Haley Mlotek will be reading at The Difficult to Name Reading Series on Saturday, June 27 at Brit Pack.
Along with Alexandra Molotkow, you edit The Hairpin, which publishes a lot of great pieces. How do you manage to keep the quality level so high?
Ha. First of all, thank you!! This is a very flattering question!!
The Hairpin has always been really lucky to publish pieces at its own pace, I think; Edith really set that tone when she started it. She always posted things that made her laugh or she was genuinely interested in, which is why the site has always had this really easy conversational tone between the editors and the readers.
Choire said, when I first started, that The Hairpin is a place for "petty enthusiasms," and that's so true! So, I think Alex and I have worked to always keep an eye on things that really make us laugh out loud, or really excite us, or make us happy, because that's the best way to make sure we're publishing high quality pieces, Iiiiiiiii think!
You've been publishing some great poetry by Emma Healey lately. Are you looking to publish more poetry in the future?
Emma IS great, it's true!! I love her poetry and I love being able to publish poems by wonderful writers.
We actually do have some plans for poetry in the future; neither Alex nor I are experts, but we are both very curious, and both learning to love poetry. We have this great series by Charlotte Shane about sending poems to friends, and Alex has a project in the works about understanding poetry on a deeper level. So, yes!
What can people expect from your reading?