Microinterview with Rachel Rodman

We welcome Rachel Rodman, author of the poem “Two Hybrids” in The Future Fire #71, for a brief chat in the microinterview series.

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Art © 2024 Fluffgar

TFF: What does “Two Hybrids” mean to you?

Rachel Rodman: I love hybridization.

The most exciting kind of creativity combines elements that are infrequently combined. I also love the stylistic challenge of merging objects and identities from different sources: Froggie’s sword + the runcible spoon; a winged creature + a half-amphibian who hunts dragonflies, pooling their talents to survive a long journey through the sky. (Many more examples can be found in my recent book, Mutants and Hybrids, which was published by Underland Press.)

“Two Hybrids” is also exciting to me because it feels like a breakthrough. It is one of several projects that began as a short story. For a very long time, I worked and reworked these pieces, getting nowhere. Eventually, however, it occurred to me to convert these failed stories to poems.

After that, things went quickly.

TFF: What are you working on now?

RR: More poetry. More short fiction.

I am also working on a long-form, “quantum fiction” project. In quantum fiction, events are both happening and not happening. When one outcome occurs, so does its opposite. (An early example of quantum fiction is a story called “Schrödinger's Fever,” which was published in Why Vandalism?) Quantum fiction is non-linear. It is internally contradictory. Within this genre, the usual stylistic divisions don’t make sense.

Poetry? Prose?

When my writing feels most authentic, these categories stop mattering.

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Extract:

When her parents die,
she converts
the pea-green boat
to
a pair of prosthetics—
wooden extensions of her own wings
(which are only half sized).

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

New issue: 2024.71

“Europeans brought with them the view that men were the absolute head of households, and women were to be submissive to them. It was then that the role of women in Cherokee society began to decline. One of the new values Europeans brought to the Cherokees was a lack of balance and harmony between men and women. It was what we today call sexism. This was not a Cherokee concept. Sexism was borrowed from Europeans.”

—Maria Mankiller

Issue 2024.71

Short stories

• ‘Whiskey Mud’, Jonathan Olfert - art by Cécile Matthey
• ‘Deep Sea Baby’, Faith Allington - art by Sebastian Timpe
• ‘That Small, Hard Thing on the Back of Your Neck’, Vanessa Fogg - art by Ellis Bray
• ‘In the Field’, Shelly Jones - art by L.E. Badillo
• ‘Deirdre’s Skin’, Amalie N. Ingham - art by Sarah Salcedo

Poetry

• ‘A Moon Witch Seeks a Shell’, Devan Barlow - art by Melkorka
• ‘Two Hybrids’, Rachel Rodman - art by Fluffgar

Download e-book version: PDF | EPUB

Full issue and editorial

New Issue: 2017.40

“One human life is deeper than the ocean. Strange fishes and sea-monsters and mighty plants live in the rock-bed of our spirits.”

—Ben Okri

Issue 2017.40

Flash fiction

• ‘Seven Choices’, Rachel Rodman (illustrated by Cécile Matthey) (cn: abortion; sa)

Short stories

• ‘The Thinnest Veil’, Peri L. Fletcher (illustrated by Miranda Jean)
• ‘Changer's Wood’, Stephen Taylor (illustrated by Pear Nuallak)
• ‘Sometimes I Am Drowning’, Louise Hughes (illustrated by Katharine A. Viola)
• ‘On Your Wings’, Omi Wilde (illustrated by Rachel Linn)

Poetry

• ‘Proven Strategies in Human Public Relations’, Davian Aw (illustrated by Carmen Moran)

Full issue and editorial

Download e-book version: EPUB | Mobi