Sophia : You’ve had poems that use inanimate objects as a place from which to speak. Speaking as quotation marks in this poem seems to have a double tongue-in-cheek meaning – speaking from the thing that allows/signifies speech. Can you speak to that timeless human desire to speak, and how that has manifested in your life/work? Stephanie : Thanks…

(in the style of “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid) The first step in accepting your femininity is to reject it. Abhor pink. Abhor girls who wear pink. Cuss incessantly at recess. Nod when your father tells you that girls must be quiet. Ignore him. Tell nobody at school when you get your period. Let the pain in your abdomen sink like a knife and bleed into…

"A coyote ate a three-year-old not far from here.” “Yeah?” “My uncle told me.” “Huh.” “He said, ‘Don’t leave those babies outside again,’ as if I already had.” “Had you?” “Come on.” An answer less precise than no. “Why’s he monitoring coyote activity up here?” “Because.” “Because?” “It’s irresistible.” “Really?” A wild dog with a tender baby…