Steve Caldes, father, foodie, freelancer and our creative non-fiction editor teaches journalism at California State Univ,ersity, Chico, where his wife is also a professor. If you play your cards right, he might just tell you the secret to his famous BBQ sauce he learned while an undergraduate at Clemson University.
Tell us a little bit about you and your life right now.
Welp, I’m a father of two (six year old Elka and two year old Wells), a partner to one (Dr. Jenny Malkowski who teaches at the same university), and an Associate Professor in the Journalism Department at California State University, Chico (aka Chico State). Academically, I’ve been writing a bit lately about mis-/dis-information and how (in this post-truth, emotional-propaganda-laden world) well-told (often false) stories have become more powerful than facts, and how there’s now more than ever a need for increased literacy around how stories are told (sold) and function so we can stop being so easily manipulated by this form of compelling propaganda. Like, if we can get people to better see the gears at work they might not be so susceptible to the machine.) But I also write a lot about food for some local magazines. I’m sorta food obsessed – it’s history and influence on culture and politics, but also just like, how great cooking food for family and friends is and how cooking is the most delicious way of telling someone you love and care about them. The vinegar-based BBQ sauce my friends pine for regularly, I first learned (from my then girlfriend’s father) when I was at Clemson.
How was your undergraduate experience as a Clemson student
Clemson holds very fond memories for me. I made friends there that I still talk to (well, text with) daily! And some of the professors I met there’s ones like Keith Lee Morris! – literally changed my life, and I’m proud to count them as friends, too. (I wrote a lot about how integral Clemson in general and the English Dept in particular were to me/my professional life in an old issue of the alumni magazine Clemson World. It was called “The Yes that Changed My LIfe” if you’re interested.
It was at Clemson where I learned I loved…learning. High school felt like a place where I had to memorize information regardless of if I was interested in it or not. But at Clemson, even in my GEs to some extent, I was encouraged to follow my curiosities. One of the reasons I graduated with two minors was simply because I just could not stop taking History classes. Every semester in the last few years I’d tack on a History class just because. I was never disappointed. And this mindset – be curious! Quench that curiosity with reading and class and more questions – helped me flourish as both a person (curiosity makes people more interesting!) and a student. In high school I was a “fine” student, but from Clemson on I always graduated with honors. There were people–friends and faculty–that believed in me at Clemson. They helped me believe more in myself, and any success I’ve had (which might seem miniature to most, but means a lot to me) stems from these integral years in western SC.
How did you end up in the New Mexico State MFA program and how did that expand your craft?
I ended up at NMSU because – yup, you guessed it – because of Clemson. I believe it was fall of my senior year and the English Dept was hosting a writing series that brought the author Antonya Nelson to campus. Nelson was a big deal to me at the time; I was reading and writing and studying short stories and she was one of the top practitioners. I remember I was even doing a report on one of her short stories for a project in my Philosophy of Death and Dying class I was taking when I learned of her visit. I remember she gave a reading – that eentranced – came to our creative writing workshop–where knowledge was dropped – and then a few of us got invited to have lunch with her. I was my usual energetic ball of joy and was just excited at how lucky I felt. This author I spent all year reading was suddenly, like, eating a sandwich with me! It just felt so…cool. Then, a few days or so later, either Keith or his former ENGL colleague Brock Clarke told me that Nelson suggested I apply to the NMSU MFA program. She hadn’t read my writing that weekend–not that I remember, anyway – but had (at least this is the story I got) mentioned that the faculty at NMSU was as interested in young writers’ motivation and attitude as much as they were writing chops. I guess she thought I might be a good person to have in a cohort. A year later, when I was applying for MFAs, I completed quick a few applications, but there was only one I was truly interested in: NMSU.
