Tag Archives: Interview

by | November 5, 2016 · 9:00 am

“How to Poem”: An Interview with Gandy Dancer Contributor Ashley Olin

Posted by Rachel Powers, GD Poetry Reader for 5.1

 

Ashley Olin - Poem

From Miley Cyrus to “Wikipedia-ing,” Gandy Dancer’s former contributor discusses the writing process behind her poems.

We are excited for the chance to visit with former Gandy Dancer 3.1 contributor, Ashley Olin. Although Ashley no longer travels across Geneseo’s college green to get to poetry workshops, her time as an undergraduate student at SUNY Geneseo has shaped her unique writing process. From surfing Wikipedia to finding inspiration in pop culture, Ashley shares some sources of inspiration for her poems. Continue reading →

Comments Off on “How to Poem”: An Interview with Gandy Dancer Contributor Ashley Olin

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | September 9, 2016 · 10:02 am

Gandy Dancer Proudly Presents… Your 5.1 Managing Editors

Posted by Erin Carlo, GD Public Relations Manager and Fiction Reader for 5.1

Gandy Dancer 5.1 managing editors, Evan Goldstein & Oliver Diaz

Gandy Dancer 5.1 managing editors, Evan Goldstein & Oliver Diaz

First and foremost, we would like to welcome our readers and contributors to the fifth anniversary edition of Gandy Dancer!  We are delighted to welcome an entirely new cast of submission readers who are eager to discover what it means to produce a journal as well as gain new perspectives on literary journalism.  The start of the new semester also brings a brand new dynamic duo who will take the stage as Gandy Dancer‘s managing editors.

 

I had the opportunity to ask our newest managing editors, Evan Goldstein and Oliver Diaz, a few questions about themselves and their new roles as managing editors, and I am pleased to share their responses with you.

When did you first hear about Gandy Dancer?

Oliver: First semester sophomore year. My sister was a senior taking the Editing and Production workshop, in which Gandy Dancer is produced, and she introduced me to the journal, told me about the process, and that it might be a good idea to submit to it.

Evan: I first heard about Gandy during my freshman year, when I was in the intro to creative writing class. I was thinking of applying to the creative writing track, and I wanted to look at Gandy to see what kind of writing I should aim for. I think I looked at issue 2.1, the one with the photo of the guy in the forest as the cover. I remember I was impressed and scared by the poetry, and I wanted so badly to be able to express myself on that level. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Gandy Dancer Proudly Presents… Your 5.1 Managing Editors

Filed under Blog, Interviews

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | June 22, 2016 · 2:07 pm

Interview with Gandy Dancer 4.2 Featured Artist Lei Peng Gan

Posted by Arden Zavitz, Art Editor for issue 4.2

Untitled1

Untitled, Lei Peng Gan

One of the best parts of reading Gandy Dancer is viewing the visual art. The primary purpose of a literary journal is to provide literature to its audience. However, when visual art is included it can enhance the experience.

For Gandy Dancer 4.2 we were thrilled to feature Lei Peng Gan, who majors in painting at SUNY Plattsburgh. Lei Peng Gan is a painter as well as a print maker. Gan’s beautiful and diverse artwork exemplifies what we hope the entire journal does. To dig a little deeper into the mind of Lei and her creative process, I asked the following questions… Continue reading →

Comments Off on Interview with Gandy Dancer 4.2 Featured Artist Lei Peng Gan

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , , ,

by | April 11, 2016 · 2:00 pm

Interview with 4.1 Featured Artist Thomas John Magnus

Posted by Hunter McClimmans, CNF Reader for issue 4.2

"Untitled" by Thomas John Magnus, issue 4.1

“Untitled” by Thomas John Magnus, issue 4.1

After perusing Gandy Dancer 4.1, I was captivated by the work of the featured artist. These photos were thought provoking and, especially for “Untitled” featuring the GE sign, nostalgic. They made me want to get to know the photographer, Thomas John Magnus, a bit more. So I looked to his biography: a Geneseo junior, double major in biology and geography. However, the part reading “He got into photography at the end of this summer,” caught my eye. This summer. These are the first photos from a brand new photographer?! I was surprised and impressed all at once, and I needed to know more. So I asked, and this is what I received:

1. Gandy Dancer: How did you get started with photography?

    Thomas John Magnus: I guess I got started when I took an art history course as a sophomore here at Geneseo. After that, I investigated a bit into modern art history on my own and then did some reading about color theory, the rule of thirds, and watched a bunch of interviews with photographers whose work I really liked. The first time I really wanted to photograph something was when I looked down a slide at Highland Park.

