Write (ten interview questions)
For this major assignment, you are going to construct an imaginary interview with the author Rita Dove
The Writers on Writers essays, spread throughout the textbook, may provide inspiration in that one writer is reflecting on another’s work.
You are to compose ten literature-related questions for your author, and you will provide answers as if you are the author.
In addition to reading the author’s headnote in our text, you may also read other biographical materials on the author. This will help you formulate an idea of how the author would respond to criticism on their work.
Of your ten interview questions, at least two must ask a question and thus provide an answer about at least two secondary sources who have written about one or more of the author’s texts.
These secondary sources must be criticism found in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.
You will retrieve the articles from Warner’s databases.
Remember, criticism is not a negative thing—it is merely the art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of literary works.
Imagine how the author would respond to this criticism. Write a solid response paragraph (6-8 sentences) for each question.

Example:

If I were interviewing Gwendolyn Brooks, I could ask her about where she grew up and its influence.

Me: Ms. Brooks, how did growing up and living on Chicago’s South Side affect your writing?

Brooks: There were many influences to my writing career: my parents and our church were majors ones, but location was another. My first book of poetry A Street in Bronzeville was heavily influenced by the people, places, and events I witnessed in that area of Chicago. One poem in which this influence is seen is “We Real Cool.” I was driving past The Golden Shovel, a pool hall, in the middle of the day and saw these young men playing pool while they should have been in school. The poem became a commentary on truancy and how it can affect someone’s future. Living and working in Chicago kept me in touch with the people who lived there and allowed me to tell their unique stories to the world. I made it my life’s work to reveal how the material conditions of their lives affected them.

Example of question engaging a secondary source:

If I were interviewing Charlotte Perkins Gilman and asking her about theories on mothering, I could reference Catherine Golden’s article ‘Light of the Home,’ Light of the World: The Presentation of Motherhood in Gilman’s Short Fiction” and ask the following question:

Me: Ms. Gilman, Catherine Golden argues that your work establishes motherhood as a collective political action. How could that statement be true for the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?

Ms. Gilman: The narrator experiences intense personal struggle because she lacks the collectivist culture that mothers desperately need. The narrator is suffering from post- partum depression, but her condition is made worse because of a rest cure that isolates her from others and prohibits her creative impulses. If she had women in her life who she could confide in and ones who did not fear subverting patriarchy, she would not have felt so entrapped. She might have been able to speak up for herself, knowing she had support. Together, she and these women would have changed their small sphere of influence. In

this light, I agree with Golden’s assertion about my work because political action grows from small pockets of people working toward a larger social or political goal.

Interview with [Author’s Name]

Begin each question by italicizing who is talking. Write “Me” or your last name. Single space each question and answer, and skip one line between each question and answer set. Number the questions 1-10. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font. After your tenth question and answer set, go to the “Insert” tab in Word, and insert a page break. Write “References” with no quotation marks at the top of the page, and cite in APA format any sources your consulted or cited. You do not need in-text citations, but follow the example, naming the author and article you’re referring to in each question as appropriate.