issue one, round one q&a: bring sauerkraut
so you're like, hey this thing seems cool, but why should I spend $$ on it? well, since you asked: meet six of our issue one contributors and learn more about them than you're probably ready to in our first of three Q&A posts.
round one, featuring:
Jenn Northington, Alys Velazquez, Rachel Hochhauser, Lauren Crew, Kara Jorgensen, Desert Beaver.
what's a food or food combination you love that most people find appalling?
JN: ketchup with mashed potatoes--so few people understand that this is how you get french fries without a deep fryer!
AV: as a lover of all things pickled--and I mean ALL things--I enjoy sauerkraut or kimchi, capers, pickled jalapenos on every savory food possible. salad? add some kraut. kimchi tacos and pickled beets on toast. I also eat hummus with bananas. accept me for who I am.
RH: I went through a very intense, very devoted apples-with-Sriracha-and-peanut-butter phase in grad school. I've since moved on to other more mainstream snacks, but that one always caused people to bat an eyelash.
LC: I put a few shaved pieces of parmesan, cracked pepper and sriracha on my egg...but when I drizzle a tiny bit of honey on top, people begin to look at me sideways.
KJ: one of my guilty pleasures is dunking Burger King hash browns into the icing cups from the cinnamon rolls.
DB: peanut butter on pizza instead of cheese. this combo has nostalgic meaning to me or else it would probably make me vomit. my older brother used to be lactose intolerant so whenever we ordered pizza he would strip off the cheese layer and slap on some PB. I just wanted to be cool like him.
what's one word you used to mispronounce or misspell for far longer than socially acceptable?
JN: I have an incredibly hard time saying "guillotine" without pronouncing the l's, and I couldn't tell you why. this is extra embarrassing because it's the name of one of my favorite chapbook series.
AV: I think this counts: I have just stricken the word "literally" from my vocabulary because I would _____ use it in every situation when it is _____ not the correct word to use. my ex is not literally dead to me and I did not literally piss my pants when I saw Lisa Bonet at Target last week.
RH: I discovered a lot of vocabulary while reading, which also means I rarely learned proper pronunciation. 7th grade was probably a little late to find out womb is not pronounced wahmb, and I still struggle with syllabic emphasis in analytics. (when in doubt, use data instead.)
LC: when I first moved to New York, to avoid pronouncing Houston Street incorrectly, I acted like I "forgot the name of that one street." I have used this "trick" of mine in LA with Sepulveda and Wilshire as well. I was recently in New Orleans and there is one street called Tchoupitoulas St....*blank stare*
KJ: well, I'm an atrocious speller to begin with, but I realized I was mispronouncing my own character's name, Eilian--I think it's supposed to be read with an I sound but I prefer how it sounds with an E. I'll forever be in denial. also, according to the man narrating the audiobook, I pronounced his last name wrong, too. apparently Sorrell is only one syllable in British England, not two.
DB: I still confuse conspicuous with inconspicuous. I think it’s because one of them (or the other perhaps) is almost always shrouded in a sarcastic comment a la “well my my, isn’t she Ms. Inconspicuous/Conspicuous with those shoes and that hair and that Saint Bernard!”
the female equivalent of boxers or briefs: padded, demi, or unlined?
JN: under which of these does "sports bra" fit?
AV: first of all, boxer briefs. under my jeans and alone in my apartment, printed boxer briefs, I love you. in defense of the lightly lined bra, I have sensitive and enthusiastic nipples. I'm proud of them, they've taken years to gain confidence. they're here, they're queer, they're fabulous...but I'm not about to send them into the world without a little cushioning.
RH: lingerie should change with every outfit, mood, man, and day of the month.
LC: I just had to google what an "unlined bra" was. I certainly don't need padding and I'm pretty sure "demi" means cutting my boob in half so that it looks like a small butt cheek, so I'll go with unlined. I do know, however, that when you visit a prison, you should wear a sports bra without wire to avoid the full nude search experience.
KJ: demi. my boobs are quite large, so they don't even make fully padded bras at my size. but no two boobs are exactly the same and a demi hides two different shaped boobs.
DB: I recently tried taping my boobs like Christina Ricci in Now and Then. it made me feel…safe. in the Temple-Grandin-autistic sort of way. but otherwise, unlined.
if you could only read one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
JN: my desert island book will always be The Complete Works of Shakespeare; tragedy, comedy, history, romance, poetry, you name it he wrote it, and then maybe I'd finally be able to quote some at will.
AV: the Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry edited by Rita Dove. I mean, it's on my kitchen table and I peek and poke at it every day, like an old West Indian woman with her Bible (hi, grandma!) I feel like I'm cheating but this question is borderline offensive.
RH: my answer to this would be different on any given day, but at the moment it would be Coleman Barks' translation of The Essential Rumi. his prose is prismatic and endless--something you can always learn from, dive deeper into, or reflect back toward the infinite nature of beauty and life and self.
LC: I can't pick ONE! the Shaman monthly forecast + song lyrics + all of my emails with "ummmm" as the subject line + the "Readers Write" section of The Sun + horoscopes! + a letter my mom wrote me for my senior breakfast in high school that was stolen when my car was broken into :/
KJ: The Mummy by Anne Rice. it was one of the books that inspired me to write my historical fantasy series. I mean, it was originally a screenplay, so it reads like a movie. plus, it has murder, mystery, romance, adventure, hot immortals, and the best line in a novel: "throw open the virgin doors!" I don't often reread books, but I have read it three or four times and am planning on reading it again in the future.
DB: I never wanted Locas by Jaime Hernandez to end. I’ve also thought fondly about trapping Jodorowsky and Moebius in my basement so they could write/draw more of El Incal. but let’s face it, who wouldn’t love to have Ursula K. LeGuin chained to a typewriter in their living room? …a silence fell over the crowd. thought so.