To us, Dalton is the perfect southern gentleman. He's got a gigantic heart and some powerful words. We imagine he has a beautiful accent, too. The answers to his questions are both insightful and charming, so we hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did!  You can find his work in Hunt, Press and After. 

What inspires you? The South. There is just so much magic and warmth in the ground here. The food is delicious. The accents. The music! The culture of the South has always been a very big part of who I am, and it always finds its way into my work. I love it. My mother and grandmother. They are strong ladies, made out of the very mountains they can move so effortlessly. My girlfriend, Ricky. She keeps me grounded, because she knows that given the chance, I would go burnin' up into the sun just because I wanted to be so close. She makes my heart safe, and she keeps the stars close. My best friend, Ricky. I am blessed to have two marvelous Rickys in my life. He keeps my childhood present. He is brilliant. There are so many moons in this kid, so much howling, and I would not be able to write like I do without him. Squirrel friends for life! My baby cousin, Madison. She is a strange, beautiful, loud bird. There are lanterns inside of her, glowing, that I hope will always remain so. Drag queens. I love drag so very much. The charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent those ladies have is just mind-blowing. I couldn't do it, that's for sure. They inspire me to do the best art I can do. Drag inspires me to remain true of heart, above all else. Birds. Mountains. Space. And other poets and artists, of course! To name a few: Anis Mojgani, Jeremy Radin, Frank Stanford, Jon Ledford, Buddy Wakefield, Jessi Trimnal, Maurice Sendak, Graham Franciose, RuPaul, Lou Murrey, Shaun Tan, Latrice Royale, Jim Driggers, Sam Beam, Mother Aretha Franklin, and the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. What’s your process like for writing a poem? It usually starts with an image. And it slowly grows, line by line, sometimes downward, sometimes outward. I get the poem started, and then I just follow it to wherever it wants to go. I do not believe in forcing a poem to go a certain way. It just won't work out. I try to write a poem a day. That does not mean I write a good poem a day. Poetry is my job, or at least I consider it to be. As such, I should show up to work every day. Inspiration is one thing, but if a writer doesn't meet inspiration at least half-way with honest blood and sweat, it only does a disservice to the poet and the poem. What do you enjoy doing aside from writing? I enjoy eating. Breakfast food, goodness gracious! I enjoy reading, watching RuPaul's Drag Race, and laughing at dumb things. I love listening to records. I love monster hunting with my cousin Madison when I get the chance. Bicycles in the summer. Taking annoying pictures of my two cats, Voldemort and Other Cat. I also enjoy being loud in the car with my best friend Ricky.  I also enjoy dancing, but we'll get to that later. Dream ice cream sundae? Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate syrup. Nutella somewhere. White chocolate flecked over. Sprinkled cinnamon and gingerbread. Oh that sounds delicious. Eating it on a porch swing and falling asleep afterwards. On a Sunday afternoon. And most importantly, what is your signature dance move (and song of choice to boogie to)? I'll refer to my dancing style as the Reverse-Super Nova Factory. Limbs flailing. Feet stomping. Heart clapping. And I'll give you two boogie-worthy songs! "Gettin' Over Your Love" by Holy Ghost Tent Revival. And "Glamazon" by RuPaul. Of course. 

  ———————————————————————————————————-

Steph Mill is one of our great friends and someone we can always rely on to send us really phenomenal photography. She's also Canadian and recently visited Chicago (not without making a guest appearance at our weekly meeting for an actual in-person interview). You can find her work in Space, Home, Echo, and Cycle, so far.

What inspires you? I’m inspired by the idea of the almost-failure, the possibility of things going wrong. Also the way light hits people.

What’s your process like for a project, start to finish? I pretty much only shoot what’s happening in my life at the time, I don’t really plan anything. If I’m shooting myself and another subject, I’ll interact with them the way I normally would, and see what comes of it. I usually start with a general idea of my relationship with the person and work from there, and it comes out being what it naturally would be.

What do you enjoy doing aside from taking photos? Moshing, duh; the only things I do aside from taking photos are going to shows and lying in my bed watching cartoons, while occasionally scrolling through tumblr. And I go to school so I guess that takes up some time when I let it.

Dream convenience store purchase? I wish all convenience stores developed film, but also vanilla coke. It’s #rare in Canada.

And most importantly, what’s your favorite Leonardo DiCaprio movie? I’m pretty partial to young Leo, so I'd say either Titanic or Romeo + Juliet.

———————————————————————————————————-