2. GD: What about the slide caught your eye?

    TJM: At the time, I had no idea why it caught my eye. Looking back, I have three reasons. First, it is an interesting frame: although a slide obviously has dimension, these dimensions are entirely flattened within the photo and I probably found this effect strange back then. Second, the image is very reminiscent of the Pepsi logo, which probably had some nostalgic or sentimental value to me. For me, the person taking the photo, to have nostalgic feelings for an image of a children’s slide for reasons other than it being the usual object of children is also quite peculiar. Third, I really didn’t have any idea what could make a good picture back then aside from a cheap, slick visual trick and making my viewer confused for a second, and I knew the slide would accomplish those.

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Interview with 4.1 Featured Artist Thomas John Magnus

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , ,

by | March 3, 2016 · 12:00 pm

Where Are They Now?: An Interview with Angela Workoff

Posted by Erin Duffy, Public Relations Intern and CNF Reader for Issue 4.2

AW Pic

Geneseo alum and author of “The Escape Artist,” Angela Workoff

Happy Throwback Thursday! To celebrate, we decided to interview some wonderful writers and artists who contributed to previous issues of Gandy Dancer. We started by chatting with Angela Workoff, author of “The Escape Artist,” our Post Script for Issue 4.1, to learn more about her literary life as a Geneseo alumni.

 

Gandy Dancer: Can you tell us a little bit about life after Geneseo and your MFA candidacy?

Angela Workoff: I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, but it took a long time, almost all of my twenties, to get out of my own way so that I could just sit down and do the work. I graduated from Geneseo in 2006, moved home to Brooklyn, and got an entry level job at an IT company which did tech support for hedge funds. The tech/finance world was miles away from everything I loved in the liberal arts, but I didn’t know what I wanted to write and was too insecure to commit to the stories I’d started. I found a niche in project management. I worked long hours alongside of my computer engineer coworkers and I learned a lot from them—those techs are likely the hardest working people I’ll ever know and they did their jobs often without recognition or thanks from our demanding clients. I traveled. I worked part time for a concert series in Brooklyn. I made friends. Got my heart broken a couple of times. Insecurity static began to settle when I was twenty-five, but I still didn’t feel great about my writing. Kept working, traveling, dipping in and out of writing workshops in the city.

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Where Are They Now?: An Interview with Angela Workoff

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | January 22, 2016 · 1:07 pm

New Kids on the Block: Meet Your Managing Editors for 4.2!

Have no fear, your new managing editors are here! As the spring semester murmurs to life and the windy Geneseo weather welcomes us all back it’s time for your new managing editors, Courtney and Christy (C2), to sit down with some coffee and ask each other the questions that matter:

Let’s get this party started:

The Dream Team: Ready for Action!

The Dream Team: Ready for Action!

How did you first get involved with Gandy Dancer?

Courtney: One of my friends recommended the class to me, actually. I was looking at courses for junior year and wanted to know more about it. My friend was in the class at the time and told me about how it was a really hands-on class where you got to put together a literary magazine full of prose, poetry, and visual art from students all across the SUNY system. The publishing industry is so multifaceted and is something that has always intrigued me as well so I decided to give it a go. I’m so glad I did though because I fell in love with everything about Gandy Dancer (GD) and kept coming back to it. As an avid reader and writer, being involved in this class has exposed me to so many fascinating aspects of the literary world that I never knew about before GD.

Christy: In the middle of my junior year I was perusing the course list on KnightWeb in a sleep-deprived-registration-is-tomorrow-morning-frenzy when I happened upon this gem of a class. I, somewhat nervously mostly excitedly, decided to sign up and I’m so glad that I did because it ended up being an incredible experience. At the start of the class I knew virtually nothing about literary magazines, literary magazine culture, or how they functioned and survived. It was, not to quote Aladdin, a whole new world! Not only did it widen my horizons within the creative writing/literary universe but also getting to read through and edit submissions from other young writers really helped me to grow as a writer and as a poet. I’m so excited to be back! Continue reading →

Comments Off on New Kids on the Block: Meet Your Managing Editors for 4.2!

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 11, 2016 · 1:53 pm

Interview with the Author of Slats: The Life and Legend of Jimmy Slattery, Richard Blake

Posted by Jordan Keane, CNF Reader for Issue 4.1

Alright, let’s face it: writing is difficult.

