Aug 15, 2019
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author Pingmei Lan
“It started with a voice—the young narrator telling me about her name.”
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019 Author A.B. Young
“For me, I guess fairytales are where I am simultaneously most at home, and most at odds with the world around me.”
Aug 13, 2019
Trust the Process: Linsday Stripling, Catapult Artist of July
I think what I love about illustration is that there are so many ways to challenge myself.
Jul 31, 2019
Make What You Love and You Will Be Found: Sarah Robbins, Catapult Artist for June
“‘Illustrator’ is just the easiest catch-all for many jobs—which again, I’m rather restless so it’s worked out great that I never get bored!”
Jun 28, 2019
Stirring Ideas to Life: Sirin Thada, Catapult Artist for May
By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me that had been there all along.”
May 31, 2019
As an artist, “it’s important to make time for friends and sunshine.”: Meryl Rowin, Catapult Artist for April
“In college, I think there was this idea floating around that a real illustrator worked all night—and if they weren’t, they were half ass-ing it. [Now,] I like to give my brain some time to absorb and to rest in equal measure.”
May 03, 2019
Flexibility, Distillation, and Immersion: Ellen Weinstein, Catapult Artist for March
Filling that blank space is a mix of excitement and agony.
Apr 04, 2019
“Whatever you want to make, just make it.”: Anja Slibar, Catapult Artist for February
“Don’t focus on what’s popular; focus on what’s there for you to try.”
Mar 01, 2019
Art as Therapy and Benign Vengeance: Elizabeth Haidle, Catapult Artist for January
“I’ve wrapped my business model around my kiddo and his schedule and changing needs. That has been a decision I’ve never regretted.”
Feb 01, 2019
“There is No Other Way to Be”: Hanna Barczyk, Catapult Artist for December
“Conveying emotions, narratives, stories. This, I believe, is at the core of all art.”
Dec 20, 2018
Finding Confidence and Growth Through Art: Isabelle Laureta, Catapult Artist for November
“Art is able to go straight to a person’s very core—a place other channels simply cannot reach.”
Nov 30, 2018
A Conversation with Marina Benjamin, Author of Insomnia
“I wanted the book to celebrate what it means to live your life fully and startlingly awake.”
Nov 13, 2018
On Art, Audience, and Activism: Brian Rea, Catapult’s October Artist
“If I see the sun come up once in a while, it makes me feel good, like I accomplished something no one else did.”
Oct 25, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Maud Streep
“You can fall in love with a place in a way that’s just as made-up and selective as how you fall in love with a person.”
Oct 16, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Ernie Wang
“I feel any person who has to deal with losing the one person who is their world has every right to do whatever it takes to self-preserve, even when that includes deflection and denial.”
Oct 09, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Alex Terrell
“I have always been fascinated by the idea of women being monstrous and beastly because it ruptures the dominant Patriarchal ideal of the shy woman.”
Sep 14, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Lin King
“I wanted to address old-age sexuality, which is in general completely unmentioned in Taiwanese society.”
Sep 12, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Elinam Agbo
“I love that our stories are beginning to get the attention they deserve, but that’s not enough for me. I want more.”
Sep 05, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Megan Tucker
“The idea here is the casual way children can accept and parrot this kind of simple, black-and-white math about worth. So much so that in a pinch they are willing write off their own mother!”
Aug 31, 2018
A Conversation With PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 Author Cristina Fríes
“I thought this exemplified two aspects of the Colombian spirit that interest and delight me: Any festive occasion can become an excuse to start a full-on party; and time is, as a manner of speaking, subjective.”
Aug 29, 2018
