A wise Rebecca Black once said: “It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday.”

And that’s exactly what we’re doing with this Mackenzie Moore Drunkerview!

Sit back, relax, grab a cold one, and enjoy!

Tell me a little bit about Alms Basket For Your Heart. How did you go about putting this together?

Alms was a micro collection I started putting together early this spring. Some poems were older, and some ended up being pretty certified fresh — shall we say — but they all came together into a timeline type of narrative. I started adding drawings to some of the pieces as well, and seeing that, I knew that it was going to be a bit of an odd duck. Alms is pretty compact and super specific, and needed the right home. Luckily, I’d been in touch with Tyler at Variant Lit and reached out asking if he might consider it.

From there, it just sort of took off. Tyler was excellent to collaborate with — his mind definitely finds these cool, weird niches where you can be creative, and that came through with this collection. He ended up taking on the lion’s share of the aesthetic for the hand-bound copies of Alms — literally prototyping each version of the cut-outs. I’m so excited for its release at the end of the month, and truly grateful to have an editor like that walking through the process with me.

And talk about overachiever–you also have another chap coming out called Bento Box. Do you generally work on more than one project at once?

I’m typing this, so I can’t go bashfully hide behind a wall. Funny enough, Bento actually was accepted to be published before Alms, but scheduling is this funky little roulette wheel these days. As it turns out, it just fell later in the calendar for the publisher putting it out, so it’s been tailgating Alms through different stages of edits and release.

I’m a huge fan of your artwork. Do you find it helpful to have another creative outlet besides writing that you can turn to at times?

Ah, thank you! Yes, and yes. To be honest, I have a very hard time not writing whatsoever. My rotation cycles between narrative podcasting, television, and poetry and prose (and grocery lists, ‘cause ya know, don’t forget the good pretzels) so it can be hard to shut down. Drawing has been a way to at least shut down half the engine and let my brain unwind.

Top 5 movies. Go.

• Rushmore: I argue the last 45 seconds are all you need in life.
• Little Miss Sunshine: Man, talk about a deep cut that just makes you think about life and chasing some vans.
• John Mulaney’s The Comeback Kid: Okay, comedy special, but it’s a masterpiece for me. If you’re a former Catholic kid from Chicago, this just hits home.
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: I watch it whenever I’m homesick, or actually sick. I am forever Cameron Frye under the comforter.
• The Lobster: breaking my Chicago theme for this wildcard. Cinematically, that movie just blew me away. Dystopian but with a dose of moody, literary vibes.

You just sat in 6 hours of LA traffic. You’re finally home and relaxing. What are you having to drink?

Oh my god — the very coldest Japanese beer I can find. My favorite is Yoho Brewing’s Wednesday Cat. There’s also a label called Kizakura that makes one called Lucky Cat. So apparently, light and crispy beers on the cat theme. All else fails, throw me a Blue Moon and I’m fine.

What are you currently working on?

Poems, all the poems. I have a third collection that I’m about to take out and I think it’s the most nostalgic yet. It’s got a lot of Chicago, New York, and LA in it. Spaces are really special for me. I’ve also been trying to shape up my essay game, since it’s been a minute, but I really enjoy the micro CNF space.

Finally, You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?

Okay. One, can I name him Bruce? If so, I think I would want to become the nightly neighborhood “elephant and ice cream” squad. Nothing unethical — I’ll pull a Radio Flyer wagon filled with the goods — Bruce can be the eye candy. I feel like that’s the kind of thing we need in a pandemic, right?

Mackenzie is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles who currently writes for podcasting and television. Her poetry chapbooks are forthcoming with Variant Lit and Kelsay Books this fall.  Follow her on Twitter @mxkmoore.

Shawn Berman (@sbb_writer) runs The Daily Drunk. He likes the occasional IPA.