Do you have a space dedicated to creative work? What does it look
like?
This is one wall of my study. Please note the hatchet, which I found on train tracks I was hiking en route to trails near home in Ohio. I took it into work and had a welder sharpen the blade on a grinder, then hung it on nails.
If your work had a soundtrack, what songs would be on it? Why?
I like this question because music is a big part of my life and creative process. I go on really long hikes and runs, and music is always there. These songs have a rustic naturalism which influences my poetry.
Time to Move On—Tom Petty
Highway Queen—Mt. Joy
Howling At Nothing—Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
You’re Somebody Else—flora cash
By and By—Caamp
God Needs The Devil—Jonah Kagen
Bon Iver—S P E Y S I D E
Sure Shot—Beastie Boys
El Dorado—Zach Bryan
Cardinal—Kasey Musgraves
Give us some background on the piece you contributed to this issue.
The idea for my poem “Haibun For Grandma Gatewood” came when I was reading part of a 27-page map of The Buckeye Trail and came across some of the biography of Grandma Gatewood there. Pieces of those details made its way into a poem after I primitive camped an area close to the Grandma Gatewood Trail at Hocking Hills State Park. The haibun form of the piece came after I reread some of Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches.
Alex Missall studied creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. His work has appeared in Unleash Lit, Hole in the Head Review, and Willows Wept Review, as well as other publications. He resides in Ohio, where he enjoys the trails with his Husky, Betts.