If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I would cook dinner for Jean-Paul Sartre. His novella Nausea is a favorite of mine. I think that Sartre would enjoy something from my background, dishes my grandmother taught me, but with a modern touch: collard greens with fatback, fried green tomatoes with a mole sauce, and perhaps a Greek chicken dish with lots of lemon and olives. The wine would be a Juveniles cuvee. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I am always afraid of what my characters might do. They surprise me and lead me into realms that I would never explore otherwise. This is a fear that I do not combat, but rather embrace. I never write from an outline and need my characters to lead me forward. I am dependent on them. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Sartre, of course, would be one. I own a fine, leather, five-volume Gallimard editions of his fiction and am teaching myself French so that I can his works in French. More close to home, Flannery O’Connor is an idol of mine. She is probably the only author that can make me laugh out loud. Her story “The Enduring Chill” is a classic example. What books are on your nightstand? I have a five-year project to read the complete works of all of the major nineteenth-century French novelists, including Zola, Dumas, Merimee, Sand, Balzac, Hugo, and Flaubert. I have already purchased the sets on Ebay, very nice old books. I am currently working my way through Emile Zola’s works and then will devour Balzac. I just finished The Sin of Father Mouret and have begun Fruitfulness by Emile Zola. These writers encompass a realist approach, sometimes referred to as naturalism, which is rife with concrete details of daily life. On my nightstand are Fruitfulness by Zola, a French textbook, and a French copy of Le Petit Ami (which I am translating) by the irascible Paul Leautaud. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I get my ideas from real life. When I drive down the street, I glance at the houses and wonder what is going on inside. Travel is a large part of my learning. I recently traveled to Peru to take part in an ayahuasca ceremony and have written a short novella and two short stories based on that experience. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? My favorite punctuation mark is the tilde. I don’t really know why. It doesn’t look like a punctuation mark but rather something natural, like a wave. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I think that would be Gone with the Wind. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I would most definitely thank my cigars, which add a layer of velvet to my writing. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To reach back to the beginning. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Pay attention and then write about it. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? -The overconfident, pretentious, aspiring Michelin-star chef in me wants to choose a high-society author who would be accustomed to, yet nevertheless impressed with, fine dining. I’m thinking Fitzgerald would appreciate a tasting menu of consommes, canapes, perhaps a honeydew and mint granita served in a clear glass bowl atop a green lamp... But in truth, I’d want my dinner companion to be a conversationalist, so probably Mark Twain. No matter what I made, there’d be jokes. And bourbon. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? -I think I suffer the same human fear that most writers do -- that I’m not good enough. I suppose I combat this by hiding behind symbolism, double-entendre, and as often as I can, humor. Though, I’ve learned with Advent that being honest about my experiences and emotions allows me to ignore the ‘good enough’ question and present myself as is for anyone who can relate. That’s the goal, anyway: to make a connection with the reader. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? -Sofia from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents has always been an alluring character for me because of her wild, passionate, impulsive nature and her deep love for those around her. Plus, she seems like a lot of fun. What books are on your nightstand? -John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist, and James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? -Well, for Advent, becoming a father to my (first) daughter was the most remarkable and changing experience of my life thus far. Anyone with kids can attest to the evolution a person goes through when they become a parent for the first time. When I couple that love and responsibility with my vision for my own, personal future -- my passions, my goals, my fears -- I find that this is the stuff of life that connects all of us. Why not explore it? Favorite punctuation mark? Why? -I’m a sucker for an em dash -- I find the emphasis it creates striking. Besides, it’s so versatile, when I’m not sure if I should use a comma, a colon, or parentheses, the em dash is always there to cover up my lack of grammatical sophistication. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? -Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I read the first chapter, and hated it. The exposition, the creation of a new, futuristic society, was so foreign and odd that it made me uncomfortable. Interestingly, as a high school English teacher, I had to teach the book recently. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I recall, but -- no offense to Mr. Huxley -- it was still difficult to swallow the futuristic tale from the past. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? -I’d like to thank the internet, not for its endless access to infinite knowledge, but for its constant role as a distraction when I need distraction (not to mention when I don’t). Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. -To allow myself to be. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? -You’re not going to find yourself in here -- go discover yourself in others. ADVENT by Zachary Collins is a poetry collection of subtlety. Collins depicts family life, love, and nature without a kitschy moment. The collection is ripe with imagery and melody. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Dead: Jane Austen Alive: Mary Miller I’d assemble the fixings for a mid-afternoon cookout in one of East Lansing’s parks. The spread would include: Jell-O Supreme, a plate of radishes, sweet and sour pickles, pimento stuffed green olives, celery stalks and deviled eggs sprinkled with paprika.. For the main course I’d make the following: a casserole of scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, and a big ham. All matter of pop would be available including cherry, orange, and lemon-lime. For dessert I’d serve a devil’s food cake with fudge icing, an angel food cake with a topping of thawed strawberries macerated in a cup of sugar, and probably some homemade snickerdoodles. A few hours later, I’d set out some Pillsbury rolls and some rye bread along with mustard. Hopefully there’d be enough ham left for sandwiches; there usually is. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Fear: Not making the reader see what I see without overblowing the prose. I like minimalism and I tend to be cryptic. I combat the fear that I might exclude the reader if he/she can’t understand the meaning due to a thin explanation or description by imagining each scene over and over again. Through this process I bring more and more detail to the scene until it’s like a movie scene or a painting I love--like Van Gogh’s bedroom. Finally I leave the scene knowing that it has enough in it but not too much. I want the reader to feel his/her space in the book. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Jim and Huck or Anne of Green Gables or Mr. Darcy and most of all, Isra in A WOMAN IS NO MAN. What books are on your nightstand? LESS THE SONG OF SOLOMON THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? The midwestern landscape I grew up in and the post WW II era that is championed as full of heros and devoted Americans. PTSD was unrecognized for the most part and the domestic enclave a new and stultifying concept held up as the ultimate in living. I witnessed the guilt and frustration of those who couldn’t or wouldn’t comply with the conformity. Beneath the neat surface I found a world of subversion and as a former performer I am attracted to the idea of pulling back the curtain to find another world hiding in plain sight--that is if you looked.. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the comma and yet I must curb my enthusiasm for anything that encourages my propensity to think tangentially. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? V by Pynchon What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The ballet barre--ballet saved my life but that’s another story. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Interiority sustains, slays me too. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Edit your brains out. MARY PAULA HUNTER began her career as a choreographer/dancer creating works that fused movement and text. Eventually the writing won out. A transplant to New England, Hunter grew up in East Lansing, Michigan and holds a BA in English and an MFA in dance from the University of Michigan. She lives in Providence, RI with her husband, historian Richard A. Meckel.
