Author Interview: Kareem Tayyar, Sarah Passingham and Sheena Graham George
Q&A with our three flash nonfiction authors from Issue 15.
Kareem Tayyar’s most recent collection, Keats in San Francisco & Other Poems, was published in 2022 by Lily Poetry Review Books, and his work has appeared in literary journals including Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and North Dakota Quarterly. His flash piece ‘A Portrait of the Listener as a Young Boy’ appears in Hinterland Issue 15.
What’s the last thing (except for this!) that you wrote?
A group of essay questions for my 20th Century American Literature class.
What’s a recent discovery that you can’t keep quiet about?
Carlo Rovelli’s book, White Holes, which combines physics, astronomy, and Dante’s Divine Comedy in order to describe the phenomenon of white holes in the cosmos.
Words to live by?
Patrick Ewing is the greatest New York Knick of all time. This is not open for debate.
Tell us something about yourself that surprises people...
I can ride a unicycle.
What’s your piece in this issue about?
I wanted to celebrate the music of my childhood, and the ways that music continues to mean a great deal to me.
Sarah Passingham lives on the edge of the Norfolk Broads, a watery landscape that inspires and underpins much of her writing. Her latest book, PUSH: My Father, Polio, and Me was published by Gatehouse Press in 2019. Sarah is a trustee of the SAW Trust for Science, Art and Writing and is a British Polio Fellowship Ambassador. Her flash piece ‘Vicarious’ appears in Hinterland Issue 15.
What’s the last thing (except for this!) that you wrote?
Instructions for my Mum (aged 95) on how to use her mobile phone… yet again!
What’s a recent discovery that you can’t keep quiet about?
Sarah Perry’s latest book, Enlightenment. I was lucky enough to attend a launch event where she spoke so compellingly, how could anyone present resist buying a copy? As I write this I have yet to finish it, but I’m drawing up a list of friends I know will love it too.
Words to live by?
Remember the power of kindness.
Tell us something about yourself that surprises people...
I took up classical ballet for the first time two years ago (under duress!) to support a Ukrainian ballerina refugee who started a local ballet school, and found I absolutely love it.
What’s your piece in this issue about?
After mining sad and painful memories over ten years for my family memoir, finding the photograph that I describe in the piece gave me an opportunity to go back to happier times.
Sheena Graham-George is an Orkney-based multi-media artist researcher whose work explores the layering of memory, place, and presence within the landscape. She holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University and a PhD from Glasgow School of Art. Sheena’s creative work has been hosted by Sonic Arts Research Centre, Radiophrenia, St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney, Dunquin Church, County Kerry and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. She has been the recipient of many grants, bursaries and prizes including Creative Scotland, The British Association of Irish Studies, Scottish School of Arts & Humanities and was shortlisted for the John Muir Creative Freedom Prize. Her flash piece ‘Corn Craw’ appears in Hinterland Issue 15.
What’s the last thing (except for this!) that you wrote?
A WhatsApp message to a friend proposing we plan a trip to Rome for a winter feast of mushroom pizza by the Pantheon.
What’s a recent discovery that you can’t keep quiet about?
The incredible migration routes of Scandinavian blackbirds and that I’ve discovered how to navigate by blackbird all the way from Orkney to Finland via Denmark, The Faroes, Norway and Sweden.
Words to live by?
A line from Brian Patten’s poem, ‘News from the gladland’:
‘You must celebrate the morning in your blood’
Tell us something about yourself that surprises people...
My friends place dead birds as presents on my doorstep.
What’s your piece in this issue about?
‘Corn Craw’ is about grief, long goodbyes and the transitory nature of life and learning to let go.
Issue 15 is available to order over at our webstore now, or in good bookshops.