Monday, 29 September 2025

Micro-interview with Naomi Simone Borwein

We’re joined by Naomi Simone Borwein, author of the wonderful poem “The Void Is in a Playful Mood Tonight” in The Future Fire #74, to talk about alienation, transmateriality, and writing.


Art © 2025, Carmen Moran

TFF: What does “The Void Is in a Playful Mood Tonight” mean to you?

Naomi Simone Borwein: On one level, this poem is about the conscious universe and “our” presence in it. On another level, it is about alienation.

TFF: Is poetry a speculative genre or medium by default, would you say?

NSB: Metaphor can be envisioned as a conceptual network of meaning(s) linked by more or less abstract layers of motile, sensory, and visual codices that are actualized through poetry; it is a somatic slippage of meaning. That transmateriality of meaning, which embodies divergent manifestations or reinterpretations of “reality” again and again, can be pretty surreal, speculative even, so potentially yes.

TFF: If you were the captain of a ship, what would you name her?

NSB: Dearly Departed.

TFF: What is the most important thing to remember about writing?

NSB:

  1. It’s trite but read every day and write every day, and if you cannot write, read read read until you can
  2. Writing is like channeling vengeful spirits

TFF: What are you working on next?

NSB: Some academic volumes, a spec fic novel, and the usual insomnia-fuelled poetry and short fiction… that may never see the light of day.


Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2025/09/new-issue-202574.html.

Saturday, 13 September 2025

New issue: 2025.74

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin (National Book Awards, 2014)

 [ Issue 2025.74; Cover art © 2025 Barbara Candiotti ] Issue 2025.74

Short stories

Novelettes

Poetry

Download e-book version: PDF | EPUB