Hunter's book Someone Else is available wherever books are sold. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I’d make spaghetti for Tom Wolfe (in his pristine white suit). What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I’ll fall into a perpetual depression and lose both the will to write and my creativite expression. That and aphasia, or any debilitating brain disorder. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Frankenstein. I’d caress those bolts anyday. What books are on your nightstand? None. I keep almost all of my books on my bookshelf. I always keep a dictionary in my room somewhere, usually on my desk or on the floor. I’ll probably have an Evelyn Waugh book on my desk too sometimes- he’s my favorite author. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? My thoughts are stimulated by other books, movies, and even sometimes music. Music can create a setting or set a mood for a story. I try to distance myself from the mainstream as much as possible when looking for ideas. Unique stories-something strange or absurdly hilarious-fascinate me and are the impetus to my writing. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The semicolon. It’s so underrated; it wonderfully joins two clauses. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? A Tale of Two Cities- although I did draw mustaches and beards on all the characters on the cover. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? None of these great poems would be available without my pen. I write down what comes into my head-sometimes a jumbled mess- and rearrange and transcribe them on my computer; although I’ve since switched to using solely my typewriter. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To escape from the mundane If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Think for yourselves! Delve into art; study the classics. Stop looking at your phones all the time. In fact, just throw them out and renounce your generation. Most important is seclusion. Embrace it. Your thoughts will just flow. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I don’t cook so all I could offer is a can of soup. I can’t imagine anyone showing up other than Bukowski. We’d sit at a small card table glowering at each other, slurping our gruel like a pair of slobs. I’d eventually confess to how much his work meant to me as a young jerk in my twenties, all that glorious self-destruction, until I saw a documentary where he threw a temper tantrum and kicked his wife. He wasn’t much of an underdog after that and the Bukowski spell had been broken. I imagine he’d listen intently before cursing me and hurling his bowl of soup at my head. The meal would come to an abrupt end before desert, leaving more Entenmann's crumb cake for me. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Some writers believe they plateau at a certain age, their talent and skill leveling off before diminishing each year. This troubles me and I hope it isn’t true. I plan on getting better until the end. The only way to combat this, of course, is to do the work. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I spent a good portion of my youth reading and re-reading S.E. Hinton novels so let’s go with Cherry Valance from The Outsiders. Becoming a young reader is an invitation to a great ball. Cherry was my first dance partner so I’ll stick with her. What books are on your nightstand? On my nightstand you’ll find The Secret History by Donna Tartt, The Life of Raymond Chandler by Frank MacShane, and Hemingway’s Brain by Andrew Farah. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? A good comma always comes in handy, a brief pause before hitting the next turn. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Melville’s Billy Budd still makes me wince. I took the Cliff Notes route when it was assigned in the tenth grade and got clobbered in the exam. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Many of these stories were written and edited in a parking lot outside of August Martin High School near Kennedy Airport. Administration won’t allow faculty inside the building until seven. Due to traffic and limited parking, I need to get on the road well before that. So I’ve been writing inside my car these past five years from six to eight. I’d like to thank Baisley Pond Park for providing a tranquil body of water to ponder in between sentences, as well as the ‘99 Nissan that served as impromptu writing studio, particularly in the months of January, February, and March. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Less brooding, more writing. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Both. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Imitating the style of the latest book they’re reading. It’s fun to impersonate our heroes, but they have to be let go at some point. What is your writing Kryptonite? I’m not a very good typist. You’d think I’d get better eventually, but I never do. As a result of all the hunting and pounding that goes on, my pacing suffers quite a bit. After one or two sentences, I’m compelled to take a peek at the damage left behind, a mishmash of unintelligible jargon and misspellings, and invariably have to stop to clean it up. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Other than life experience, reading is the source so no. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Maybe if they wrote textbooks for a living, otherwise no. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I love the idea of a circle of writers bantering ideas back and forth with their mentors, but that’s never been my experience. The one thing I learned from my MFA days is that I’m completely alone in this. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? My first book is a compilation of essays, mostly about my teaching experiences in NYC. The novel I’m currently working on is about the closure of a NYC high school as a result of mayoral control so there’ll be some obvious connections. Each work, however, will stand on its own. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? My writing process is very workman-like. I don’t see this routine changing for any reason. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? I won a writing contest in grad school and published my first national piece around the same time. I used the money from both to pay six months rent. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Fitzgerald and Ian Fleming, only because I was exposed to them too early before I could appreciate them. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I had very long hair as child in the seventies, particularly ages 5-8. This boggled the minds of some of the older kids on the school bus and they teased me quite a bit. I learned very quickly that words had power, even coming from the mouths of idiots. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy, the source novel to the film, is sad and beautiful. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? In my twenties I would’ve answered with something nice and syrupy. Now, however, I don’t owe anyone a thing. We’re all living in the same world. I happened to take notes. What does literary success look like to you? Literary success, if I’m to answer this question honestly, is a cabin in the woods on a lake surrounded by mountains. There’s a town nearby for mail and groceries, and a city several hours away to see an occasional play or exhibit, and every expense I incur is paid through my writing. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? The difficult part is getting readers of the opposite sex to trust you, especially nowadays. The proper way to earn this trust is to create a believable person first then consider the details of that character’s gender during the editing process. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’ve been teaching in New York City for fifteen years. J. Bryan McGeever is the author of Small Rooms and Others. He was born in Southern California and raised on Long Island. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday, with fiction in Hampton Shorts, Confrontation, and The Southampton Review. He teaches English in New York City Public Schools and lives with his family in Brooklyn. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d prepare a steaming bowl of Cream of Wheat for Joyce Carol Oates and pray that she wasn’t gluten intolerant. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? While I appreciate this question, I must point out that writing isn’t really very scary. Think about construction workers bolting steel girders together at forty stories up; or guys who drive big rigs through mountain passes in winter; or farmers operating machinery with blades and flying belts, pulleys, and chains; and dozens of other occupations where you could literarally die from one careless slip. When I write I sit in a recliner with a laptop. I do experience apprehension sometimes about what others may think of me as a result of reading my words. Will they perceive me as sick and twisted because some of my characters are? What about family members, especially those that are traditionally religious? Will they worry about my soul? What about my writer friends and acquaintances? Will they laugh at my ineptitude? I worry a little about these things, but I’ve always been, at least so far, able to regard these concerns as fluttering inconveniences—doubts that arise when we try to do something that exposes us to criticism—and brush them away like gnats. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Tess in Hardy’s novel is beautiful, provocative, and complex; and I especially like Natassja Kinski’s portrayal in the 1979 Roman Polanski film. I would also love to protect Mattie Silver from that elm tree in Ethan Frome. I’d buy her a whole bunch of red ribbons and get her away from bitchy Zeena and that hell hole, Starkfield. What books are on your nightstand? Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey by Daniel Mueller, What the Zhang Boys Knew by Clifford Garstang, Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, Sea Glass by Anita Shreve, and I just added Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? During the course of a typical day we are often too preoccupied with tending to the problems at hand to recognize the sources of inspiration that vibrate and hum around us. Sometimes I try to stop thinking in order to simply observe. Bits of overheard conversation, a fluttering leaf, swirling water, a gliding hawk, wafting fragrances of food vendors, the colors of springtime, or the desolation of winter’s bare branches can become seeds for an entire story or suggest the missing details needed to flesh out an ongoing project. Accessing the subconcious is also important. I try to cultivate the hypnagogic state, that alternate world between wakefulness and deep sleep when images pop in unbidden. Many artists and inventors have found ways to access this wellspring of ideas. There are books and many articles available on the subject. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The period is my favorite because it’s unambiguous. Always. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Little Women. Can you believe it used to be required? Maybe it’s a wonderful book. I don’t know because I still haven’t read it. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My stained coffee mug that I purchased from the Queens University of Charlotte bookstore. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Making stuff up is fun. