04.22.2013
You’ve probably heard stories about famous writers and their obsessions. Pages filled with purple ink. Typewriters with the perfect clack. Rising early. Staying up late. Some writers devote every waking moment to their profession, fueling themselves with coffee, nicotine, or other stimulants, all in the service of the written word. But what do you know of the people who usher those carefully crafted words into print?
Some editors dream about characters in the books they are editing. Other wordsmiths shriek with joy when they untangle a convoluted sentence. There are designers who spend weeks on a cover, only to scrap the entire thing and start again when it doesn’t look quite right.
We publish Slice twice a year so that we have plenty of time to indulge our collective obsession for poetry and prose. And we work tirelessly to ensure our passion is contagious. This issue of Slice was designed to interfere with your day. We want you to miss your subway stop because you were too busy turning the pages. We’re hoping you’ll hide your copy under a stack of papers at work so that, when no one is looking, you can sneak in a few more lines. What’s that? You’re not paying attention to this letter, because you’re too eager to pick a copy of the issue? Grand.
Interviews
Fred Arroyo (by Robert Kralovec)
Geraldine Brooks (by Elizabeth Blachman)
Myla Goldberg (by Maria Gagliano)
Erik Larson (by Celia Blue Johnson)
Susan Orlean (by Tom Hardej)
Stories
Alicia Shandra Holmes
Mai Nardone
Essays
Emily Bass
Liz Mathews
Poetry
Elizabeth Barnett
Partridge Boswell