Matt Bell needs no introduction. He is respected, loved, and insanely talented. There are rumors he is superhuman. Certainly, he is a rare breed of wonderful.

Here he is, under the spotlight, bright-bright.

– Ethel Rohan

You’re writing a novel right now, and How They Were Found will be out this fall, also an as-yet unannounced book coming next year. What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?

Inspiration comes from every direction, thankfully: In books and lit mags, plus my editing at The Collagist and Best of the Web, I’m constantly reading new and challenging fiction, all of which certainly spurs on my own. I’m also a very curious person, and I try to indulge that curiosity whenever I can by at least scratching the surface of whatever catches my eye. Even if it’s just reading a Wikipedia page, a little bit of information can lay the seed for something fictional to grow later. I listen to a lot of non-fiction audiobooks in the car, and try to squeeze in the occasional bit of history or science reading at home. That’s just the textual inputs, of course: I devour new music, and watch a fair amount of movies, although not as many as I used to when I had more free time. I’m also lucky enough to have a wide and interesting group of friends and family, both in the writing world and outside it, all of whom constantly inspire me to try new things, to think and feel in new (and hopefully better) ways.

Beyond all these inputs, the best way for me to stay inspired as a writer is to be sure I’m in the chair every day, doing the work. The writing itself is capable of inspiring more writing, when I’m doing it right: Through my daily practices, I should be digging deeper, finding new things to think and feel myself, new ways to translate those onto the page for the reader. If I’m doing this work honestly, there should always be more of it to do. Writing’s a lot of fun, of course, and that helps keep me going too. I genuinely enjoy even most of the difficult or discouraging parts of the process, so it’s not too hard to get me to do it again and again.

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All I Want To Do

by Chloe Caldwell

Pretending is ruining my life. I pretend I am Bukowski while cracking a beer and writing poems about sex and whiskey. I started to think maybe I could be Poe Ballantine so I’ve moved across the country to work a graveyard shift and be poor. I lift weights, channeling Sheryl Crow, trying to get those killer arms and then I drink a beer at noon on a Tuesday at a bar that faces a giant car wash. I am Henry Miller because friends give me furniture and books and often the bartenders buy my drinks and come back to my apartment. The reality of it is that I am a twenty something who doesn’t know what to be or where to live and I have been waking up in apartments with sounds and appliances, views and scenery that I don’t understand, isolated from the people that love me.

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Chloe Caldwell loves to take vitamins. She is excited about being forthcoming in http://bananafishmagazine.com and about the next time the sun will come out. It has been eleven days. You can email her at cocomonet@gmail.com, if you want to.

Move That Flag, Betsy Ross, I'm Trying To Watch The Game

Happy mafuckin Flag Day! Yeah, we’re pumped (Go Celtics!), not only because summer is pretty much here, but also because so many mafuckin cool things are presently grabbing our attention. If you’re a fan of sports, these days are lined with roses, to which we offer the following reports: The New Yorker has published a book of sportswriting, with the likes of McPhee, Updike, Amis, and other superstars, you know it’s gonna be mafuckin good. The Economist weighs in on why and how soccer helps restore nations — mafuck! Elsewhere, the LA Times reflects on John Wooden the storied basketball coach and John Wooden the basketball ball coach who wrote stories. And what about bullfighting? Go get your BF fix, just make sure you’re of age. Okay, okay, sports are great and all, but what about the lit world? What’s happening there? Very mafuckin funny you should mafuckin ask. David Mitchell is dipping his hands in pixie dust and the Guardian thinks he’s a genius for doing so, Oxford University is once again embroiled in controversy over its next professor of poetry — sigh — and the Dallas Morning News suggests the 80′s were Bret Easton Ellis’s heyday. Sport, that’s no mafuckin joke. — Kevin Murphy

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