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Turn away from the mirror and project yourself outward so that you become a photographic negative of the world.” —Ron Yates If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I think I would roast a leg of lamb for Virginia Woolf, though I wouldn’t do it as well as my Armenian mother. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That’s a big question - it’s changed over the (wait for it . . . ) 34 years I’ve been doing this! These days I’d say I worry that people will find my prose too. . . detached? That my view of life has become more objective? I think a poem I wrote says it best (I realized this is an odd insertion, but bear with me). It’s called “Time.” Let’s call it a study in detachment Gradual drift from passion to prayer Then even that loses strength We grow quiet, soft, and slow, Joyous in the face of this timely decay We’ve given so much, we’re ready now To hold a little back from this Riot of shifting light we know As life As to combatting my fears, I just keep going. If I have to walk away from the screen or page for a little bit, I do. When I get stuck on one project, I work on another. I’m always working on a novel, at least one short story, and over the last year or two, poetry. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Sylvia Plath comes instantly to mind, which I find odd, since she had such a miserable life, living in the shadow of Ted Hughes, bound by the era in which she lived where women were told to put home and family first. I also love Emily Dickinson because she was a recluse and didn’t seek the spotlight, though I understand she did send her work out, at least to people she knew well. She was willing to let other eyes find her words, but didn’t get caught up in the frenzy of publishing. What books are on your nightstand? None. But there is a motley stack on the end of my dining room table. Here’s the current list: Novels The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies; A Rage to Live by John O’Hara;, Dalva by Jim Harrison. Also poetry collections by Tracy K Smith; Donald Hall; Tony Hoagland; Tess Gallagher; Mary Oliver; Joy Harjo; and Kelli Russell Agogon. Lastly a couple of literary journals - the September 2019 issue of Poetry, and Issue 68 of 34th Parallel Magazine where my poem, “Sailing Off The Edge of The World” just appeared. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I have to say the semi-colon. It’s an elegant pause—more substantial than a mere comma; not as brusque as a period. I played classical piano for years, and this kind of pause always reminds me of Chopin, particularly in his Nocturnes. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Catcher in The Rye. I don’t know why it bothered me, but for some reason I dismissed it without giving it a try. Ignorant and pig-headed of me, I know. But I was young, and desperate for meaning in my life - as long as it didn’t threaten me too much. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My father’s desk. It sits in my home office. It was built around 1915, and was first used by my grandfather when he was a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University; later it sat in my father’s office in Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. I’m a poor heir, to be sure, but I work relentlessly at my writing. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Stop looking at yourself and look to the page. Your relationship with that page, paper or screen, will become the most important one of your life outside of your family and friends. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Depends on whether or not it’s going well. When it’s clicking along, I soar. When I’m stuck, I sink. I’m never down for long, though. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Thinking they’re going to get published right off the bat; that writing is easy; that their first attempts are absolutely brilliant; and that if no one sees that brilliance, they must wear dark glasses. What is your writing Kryptonite? These days it’s being old and stubborn. I refuse to give up on a project, unless I absolutely have to. If that happens, I start something else. But when I was younger, I just hung on by the skin of my teeth, and began each day with the vow that I would write something good, something another person would value. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? All the time! I can’t tell you how many books I’ve given up on and put down. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? A writer has to get passion on the page, and that’s damned hard to do if you don’t feel things strongly. So, no, you have to really have the soul factor going on. That said, dealing with rejection and lousy reviews should never be met with a hot head and an angry heart. The business end of writing should be treated cooly. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I have two close friends who write regularly. Their feedback is always food for thought, even if I don’t happen to agree with them. Anyone’s reaction to a written work is purely subjective, yet it helps to see what those reactions are. It lets me ask myself if I’m hitting the mark, or missing it completely. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Great question! The short answer is “both.” The longer answer speaks to connections among books. In 2013 I brought out a linked story collection—and if I may digress for just a moment, I considered calling it a “novel-in-stories” which I’ve seen some authors do—I just don’t see this as a viable entity— - it’s either a novel or a story collection; anyway, that collection was called Our Love Could Light The World and introduced readers to the Dugan family. I can’t seem to stop writing about them. The Amendment (Unsolicited Press, 2018) features the mother in the family, Lavinia, when she loses her second husband in a freak accident. My new release, Maggie’s Ruse, is all about the twin girls, Maggie and Marta. And the one coming out from Unsolicited in April 2021, A Winter Night, is about the eldest daughter, Angie, who makes a brief appearance in both of the above-mentioned novels. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I’m not sure it did. It was a huge achievement, nonetheless. I’d tried to get a story collection published for a long time, and it finally happened. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Probably buying an Instagram tour through a book-blogging service. People love to see the book’s cover image, along with a caption talking about much the reader enjoyed the book. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? To be honest, if I don’t like an author, I usually don’t give them a second chance. What I will say is that I’ve returned to an author years— decades—later and find that I appreciate her even more than I did the first time around. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Becoming bilingual at age six when my family spent eight months in Paris. I discovered a gift for story-telling. My audience was my young cousins who lived there. My words—French words at that time—seemed to enchant them. My father played a huge role, too. He was a Wordsworth scholar at Cornell, and would sometimes read some poems to me. The love he had for them was moving. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I’m going to shamelessly self-promote here, and say any of mine! As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? An owl. They’re wise. And my children tell me they remind them of me. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Not to reveal anything someone who knows them might recognize—something embarrassing, or something they’d rather keep private. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? A couple, to be sure, but I don’t think they’re worth revisiting. I just keep writing new things. What does literary success look like to you? Writing what I want, the way I want, and having readers fall madly in love with my words. What’s the best way to market your books? That’s a really tough question! I’d say Twitter is a great platform for getting the word out. Also landing a good print review here and there. For the latter, I rely on a publicist with good media connections, but even so, it’s hard. There are so many books published every year, it’s a challenge to get through the noise. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I’ve been married for 41 years and honestly, I still don’t understand how men think. Men approach the world differently from women because they experience the world differently. What did you edit out of this book? Anything that was unclear, or that led the reader to form an impression I didn’t want her to. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I trained as an economist, way back in the day, so probably something in finance or accounting, though the thought of either leaves me absolutely cold. Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of Maggie's Ruse, a novel available on October 1, 2019. Maggie and Marta Dugan are identical twins. Their relationship has the usual sisterly strains, until home alone one afternoon, Maggie masquerades as Marta when a friend of hers drops by. The ruse is quickly discovered, a rift between the sisters ensues, and they go their separate ways. But living apart is hard; real independence harder still. Will they come back together? How long until each realizes she needs the other to feel whole? If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I would love to have Margaret Atwood over for dinner. Ina Garten has this recipe for a mushroom risotto that is so, so layered and beautiful. It’s hearty and filling, and it’s impossible to have one serving. I would serve it with a roasted chicken seasoned with herbs de provence and lemon and a side of salad dressed simply with some Italian spices, a “good” olive oil (to quote Ina) and a splash of balsamic vinegar. I’d definitely make a dessert. I’d my aunt’s cheesecake, which is light and fluffy and the most temperamental recipe, but so worth the effort. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The thing that scares me most is probably that what I’m writing isn’t good. I am the worst about self-editing as I go, and I have to force myself to not self-edit. One of the ways I do this is by writing in one-hour increments. I only write new material and stop mid-sentence. When I return from a break, I allow myself a few minutes to skim what I’ve written to get back into the zone. I don’t know if this really helps with my fears, but it does help me get the writing done. As far as combating my fears, I have to remember that how my work is received is out of my hands, and being a control freak makes that mindset difficult, but it’s the only way to stay sane. