Ed Smith

Joy Carlin and Beth Wilmurt in Martin McDonagh's 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane,' directed by Mark Jackson

Martin McDonagh, the author of acclaimed plays including "A Skull in Connemara," "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" and "The Pillowman", as well as the movies In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, is an exceptional writer, says Shotgun Players member Beth Wilmurt, who has been performing in the Bay Area for 25 years. She plays Maureen Folan in McDonagh's play "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at the Marin Theatre Company.

"Rhythmically, he's amazing, and his wit and humor are so strong," she said. "There's this fine line between drama and comedy, but it's not even that he's going back and forth from comedy to drama -- it's like a constant mash up."

Joy Carlin, who plays Mag Folan, Maureen's manipulative mother in the play, agrees.

"For me he's like an Irish Clifford Odets," she said. "His language is beautiful and poetic. It's also the structure of the play, which is so tight. It's really interesting working on this play."

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It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

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The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Chris Pedler

Sarah Ciston writes books and runs Bootleg Books, an editing and design studio that helps independent authors and publishers go rogue. Her literary pursuits also include the small-batch lit mag We Still Like and her print shop on Etsy.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

I tell them that I make artisanal literature. Actually, I wish I could say that without balking, even though in my heart and in practice I suppose it's true. I write books, and I help other authors edit, design and publish theirs. I make fine art prints inspired by found language. I am still practicing claiming the mantle of writer and figuring out how all the parts compliment each other.

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It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

More »

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Ben Mirov is the author of two books of poetry, Hider Roser and Ghost Machine, and the chapbooks I is to Vorticism, Vortexts, and Collected Ghosts.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

I usually tell them I'm a teacher. I don't usually tell them I write poems. I prefer to think of my relationship to poetry as a completely isolated aspect of my life. It feels good to protect it, like I don't need to incorporate being a poet into my identity to make it a thing. Even though it's integral to who I am, maintaining the illusion that my role as a poet is relegated to its own dimension is important to me for reasons I've never fully explored. I just take the impulse as something of value.

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Chris Sollars shaving himself with an axe, from his art project "Hairy"

It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

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Camille Rose Garcia

A mad tea party

Growing up in Southern California not far from Disneyland, the celebrated "lowbrow" artist Camille Rose Garcia fell in love with all things Disney at an early age. Disney animation in particular has remained a key influence upon her work. In looking at her distinctive work, it becomes obvious that Garcia's vision of the world is darker and more complex than that influence alone.

Rife with dystopian ideas and phantasmagorical imagery, Garcia's paintings hold a central place in the pop surrealist movement of the last two decades. Still, there's a sense of her having come full circle as an exhibition opens this week at the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio that pairs her interpretations of the Alice in Wonderland story with Mary Blair's imaginative, angular designs for Disney's Alice film of 1951. Garcia, who cites Blair specifically as an influence, spoke to us about the exhibition and her other recent work.

How did the exhibition come together?
I did the Alice in Wonderland book a couple of years ago, and I made the decision to keep all the artwork together. I was looking at the early Tenniel work -- the original Alice in Wonderland illustrations -- and I was thinking, "How great to have a whole body like that kept together." So I framed it all and showed it in Los Angeles. Then the Walt Disney Family Museum contacted me about doing a show, and I mentioned that I had this whole body of work in my personal collection. They loved it because it tied in with the Disney Alice in Wonderland -- and they do a spring, Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party every year.

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Hilary Olson

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Wonder Dave is a writer and performer from Minnesota living in San Francisco. His work has been featured in literary journals and anthologies such as Divining Divas (Lethe Press) and Aim for the Head (Write Bloody Press). He's been a featured performer at schools, burlesque reviews, poetry slams, science fiction conventions, and bowling alleys across the country. Dave is currently a regular cast member at the monthly Oakland underground variety show Tourettes Without Regrets.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?
My business card says "Writer, Performer, and Swell Guy." I also tell people I work at a tiny restaurant in SOMA.

What's your biggest struggle -- work or otherwise?
The same thing I think lots of writers struggle with: actually sitting down and writing. If only I could get paid to read whatever I wanted.

If someone said I want to do what you do, what advice would you have for them?
Learn to listen. Read. If you don't read you're going to be a terrible writer.

Do you consider yourself successful?
Yes, I enjoy my life and there are people in it I can be vulnerable with. Also I have more Twitter followers than there are people in the town I grew up in. @TeamWonderDave y'all!

When you're sad/grumpy/pissed off, what YouTube video makes you feel better?
Well because I am a terrible person I'm gonna go with this clip full of swearing Barbie Dolls:

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It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

More »

Gayle Walsworth

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Kai Carlson-Wee was born and raised on the Minnesota prairie. His poems have appeared in Many Mountains Moving, Linebreak, Forklift Ohio, and Best New Poets 2010. He currently lives in San Francisco, California, where he is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?

Well, I try not to say I'm a poet. I try to avoid it. I say I'm a skater. Or I say I'm a teacher. Or that I spend my time looking out windows at trees. You know, it's funny, but this question actually makes me very nervous. I mean, I've been writing seriously since I was 19 years old, and I'm 30 years old now, so that's 11 years of writing, but it's only been the last year-and-a-half that I've actually been able to call myself a writer. I don't know why this is. I mean, what makes it so painful for a poet to admit that they spend their days looking at trees? Saying you're a poet has all these romantic connotations, you know, and every time I tell someone I'm a writer I see this film-roll of judgment start playing itself out in their brains. They think you're a poser. A self-ordained dandy. One of those faux intellectual hipsters who hangs around coffee shops quoting from Blake -- "To see the world in a grain of sand" -- that sort of thing. I don't know, perhaps it's a symptom of a larger disease.

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