NMSU was everything. The sheer talent at the time I was there: Nelson, Robert Boswell, Kevin McIlvoy, Chris Bachelder, and Connie Voisine to name a few. The effort they put into my work and writing instruction. I remember once I turned a ≈15-pg story in to a Robert Boswell workshop and received over 20-pgs in notes! And Nelson dropped so many little tips – one I still think about and “use” today. Chris Bachelder was a rising star at the time – his satire is on par with anyone working today, George Saunders included! – but what I got most from his was how personable and hard-working he was. In my mind he was who I wanted to be, but also someone I got to have a lunch burrito on campus with. It was also here that I started writing more creative nonfiction/literary journalism. Monica Torres taught a CNF course that opened my eyes to the power of true-story-telling.
McSweeney’s was a big part of your start in getting your name out there, how was that experience?
Yeah, in the early 2000s, when the internet was mostly full of hope and connection, McSweeney’s were the funny, semi-dorks in the corner poking fun and punching up. At Clemson I read Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (which kinda blew my head off for a minute there; I believe he was also one of the original founders of McSweeney’s) and started going to the website daily. The way they messed with form, took big swings in the area of meta-fiction, and just wanted to make some high-minded cracks really spoke to my inner silliness. It was like a Harvard Lampoon, but for the whole world. Smart and funny, funny and smart…that was my wheelhouse. My first few publications with them felt like an airplane taking off. I’m sure a few beers were had in celebration
Switching topics to SCR, as our Creative Non-Fiction Editor, what makes a piece interesting for you? What current or older trends excite you in a non-fiction piece?
This is such a huge question. I’ve been thinking about…and writing about…this a lot these days. I think I’ve come up with something short that sums it up. At the SCR, we’re looking for CNF pieces OF CONSEQUENCE. I know, I know, super vague. (Isn’t all writing supposed to be important?) I guess I might venture to say that quality CNF pieces are equally of consequence to the writer AND the reader. To accomplish this, good CNF should be about TWO THINGS…the personal story, of course, but also something bigger, more universal, something connected to, er…humanity. It’s gotta SAY something bigger, something connected to the story but also outside of it. I don’t care about YOUR time at, say, cheerleading camp, UNLESS it’s teaching me about the world I live in also! If that makes sense. That said, I’m uninterested in being lectured to. I need room to breathe and make up my own mind – as any reader wants – but I need to believe that the author is USING this one story to tell us something that’s more…difficult, abstract, etc.
But also, sometimes, there’s just a voice or an energy that grabs me. We have a piece coming out next fall I think that, at first, read a bit like the blogging of a woman at the end of her rope, just barely hanging on to mind in this increasingly superficial world. There were so many times reading this where I was like, Where is this going? But I couldn’t put it down…the voice just kept me hooked. And soon enough, at about the 8,000 word mark, I started to see that more “universal theme” rise. I’m so happy I kept reading…
So yes, the story can be about you and your life, but it shouldn’t be FOR you. Write for the reader. Write to help them. Life is complex and lonely and so fully of the unknown. Try to give them some small sliver of truth they can hang their hat on.
Is there any advice you would give a creative fiction writer wanting to dip their toes into creative non-fiction?
I’m pretty sure everything in life is about DOING IT! I was someone–perhaps I still am – who is so busy figuring out why I’m NOT the guy, why this WON’T work, why I haven’t read enough, learned enough, done enough, etc. – that I talk myself (or at least did) so much. I watch my kids now…they complain about not being able to ride a bike. And I ask, Well, have you tried? “Not really,” they answer. Well then there’s your problem! 🙂 Seriously, though, just do it. And also read the stuff you want to write. I finally picked up the collected nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne and of all the things I like about it, the way it inspires me to write is perhaps my favorite!
Writer, educator and quilter Caroline Rash was born and raised in Clemson, South Carolina but currently resides in New Jersey. She holds an MFA from Rutgers-Camden and serves as an associate editor at the South Carolina Review.
What does your writing process look like? My writing process is slow and steady with many, many drafts of each piece. As a new parent, I steal moments to write whenever I can, always keeping in mind to release my expectations for the first draft. Every wrong word and sloppy line is necessary to move towards the final piece. Editing and revision must be a separate process you worry about when the time comes—and you can’t revise a blank page. If I’m really stuck or unmotivated, I ask my friends to trade drafts and provide each other with accountability.