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I have two literary crushes. One I’m not embarrassed about and one I find completely shameful. First, I love Mr. Darcy. I know it’s cliche to say that Mr. Darcy is my crush, but friends, he is. Elizabeth is his perfect match and the way they spout off at each other is incredible. My other, embarrassing crush, is Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. He’s a terrible person, but his obsession with Catherine is just insane. He takes love to another level--an unhealthy one. I always joke with my students that if Heathcliff came knocking on the classroom door to take me away they’d have to text my husband to tell them what happened to me. I usually get a healthy dose of teenage eye rolls. What books are on your nightstand? Currently, I have several on my nightstand: Brave New World, Station Eleven, Homegoing, and The Power. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the semi-colon. I was once told by a professor I deeply admire that I should never use the semi-colon in my writing because I wasn’t using it correctly, so I made it my mission to get it right. I guess now the semi-colon is my favorite out of spite. I’m petty, y’all. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Great Gatsby. I just taught it last semester for the first time in a long while. Good grief, it’s so good. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgments? The mug that houses my Earl Grey or coffee. It’s a Mary Poppins mug and the handle is the shape of her bird umbrella. It’s fantastic and makes me happy. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? The world needs your story. Does writing energize or exhaust you? It honestly depends on what I’m working on. I find fiction to be energizing unless I’m working on a hyper-emotional scene. There were a few scenes in With All My Love, I Wait that really took it out of me. When I write nonfiction, especially when I write about my mother, I find my energy is sucked right out of me. My husband has found me sobbing on several occasions. What are common traps for aspiring writers? All the self-editing, and all the self-doubt. I’m sure established writers experience self-doubt and find themselves self-editing early on in drafts, I think a more seasoned writer has the ability to snap out of it a little more easily. What is your writing Kryptonite? Procrastination. I am so bad about it. I can find any excuse to not write. It’s terrible. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? YES! When I finished graduate school at Florida Atlantic University, I was really burned out. I went straight from my bachelor’s to my masters program, was teaching full time, planning a wedding, and my mom sick with cancer. After learning so much about writing, I found it a lot harder to get into a book. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? What a great question. I don’t know if feeling emotions strongly is the thing that makes a writer a writer. I think it probably has more to do with identifying a character or perspective and being able to play with language. So, I guess, my quick answer is yes. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Courtney Watson is my best friend (I hope folks read this the way Claire of Clueless would say it). She is a supremely talented fiction and nonfiction writer. She is also a professor of writing, and she makes me a better writer by being a cheerleader, but also asking me questions about what I send her that helps me pinpoint where I need to tighten up my prose or rethink a character’s choice. She is the best, and I love her forever. Victoria Fedden is also a very close friend of mine. She is the author of a beautiful memoir titled This is Not My Beautiful Life. She is also incredibly talented. Victoria helps me think about my characters and language. I will say, both Courtney and Victoria, who I met in grad school, always have the best book recommendations, and the three of us share a deep passion for good food, which informs all of our writing. We also love the same TV shows which we discuss at length. They both make me better by giving me the necessary intellectual stimulation I need to grow. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I definitely want each of my projects to stand on their own. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? The biggest change has definitely been with my confidence. I am so bad about self-editing and hating everything I write, but now that my novel is going to be out there in the universe and on bookshelves, I have to wonder if maybe my writing isn’t so bad. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? I think my $55 a year subscription to Duotrope has been a great investment. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? I think Joseph Conrad. I always tell my students about how I wrote a parody of Heart of Darkness when I was in high school because I hated the novel so much. Then I had to read it again in undergrad and again as a first-year high school teacher to prepare lessons for my IB seniors. Rereading it, and subsequently reading again almost every year for the last decade has helped me learn to love Conrad. I’ve read his other novels and especially enjoyed The Secret Agent in recent years. It did take teaching him to some bright, young teenagers for me to realize he’s pretty great. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I didn’t speak English until I was about 3 or 4. My parents spoke to me in Italian. We also lived in Montreal, where most speak French--my father was a high school French teacher forty years. On Sundays, when my family would get together for Sunday lunch after mass, we would all be switching languages to best express our thoughts. I remember being about 8 or 9, after my family moved to Florida, and realizing how much weight words had because I would often find myself struggling to verbalize my thoughts in English. Feeling paralyzed and unable to communicate really drove that message home. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I don’t know if it’s “under-appreciated” because it’s fairly new, but I really, really loved The Power by Naomi Alderman. I enjoyed it so much and loved how beautifully done it was that I’m teaching it this year. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I’d probably be super-cliche and pick an old Corona typewriter as a mascot or maybe a fountain pen. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I mostly think a deep sense of gratitude. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Currently, I have about four half-finished books. What a hot mess… What does literary success look like to you? Consistent publications. What’s the best way to market your books? I think social media. Having a following on Twitter and Instagram is super-helpful. And while followers help, it’s the interactions with people on social media that make people want to buy your book. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I can’t quite pin-point what is the most difficult thing. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I have a poem that addresses this question: “I Dream of Making Salsa in the Himalayas.” I dreamed that four of my close friends (fellow writers) and myself had a dinner party. Surprisingly, the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali showed up and drank wine and laughed and had a grand time with us. I was in graduate school at the time and had just completed a research project centered around his life and work, in particular, his collection entitled Rooms Are Never Finished. The project’s purpose was to connect Ali’s poetry to the personal and historical context in which it was written. My research revealed a great deal of personal and historical connections. For instance, Ali, being a citizen of Kashmir, experienced a kind of estrangement or alienation from his own personal and national identity. The place called Kashmir is in a territory of the Himalayan Mountains of central Asia. India, Pakistan, and China dispute sovereignty over this area, which results in sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims, military violence between the armies of India and China, and domestic violence between members of families torn apart by religious and cultural divides. Ali’s work speaks to these tensions. Ali wrote some of the work in his native Urdu (translated into English), but also some of it originally in English as he recognized this as the colonial tongue of his formal education in India as well as that of his adopted home in the United States. Ali was on the faculty at Amherst College and at other universities in the US. Even though I have no personal connection to Ali, his work resonated strongly with me. When I reflect on this, I believe that it had partly to do with the fact that I was experiencing a kind of alienation from my homeland as I had moved from North Carolina to Alaska to attend graduate school. I too left everyone and everything I knew behind to seek a new life thousands of miles away. The importance of place in his poems spoke to me and I began to focus on place and geography as a central theme in my work. I also began writing in a new style. Ali is largely credited with introducing contemporary writers in English to an ancient Urdu form called the Ghazal. The form is made up of a series of couplets. Many of the poems contained in my collection A Concept of Right Now employ this form. It naturally fits my process and way of thinking because it is flexible, but also structurally sound. Each couplet may capture one image and be a poem in its own right, but also work in concert with other couplets to create a larger meaning. Ideas can flow logically, but also leave room for a variety of non-linear associations. Ali died quite some time ago, but I have always admired the strength and wisdom inherent in his work. If I were to have the honor of preparing a meal for him, I would make just what the poem says...salsa. I’m not sure that there is any real sense in the connection, but in my dream we prepared homemade salsa. This is one of my favorite foods. I would also prepare the only meal I really know how to make from scratch: Vegetarian enchiladas made with a combination of brown rice, quinoa, and black beans. I would make the