It’s hair-pulling, teeth-grinding, insomnia-inducing, head-on-the-desk difficult. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but sometimes it can feel like an abyss of technique, structure, style, and voice from which it is impossible to draw words.

In 2008 at the Buffalo Irish Center, I had the opportunity to talk to someone I now hold in high esteem, author and a family friend, Rich Blake, about this struggle. My father mentioned that Blake had recently published his nonfiction novel, The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up, and encouraged me to talk to him. Though at first I was nervous, once we got to talking about writing and publishing, I was overcome with excitement. From that conversation, I took away a piece of his advice:

Don’t go back. Don’t edit. Don’t revise. Don’t read what you’ve already written. Just keep writing ‘til you’re done. Then go back.

I carry this mantra with me. In the seven years since, I’ve continued my journey as a writer, and have found myself as a nonfiction editor for our lovely Gandy Dancer. In light of Blake’s recent publication, Slats: The Life and Legend of Jimmy Slattery, it only felt natural to reach out for some insight into the world of writing. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Interview with the Author of Slats: The Life and Legend of Jimmy Slattery, Richard Blake

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , , ,

by | September 7, 2015 · 12:14 pm

Meet Our New 4.1 Managing Editors!

It’s that time of year again: Gandy Dancer welcomes a new cast of characters. This semester’s managing editors, Lea Karnath and Keara Hagerty, sat down (virtually) to interview one another before embarking on this journey together.

We’ll start with Keara:

What got you interested/involved in working with Gandy Dancer?
After taking my first workshops at Geneseo, I decided that I wanted to experience literature and creative writing from another view. After working as a fiction editor for Gandy Dancer during my sophomore year, I saw what it takes to produce a literary journal, and I became really interested in the world of publishing. Last year, I had the honor of having a fiction piece of mine published in the journal, and I can’t wait to take on more responsibility as a managing editor this year.

Keara & Lea!

Keara & Lea!

What are you most looking forward to in the coming semester?
I’m looking forward to getting my hands on all of the new work! It’s always incredibly exciting to see the talent from all over the SUNY system. This is definitely the fun part of the job. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Meet Our New 4.1 Managing Editors!

Filed under Blog

Tagged as , , ,

by | April 27, 2015 · 10:13 am

Introducing Our Featured Artist for 3.2: James Mattson

Posted by Britina Cheng, GD Art Curator & Fiction Reader for 3.2

In our upcoming issue of Gandy Dancer, we are proud to introduce James Mattson, junior biology pre-med major at SUNY Geneseo, as our featured artist. His photography captivated the art editors. One, “Bridge to Fall” will grace the cover of our Spring issue, fitting with its bright and welcoming colors. He appropriates color differently in each of his photographs. “Bridge to Fall” emanates an Alice in Wonderland playful and curious tone. “Glow” a gentle photograph of a dock, has a deep everlasting glow that contrasts the bright lights of a city on the right. In contrast, the lack of color in “Nevermore” supports the ominous presence of a lone raven and silhouetted tree branches. Here, Mattson answers questions about his interest in photography and some of his influences.

Nevermore

Nevermore

Continue reading →

Comments Off on Introducing Our Featured Artist for 3.2: James Mattson

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | April 20, 2015 · 9:21 am

Everything You Wanted to Know about Gandy Dancer But Were Afraid to Ask: An Interview with Faculty Advisor Rachel Hall

Posted by Rachael Kelly, GD CNF Reader for 3.2

Creative nonfiction reader Rachael Kelly chatted with GD’s very own Rachel Hall to get an in-depth look at the past, present, and future of Gandy Dancer.

Rachael Kelly (RK): What are three of your favorite things about being the faculty advisor for Gandy Dancer?

Rachel Hall

Rachel Hall

Rachel Hall (RH): There are so many things that I love about teaching the Editing and Production Workshop and being the Gandy Dancer faculty advisor. It’s great to work with the class and staff to build something together. As a writing teacher, I’m often in the position of critiquing students’ work, slapping grades on their efforts, so that it can feel as if we are on opposite sides of the enterprise: Critic versus writer. But with Gandy, we’re working together to build something and I love that collaborative work. And I get to see talents the students have that might not show up in a regular classroom, skills like social media savvy or an eye for design. I also love seeing the journal come together—each semester, it feels a bit magical, though, of course, there is lots of hard work involved. That may be four things, but all are important! Continue reading →

Comments Off on Everything You Wanted to Know about Gandy Dancer But Were Afraid to Ask: An Interview with Faculty Advisor Rachel Hall

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,