What do you hope readers take away from your work? I hope readers feel their own questions, moments of vulnerability, intimacy (with other people or the environment) and grief mirrored in my work. I hope my poems are a place of rest where the reader can sit with ambiguity and uncertainty.
Do you find your writing grows out of lived experience, research or imagination—or some blend of the three? My writing grows out of lived experience refracted through the imagination. I deeply admire the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca and the strangeness of his poetic imagery. My chapbook includes a series of sonnets where I imagine these birds—that were literally stealing our home’s window screens for their nests—eventually invade and take back our house as their own. Poetry is meant to elevate our experiences, even the mundane, and crystallize emotions in a way that echoes for the reader long after they’ve set the poem aside. In a good poem, you can create a kind of mythical sense that connects to a diverse audience, who have lived very different life experiences, by extending a moment through surprising images and thoughtful rhythms.
What authors/poets or books have inspired you the most throughout your journey? I deeply admire the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca and the strangeness of his poetic imagery. I reread Poet in New York when I’m stuck and my own writing feels stale. Likewise, Roberto Bolano creates haunting atmospheres that draw me back to reread his novels over and over again. Seamus Heaney wrote my favorite poem, “Postscript.” Marie Howe, Jack Gilbert, and Ai have been poets who have helped me write about grief. The list could go on. There’s a poem or poet for every stage of life, every moment.
We are so excited about your new collection of poetry Because the Bullet Arrives! Can you tell us a bit about the collection? My debut chapbook Because the bullet arrives reckons with suffering and uncertainty in an age of noise, grief and contradiction. What do we place our faith in? What does resilience (for humans and our planet) look like? What does survival cost? Written over the course of a decade, the poems are grounded in Southern/ Appalachian culture and ecology.
Do you have any upcoming events (anything) we should be on the lookout for? Events in Philly and NYC to come! All upcoming events are linked at CarolineRash.com.
Literary fun fact? Both my dad, Ron Rash, and my partner, Joseph Turkot, are also published authors.
Stevie Edwards, PhD is the poetry editor of The South Carolina Review and an assistant professor in the Department of English at Clemson University, where she teaches creative writing, poetry, and women’s literature. She lives in South Carolina with her spouse and three rescue dogs: Tinkerbell, Peaches, and Rufus.
Stevie received her PhD from the University of North Texas and MFA from Cornell. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, and The Southern Review among others. She is the author of the poetry books/chapbooks Quiet Armor, Sadness Workshop, Humanly, and Good Grief.
What are you currently reading and who is a favorite poet of yours? For the month of August, I read a poetry book a day as part of the #sealeychallenge. Today’s book is I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken, one of my favorite poets. Some of my other favorite poets are Ada Limón, Natalie Diaz, Patricia Smith, Diane Seuss, and Marie Howe.
What motivates and inspires your poetry? I tend to use poetry to process and reflect on my life, its sadnesses, rages, joys, and boredoms.
What are major themes that consistently come up in your work? My work often has feminist themes and explores the topics of trauma and mental health.
Do you have a few words to say to the next generation of poets? Don’t lose your voice to trends.
Do you have any upcoming publications we should look out for? My fourth book, The Weather Inside,is coming out in Spring 2026 from University of Arkansas Press as part of the Miller Williams Poetry Series and was selected by Patricia Smith (one of my favorite poets!) for publication.
That’s so exciting! What do you hope readers get out of The Weather Inside? One message the book carries is that it’s possible to start over, even when your life is in shambles. The poems in this collection hold space for discussing hard topics, like struggling with mental illness, alcoholism, and trauma. I hope I can make some people who are struggling feel a little less alone.
Literary fun fact? When I was twenty, I helped write part of a law for the European Union on insurance and reinsurance reform.
Keep a look on our socials for the cover release and information on the publication of Stevie’s The Weather Inside!
