja Desai Hidier is the author of Born Confused— the first-ever South Asian American coming-of-age novel. Born Confused’s sequel, Bombay Blues, is out now. So is the accompaniment/‘booktrack.’  We got a chance to talk to her about life, writing and more. Does Bombay Blues pick up where Born Confused left off? Bombay Blues takes place about two and a half years after Born Confused’s summer when Dimple turns seventeen. However, in my…

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  14. My friend and former This American Life colleague, Diane Cook, just wrote her first book -- a collection of short stories called Man V. Nature -- which comes out on October 7th. It’s incredible. We talked about the book and how it came to be. Diane, I love your book. Thank you! I wasn’t expecting my ideal dystopian fiction dream book of short stories, which is my favorite thing to read.  After I had a

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  15. Were you aware that the Toast is in fact, a business? A business that is in the habit of making money? That Nicole and I are not just a pair of gals who decided to start a fun, free club in our spare time, but in fact Women of Business who self-funded our own media network? Rebecca Greenfield at Fast Company knows: If The Toast were a typical Silicon Valley startup, and not a…

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