Torch Literary Journal (now known as Torch Literary Arts) was founded by Affrilachian & Cave Canem poet Amanda Johnston. For a few years, I conducted interviews with Black women poets in service to the Torch Literary Arts Project, specifically for the segment of the journal called “Flames”. Some of these interviews were never published, however, I consider them important sources of story and power and I share them here as part of my archive.

Elizabeth Alexander

*This interview was conducted while I was a graduate student at Yale University. Since this interview, Elizabeth Alexander’s life changed drastically. Amanda conducted a new interview for Torch Literary Journal in Spring 2016.*

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/zorashorse/files/2020/11/Interview-Elizabeth-Alexander-Dec-2010.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Nikky Finney

*I conducted this interview while on fellowship at Cave Canem, where Finney was a teacher.*

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/zorashorse/files/2020/11/Nikky-Finney-Interview_Torch-Summer-2012.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Angela Jackson

*I conducted this interview while on fellowship at Cave Canem, where Jackson was a teacher.*

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/zorashorse/files/2020/11/Angela-Jackson-Interview_Torch-Summer-2012.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Ruth Ellen Kocher

*I reached out to Ruth Ellen Kocher and she was so kind and granted me this interview. I cannot find my transcript of it, so I share the audio file here.*

Natasha Tretheway

*I conducted this interview with Natasha Tretheway when she was a Yale on a Fellowship. I was a graduate student there at the same time. Both of us were in the African American Studies department, where we had the fortune to cross paths, and Ms. Tretheway generously granted me this interview. This interview has since been re-published as part of a collection of interviews on Natasha Tretheway (Conversations with Natasha Tretheway, edited by Joan Wylie Hall – University Press of Mississippi, 2013).

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/zorashorse/files/2020/11/Interview_with_Natasha_Trethewey_TorchLitJournal_2010.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]