corn tortillas, fill them with the rice and bean filling, and add the salsa. Over dinner, I would ask Agha Shahid Ali about his experiences of growing up in Kashmir, his love of Urdu and the Ghazal, as well as his experiences teaching and living in the United States. I would invite my four friends as well. How’s that for self-actualization? What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I generally find that writing assuages my fears rather than exacerbating them. I don’t feel anxiety about entering into or completing the process. I don’t struggle to find inspiration and I usually have enough focus and self-awareness to have a sense of where the piece will end up. I am comfortable leaving work unfinished and returning to it later. Over the twenty-plus years that I have been writing poetry, I have developed a method and craft that I think yields value. I still experience that initial euphoria of being in love with a newly composed piece. However, I know better than to assume that just because I love it, that it will be comprehensible or relatable to readers. I am lucky to have trusted readers that I can rely on to be honest and tell me when ideas and images don’t connect. I am not averse to admitting that something doesn’t work and I embrace the rewriting process (which is really the hard work of being a writer). I often take pieces of unfinished poems and merge them together to form a new, stronger work. I regularly revisit pages in my journal searching for scraps of ideas that still have yet to make it into a finished piece. If I had to say one thing that scares me, it is the prospect of being derivative, unoriginal. It is so hard to do anything in poetry, or writing in general, that has not already been done. It is impossible to be affected by the stories you read, songs you hear, and images you see and NOT have them unconsciously seep into your process. How does a writer incorporate stories, songs, and images that inspire without misappropriating or merely regurgitating what has come before? I think I cope with this anxiety by being patient and not allowing an obsession with order and meaning to dominate my process. To me, the mindset of creating is like meditation, like accessing a mind within the mind where images and ideas mingle, associate, and combine in unexpected and seemingly impossible ways. If images, words, or ideas from other sources are included in that, well, then I don’t fight it. I know that I will eventually shape and mold it into something new. Just because I’m unsure that a new idea will work, I don’t immediately discount it. I write it down. If I can’t continue with the first idea, I move on and come back later. I try to leave myself open to infinite possibility. In that way, I try to maximize the likelihood that what comes out of that inner mind is fresh and unique. Only after an image or a phrase comes to mind and solidifies do I consider how to focus or shape it into something that resembles meaning. Archibald Macleish said: “A poem should not mean, but be.” I try not to focus initially on making meaning, but on simply letting images and ideas be, letting them exist on the edge of consciousness, on the edge of reason. They must sit there for a while and be and not mean. I find that most often yields images and connections that speak to and appeal to me. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I’m going to go in a non-literary direction with this one and interpret the concept of a “crush” as someone who has a kind of spark, an inner fire, or a way of seeing the world that you wish you could steal away and keep for yourself. As an aspiring musician, I find myself smitten with a lot of artists both past and present. Although I strongly admire, and even attempt to emulate, masters of the singer-songwriter form, such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell, I am also drawn to up and coming artists of a more contemporary fashion. Some artists, such as The Avett Brothers, Lumineers, The Head and the Heart, Mumford and Sons and Gregory Alan Isakov take the bardic form and bring it into a modern context. All of these artists inspire me, but my musical crush is the singer-songwriter Taylor Goldsmith. He is the main writer, lead singer, and lead guitarist for the band Dawes. So, what separates Goldsmith from these other brilliant artists? I appreciate Goldsmith’s song craft, the way he develops the melody and counter-melody, the way he arranges the verses, bridges, and choruses, and the way he develops a sonic theme. However, what I appreciate the most about his work are his lyrics. Goldsmith’s lyrics appeal to me because they speak to my own interests as an artist. His writing often explores loss, heartbreak, uncertainty, alienation, and fear of the unknown. Rather than attempt to avoid or overcome these anxieties, Goldsmith delves right in, unflinchingly facing down his demons. In a song called “When My Time Comes,” he writes: “You can judge the whole world by the sparkle that you think it lacks. You can stare into the abyss, but it’s staring right back.” Goldsmith seems to be getting at the heart of the existential crisis of our time, made more pronounced by the constant agitation of digital media and an obsession with instant gratification. He seems to be saying that, yes, everything is nothingness, but nothingness is also everything. So, don’t despair. Loss and death are scary, but you can’t let fear take control. I think a literary crush (or a musical crush) is a kind of admiration for someone who accomplishes what you wish you could accomplish. For me, that’s Taylor Goldsmith. What books are on your nightstand? Currently, I have a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood on my nightstand because I am currently teaching a unit in my AP Language and Composition class with that as the anchor text. Other books that I have on my nightstand are: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Dark Fields of the Republic by Adrienne Rich, and The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani. I have these books based on about a 50/50 pleasure/work basis. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I don’t think I have one source of inspiration, but many. I often say to people who read my poems or hear my songs that no single work is about just one theme or one experience. My work is usually made up of images and feelings taken from disparate and diverse sources. I may take an image from one experience and incorporate that into a piece that may draw from other experiences, or even other works that inspire or inform my thinking. Many of my poems are actually pieced together using sections of other, less successful poems. I’m generally trying to capture the emotional truth of an experience, rather than to relate events in a factual manner. I draw a lot of inspiration from dreams. I am fascinated by the way in which dreams bridge the gap between the conscious and subconscious minds. For instance, my poems “I Dream of Making Salsa in the Himalayas” and “Sleep Visits Me” are based on real dreams that I had. I don’t concern myself with a psychoanalytical interpretation of dreams as much as I am drawn to the visual and emotional symbols that arise in dreams. I am much more interested in embracing the unknown than I am in conquering it. I think that writing poetry is not about abating fear, but about exploring it. Writing is the pursuit of self knowledge that hopefully contains some kind of universal truth that the reader can relate to. My writing is about facing the anxieties most people turn away from in fear: Loneliness, loss of control, alienation, and uncertainty. Life, to me, is much more about accepting contradictions than eliminating them. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I’m a big fan of the colon. I find it to be the most suspenseful punctuation mark. Whenever I encounter this mark in something I read, it immediately grabs my attention and increases my engagement because I know something significant is about to be said. A colon always precedes a revelation. It is like a gateway between unknowing and knowing or between doubt and certainty. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Many, in fact. Which makes it that much more ironic that I became an English teacher. But here is one example: I was supposed to read Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy in 12th grade. I declined. Furthermore, I didn’t really pay attention in class when we talked about it. Instead, I looked through my textbook and read everything in there by William Shakespeare including an excerpt from Hamlet, about 25 sonnets, and anything else related to WS including all of the biographical and background notes. I was quite taken by it, having only been exposed to a few scenes from Romeo and Juliet several years earlier, as a high school freshman. I was so fascinated and inspired by what to me felt like the discovery of the atom or a distant planet or the secret identity of a superhero. I walked around with his lines in my head for weeks. At some point that year, I wrote a poem for an assignment (when we finally got around to reading Hamlet), called “Your Giving of Flowers.” It was a persona poem in the voice of Hamlet to Ophelia. The teacher liked it so much that she asked the school newspaper to publish it. That was my first published poem. After that, I never stopped writing. So, in a way, refusing to read Tess of the D’Urbervilles actually led to me becoming a serious poet. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The inanimate object that means the most to me in my life right now is my guitar. While I can’t give my guitar any credit for helping me compose the works that make up my collection, A Concept of Right Now, I do credit my guitar (insomuch as an inanimate object may be praised with due credit) for helping me evolve as a writer. Most of the works in my collection were started (and many finished) prior to me taking up songwriting three years ago. At that time, I felt like I had exhausted the well of inspiration that I had more or less constantly experienced from age 17 to age 37. In that time, I never experienced what some people refer to as “writer’s block.” I would have argued that writer’s block is a myth. However, I began to find that composing poetry no longer provided the outlet of expression or the clarity of mind it once did. My writing felt flat, shapeless, and uninspired. Five years prior, I had taken up playing guitar as a hobby, after my wife bought me a used acoustic as a birthday present. I took no formal training. I just taught myself through trial and error. Over time, I improved and began playing works by some of my favorite artists. One evening, in mid-November of 2014, I was feeling particularly ill at ease with my life. I picked up the guitar and my first song was born. It was a rather unfortunate ripoff of a Bob Dylan song in which I rearranged a few chords and replaced his verses with my own, but it was something. Now, nearly four years later, I have written over 50 original songs. I have taught myself to play the harmonica, mandolin, and a little piano. I have a small recording studio in my home and I play every day. This experience has opened up so many new avenues of creative energy for me. The challenge of composing a melody, of fitting words together to match it, of balancing rhyme and meter, and of performing my own original work inspires me to the point of sheer joy. I have no plans to abandon traditional poetry writing. I still write poems, too. But songwriting is where my heart is right now and without my guitar, I don’t know where my writing would be. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Embrace the mystery of unknowing. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? It would be the last line of the final poem in my collection: “You are expected to fight and you are expected to die, but you are not expected to complete the work.” A few years ago, I attended an informal gathering of writers for a New Year’s Day poetry composition symposium and workshop. It was hosted at the home of a local writer and supporter of the arts in my city. At one point, I walked into the kitchen and saw this framed cross-stitch hanging on the wall with the line: You are not expected to complete the work. Something about that line really resonated with me. I asked the host about it and she said that it was a gift and all she knew was that she believed it to be a translation of an old Hebrew proverb. I wrote it down in my journal and then we were supposed to take an hour, find a nice place to sit in the house or on the property (which was several acres), and write. I walked outside and sat down next to a fire pit that was clearly once a roaring fire, but has since dwindled to hot coals and ash. The wind picked up some of the ash and carried it right across my face. I breathed it in. That is when the first line of the poem came to me: “It may no longer be enough to say that all that burns was meant to drift by in front of our eyes in a wind of waste and want.” To me, the line “You are not expected to complete the work” speaks to the anxiety that everyone feels regarding the inevitability of death and the tragedy of loss. To me, the line is both deeply profound and reassuring. I think it means that even though you may not live forever, the work you do lives on after you, inspiring future generations to honor your memory by continuing your good work, just as you honored the memory of those who came before you by continuing their good work. Elosham Vog is the author of Volcano a poetry collection Unsolicited Press will release on SEPTEMBER 3, 2019. Our team sat down with Vog and did the always fun interview! Here is what was said: If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Just one? Can I expand this into a Come Dine With Me-style scenario, with five people each cooking a meal for each other? In that case, I’d need to choose four (living) writers. I would choose Kei Miller (whose poetry includes an intriguing critical element and whose photos of food on social media always look enticing), Tom Robbins (who I think would bring good conversation and other entertainment to the table), Alasdair Grey (who could answer the many questions I have about writing Lanark), and Anne Carson (who I initially discovered when a friend recommened Autobiography of Red after reading an early draft of Volcano; I was intrigued by the similarities and added in a reference to Carson’s book in later drafts). I expect this would be a table full of great conversation, especially after I snuck in Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood and a whole lot of literary ghosts. I think I’d make hotpot because I enjoy the communcal aspect of slowly cooking and eating together, and the opportunity for people to customize their food according to their own preferences. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I’m not sure I’m scared by anything in the writing process. I love to write. Like most writers, I’m not a particularly good judge of my own writing, and like most writers I experience a fair amount of doubt about its appeal (and even marketability), but writing itself is grand, even though it’s very hard work. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? That’s an interesting question. To me, “crush” implies a romantic or sexual element, but any understanding or image a reader can have of author or character via reading is necessarily mediated by their own interpretation and perception and perspective. If the author is dead, we’re crushing on a projected version of ourselves reacting to a text. But I do think it’s possible to fall in love with language or writing. We’ve all had the experience of reading a text that is so crisp and precise that the language seems to sing. And some texts grow each time they’re read and re-read, so that we notice or learn something new each time we experience them. Those are the books I love (though I also find them slightly depressing because they remind me how much my own writing could be improved). Most recently, I fell for the prose and thinking in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets and The Argonauts. I was also struck by the precision of the writing in Maria Abegunde’s “Learning to Eat the Dead: USA” and look forward to reading more of her work. What books are on your nightstand? I tend to read several books at once. Right now, I’m reading Morgan Parker’s Magical Negro (thanks to NetGalley!), Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Danez Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead, CJ Sansom’s Tombland, Vahni Capildeo’s Measures of Expatriation, and two collections of short speculative fiction (New Suns and A People’s Future of the United States, both also thanks to NetGalley), and I’m very much enjoying them all. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Inspiration is all around us. The world is a strange and amazing place, and there’s always something to learn and experience. In general, I think reading, whether it’s poetry, prose, criticism, or non-fiction, is always inspiring, as is any exposure to new (to me, anyway) ideas and perspectives. I also believe texts are by their nature intertextual in the sense that they draw from the writer’s experiences of reading, and I played with this idea in Volcano. In terms of Volcano specifically, I was seeking to reply to commonalities I saw in relationship and gender narratives in the “traditional” literary canon. In the text, F isn’t given a voice, but the text is about her and ways in which she subverts the traditional and expected. Similarly, it hints at the hidden in the male figure’s life, from repressed queerness to a lingering dissatisfaction with social expectations. I wanted it to be larger than life and grandiose in its way, in keeping with the idea of replying to the canon, and I wanted to hint at elements of backstory for both characters should the reader want to dive in deeper. The result is a very surreal and wacky set of poems that are both deliberately tongue-in-cheek and decidedly serious (and I think that’s why I like it). Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I’ve used a fair few colons in Volcano, but I’d say my favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon. It’s versatile, and I appreciate the complexities of relationships that can be conveyed via its use. I’m also fond of the em dash, which has a similar but distinct function. I enjoy parenthetical asides, too, and these also appear in Volcano. The common thread here would seem to be a fondness for qualifying on commenting on the surrounding text. I see this in my critical writing as well. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was a voracious reader as a teen. I read all the assigned books, and pretty much everything else I could get my hands on, aside from Harlequin-style romances. I knew all the local librarians by name. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I would like to thank the many containers of fizzy water that helped fuel the writing process, and the many cups of tea. Without you fine beverages, Volcano would surely not exist. I’d also like to thank the many, many books I read along the way (you have to read to write!). Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Because I like to write! If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? You only have to please yourself. Everything else will follow. The best thing about working with writers is NOT reading their brilliant books, it's getting to learn about who they are as writers, as humans. With the upcoming release of The Weird Ones by Charles D. Brown, we got to interview Mr. Brown, and this is what we discovered: If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Kurt Vonnegut would be high on the list because I think we would laugh the whole time. And anyone who’s a first-timer over for dinner gets jambalaya as that’s the dish I make the best. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? As I’ve started writing novels, my big fear is always “Will this be long enough?” I started as a screenwriter, so my plots were mostly novella sized. Outlining has helped, but I never really know until I’m 20,000 words into it if I have a novel in my hand. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyk’s character in ‘Double Indemnity’). James M. Cain who wrote the novel named her Nerdlinger which didn’t fit the film side of noir. I might have killed her husband for her also. What books are on your nightstand? I’ve become a Kindle guy, so it’s more devices than books. I also have my record player there for my vinyl fix. I only have the actual book I’m reading. Right now it’s Trinie Dalton’s ‘Destroy Bad Thoughts Not Yourself.’ She was my thesis professor and I love her weird wit. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Parenthesis because I’m always getting sidetracked (although I was told not to use them in fiction). What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? “The Power and The Glory” by Graham Green What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Two turntables and a microphone Does writing energize or exhaust you? I have a depressive personality, so I’m usually beat after a writing session. I have found this is the perfect time to go to the movies because I can fully release into somebody else’s world. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Literary writers: “Just another draft before I send it out.” Genre writers: “If I don’t write a million words a year, I’m a failure.” Somewhere in between is good. What is your writing Kryptonite? Chosen ones as lead characters (Luke Skywalker is the exception because no one specifically told him he was chosen. In fact, they all looked down on him until he got to Yoda.). The president of the United States as main character. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? No, although comics books are back in my focus. It’s still reading, but ... Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, but the story would have to be action-oriented. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? If you take away grad school, most of my writing friends are songwriters and music is one of my biggest inspirations, both lyric-based and instrumental. I also know many screenwriters. They always have great life stories. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I straddle the literary/genre line. My urban fantasy is mostly linked. I think that’s fun. I don’t know if I’ll write sequels to my lit novels, but that would be interesting to explore. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? My first novella were self-published, so I now know the whole process of getting a book into print. My writing process is the same. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? My tuition to USC. I was a good writer going in, but every aspect of my prose has improved. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I was one of those weird kids with a large vocabulary as a youngster. I was alienated because of it, but it was key to moving forward as a writer. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I think he’s been forgotten recently, so I’ll say Harry Crews’ ‘The Knockout Artist.’ His last books were so inconsistent, so this one was his last masterpiece. A great New Orleans novel. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A platypus. Weird looking, funny, but still has a poison spur for a weapon. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Everything. Having an interesting life has made me an interesting writer. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have a work in progress, but that doesn’t count. I have a high fantasy novel at 15,000 words which needs plotting. I’ve abandoned a sci-fi novel after losing 6000 words in a DropBox fiasco. My real unfinished works are my two spec screenplays which will probably never be produced. What does literary success look like to you? Seeing the book in a bookstore. Old-fashioned and quaint, but still true. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? The female perspective can be radically different. Finding believable actions is harder than the dialogue. What did you edit out of this book?” This collection ranges from stories written in the mid-’90s to now. Some stories about the Internet boom at the turn of the millenium didn’t age well. After further review, they weren’t good enough to rewrite either. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’d go back to the library. I will always read and recommend books. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
My first instinct is to invite James Joyce to ask him why he has written a novel that exactly 46 people in the world fully understand. But I hesitate because I probably wouldn’t comprehend his answer and then we’d be stuck for conversation for the rest of the evening. No, my most desired guest would be the 17th century Japanese poet Basho who wrote some of the first (and arguably the best) combined travelogue books with poetry. Reading him is like reading Travels with Charlie except it is based in Japan and contains beautiful poetry. He is among the best Haiku poets who has ever lived and one of my idols of literature. Regarding the menu, you must understand that if I cannot make it in the toaster-oven I do not want to deal with it. So, we’d probably get take-out delivered and split the tab. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Waking up one day and finding that I have absolutely nothing to say let alone anything of value. It is akin to lecturing in front of 200 college students and realizing that you are not wearing pants. The way I combat these fears is reading and copying out at least five poems a day and analyzing each as well as keeping handwritten spiral notebooks filled with ideas, phrases, clippings and literary fragments for future work. These (hopefully) insure that I will always have something to fall back on when I think I have nothing to write about. Currently, I am on my 58th notebook so I like to think I am well insured. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Elizabeth Bennet and her sister Jane in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is the intellectual, logical but “saucy” one while Jane is sweet and sees the good in everybody. Be that they could be united into one person. Oh, wait, I’m married to that person. Cool! What books are on your nightstand? Which books aren’t? Currently: The One Hundred Names-A Short Introduction to the Study of Chinese Poetry (written in 1933) by Henry H. Hart, The Case for God by Karen Armstrong and Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems by Ted Kooser. Then, there are the audio books: The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Autobiography of Mark Twain (in three volumes). Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I get most of my ideas from listening to other people’s conversations. Really. It drives my wife nuts: We’re in a restaurant and I’m eavesdropping on the conversation three booths over instead of listening to her. I want to get the Miracle Ear hearing-aid so I can listen to other conversations better. I also spend a significant part of my literary life inventing lives for random people I see or hear out in the world. I see someone in a coffee shop and immediately make up a life for him/her. I don’t write much, if anything about myself. This is partly due to my literary, poetic “motto” which is: I don’t write confessional poetry because my life has not been that interesting. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The full colon. Not only does its name describes my usual gastrointestinal state-of-affairs but also because the symbol endeavors to tell me to pause before saying or writing something I will regret later (perhaps like this Author’s Packet). What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Here, I must confess to an embarrassing sin. I read every piece of literature assigned in high school (although the same cannot be said in the sciences and history). Not only that, I even read things in our literature books NOT assigned. I was the prototypical geek before it became a proper noun. However, I attempt to redeem myself in two ways. First, while I read Shakespeare; to my everlasting shame, I did not appreciate him. Part of this must be laid at the doorstep of my English teachers. They absolutely killed appreciation of the plays plus the curriculum never let us read the wonderful “romances” like Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest saddling us instead with the History plays which made no sense to an average American teen. My second attempt at redemption is my agreement with the cartoonist who defined “Hell’s Library” as containing only Math Story Problems-Volumes 1-Infinity. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? White Out. Who could write a term-paper without it’s reassuring qualities resembling Milk of Magnesia liquid laxatives? I also have cornered the world’s market on carbon paper which I am sure has the same probability of returning as the Los Angeles Dodgers have of coming back to Brooklyn. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Share, Funny, Readers, Empathy, Beauty (in that order). If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Study your craft. Every day. No Excuses. You wouldn’t write a symphony without studying music. Why think you can do it with poetry? Also, revise, re-write, then revise again before thinking of submitting your work for publication. Your first draft simply isn’t as good as you initially think. Richard Luftig is the author of A GRAMMAR FOR SNOW, available wherever books are sold. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Since Jane Eyre is my all-time favorite book, I’d have to choose Charlotte Brontë. I’d make an 8-course Italian meal (bring on the pasta and tiramisu) so I could spend as much time with her as possible. I’m so fascinated by early female authors. I want to know all about their lives and how they emerged in the literary world. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Whenever I start writing something, I always go into it with a really clear idea of what I want to write and how I want it to turn out. Of course, my initial idea undergoes a lot of changes--which in the past I’ve tried to combat--and I’m often scared that whatever I’m writing, if it’s not what I set out to do, is complete nonsense. I have to keep reminding myself that my strongest work has almost always evolved from my original plan, and I have to just let it do that instead of worrying whether or not I’m writing the “right” thing. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Achilles. What books are on your nightstand? Autobiography of Red, Meadowlands, Transformations, Madwoman, What Have You Done to Our Ears to Make Us Hear Echoes?, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude, The Greek Poets, Jane Eyre, and an assortment of Shakespeare plays. I like to keep my inspirations close! Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I’m a firm believer in having to be a reader before a writer. Like many young girls with an active imagination, the first stories I read had princesses, fairies, mermaids, knights, magic, and the occasional dragon or troll. They were stories I felt I had to distance myself from in order to be a “mature” writer. I spent I am inspired to think about what they mean, why do we keep retelling them, and what the source of our fascination with them is. I explored a similar concept in my re-imagining of mythological figures. Most people have gone through a Greek Mythology phase at some point in their life, and some never grow out of it. I’ve wondered, why is this the case? Why do we love to retell and use these archetypal figures as vehicles to say what we want to say in a poem? I was constantly driven by these questions while working on Pomegranate Odyssey. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? A semicolon, as I have yet to figure out how to properly use it. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I picked up Silas Marner by George Eliot instead. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My laptop. It never failed on me while I was working on my manuscript. Or when I left it too close to the edge of my bed and it crashed onto the floor. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Confrontation. Malleability. Amazement. Curiosity. Equilibrium. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” --Mark Twain If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Bob Hicok. I think I’d ask him what he likes to eat. But I’d definitely include lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? When I first began writing, I was most scared of the critic in my mind. I got over that by giving myself permission to write anything I wanted to, even if it was lousy, literarily. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I have several favorite poets right now: Rumi, W. S. Merwin, Brenda Hillman, John Ashbery, Bob Hicok, Zbigniew Herbert, among others. What books are on your nightstand? The Soul of Rumi translated by Coleman Barks, Migration by W. S. Merwin, This Clumsy Living by Bob Hicok, Practical Water by Brenda Hillman, Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan, Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The question mark because I’m so curious and I like to open the door to many possible and impossible answers. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I went to a backwater high school where English classes were very dull and no books were assigned. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? A book of reproductions of art. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Listen to your inner voice and don’t tell it what to do. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Writing poetry brings me peace. Writing something like an essay or filling out an application exhausts me. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Thinking reputation is more important than doing the writing. What is your writing Kryptonite? Being required to write in a certain way. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? No. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Sure. There are plenty of poets who write from reason rather than emotion. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I am friends with many, many SF Bay Area poets and belong to two active poetry critiquing groups that have helped me be a good editor of my own work. A few of these poets are Melissa Kwasny, Rusty Morrison, Carol Dorf, Tobey Hiller, Charles and Gail Entrekin and Ramsay Breslin. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? Both, but I find I am most inspired by playing around with different forms, and by using a variety of what Richard Hugo called ‘triggers.’ How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It was instrumental in helping me to think of writing in a given form until I had a complete manuscript, before moving on to another form or type of content. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Buying a computer, and buying books of art reproductions. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I don’t recall not knowing that. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A butterfly. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Six. What does literary success look like to you? Continuing to regularly write poems that my poetry-group friends respond to positively; getting poems accepted for publication a few times a year; occasionally having a book come out and getting good feedback on it. What’s the best way to market your books? Up until now, it has been via readings, and word of mouth in my literary community. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I write persona poems from several different points of view; I don’t have trouble doing that. What did you edit out of this book?” Within the project of ekphrasis that was the practice of this book, I edited out any poems I’d written that didn’t ‘light a fire.’ If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’d be a botanist. Grace Marie Grafton's poetry collection LENS is available wherever books are sold (and right here!).
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? George R.R. Martin could probably fill an entire novel with descriptions of food taken from his Song of Ice and Fire series. I’ve been watching a lot of Top Chef and Great British Baking Show lately, so I’d like the challenge of cooking an entire tasting menu for him! What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The starting. The sitting straining searching. The staring at a screen or notebook for over an hour only to realize what is there is not good. You might think it’s not as big an issue when writing petite poems, but with the limited space and emphasis on word choice it can be even more painful. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Elizabeth from Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess. When she turned down Ronald at the end of the story I fell smack in love. What books are on your nightstand? I am currently reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet (before I watch the show!), Oracle Night by Paul Auster and I am saving a prime nightstand spot for Orange World by Karen Russell. Some old favorites I return to often are Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Definitely an ellipsis . . . I love how it evokes an ergodic response from the reader. When you see it, you slow down your eyes and inner thoughts at the same time - very powerful magic for an author to achieve through three little dots. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Grapes of Wrath - and shame on me. I had just read The Catcher in the Rye and fell so deeply in love with its angst and anger toward “phony” people that it was hard for my rigid, teenage self to go through any book with religious connotations so closely tied to it. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Brews from Tree House Brewery! Does writing energize or exhaust you? Both? I get energy from adding in allusions or by finding the perfect meter for how I want to describe something. This is still a lot of mental effort, though, so if I don’t pace myself it can make my work sloppy! What are common traps for aspiring writers? Trying to model your voice after authors you like. It’s a great exercise, but your best work is always in your own voice. What is your writing Kryptonite? Background noise. I never understood how people like my college roommate could write or work with music blaring through his headphones or reruns of “How I Met Your Mother” on in the background! Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Does it count as reader’s block if a book loses my interest? There are some books I want to read but just don’t get me caught up in the story. I usually let the book languish on my nightstand until I put it away in favor of another. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes. Maybe not a poet, though! What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Peggy Schaedler, author of the Dagger and Dash series, was a former teacher of mine and really opened my eyes to how much influence an author has over their work. I carried this thinking all the way through college and it informed my personal critical thinking about considering the author’s life as part of their work rather than the work on its own. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I would rather each book stand on its own. Maybe even each poem. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? My first book was really more like a shotgun blast of poems I sent out hoping they would all hit somewhere near the target. Going through the publishing process made my next attempt a lot closer to the finished product right from the beginning. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? My Lenovo Thinkpad. I love it. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? This sounds insane, but William Faulkner. My first introduction to him was A Light in August and I couldn’t stand it! Later, I read As I Lay Dying and realized why he was so revered. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I was in elementary school I remember writing a story about visiting Haunted Happenings at the old G. Fox building in Connecticut. My teacher loved it. It was the first time I can remember someone outside my family getting enjoyment from my writing. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr. It’s an incredibly niche book and topic, but perfectly done. If you were ever an even mildly competitive runner, you need to read it. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? What type of animal sequesters themselves away in a small space and won’t come out until they have accomplished a task? Some type of rodent or insect, probably. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have many sketched-out ideas for books and poetry collections, but nothing even remotely half-finished! What does literary success look like to you? If I can change one person’s mood or positively affect their day through my work, that is a success. What’s the best way to market your books? Word of mouth, which I guess is social media these days. When people share one of my poems that spoke to them, others want to know more about my writing. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? “You know, I’ve always considered women to be people.” - George R.R. Martin What did you edit out of this book?” I tried to make this book a little less stuffy and more accessible, so I edited a lot of technical poetic devices out. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I teach elementary school AND write, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. David Wasserman is the author of Tiny Footcrunch and Dealing, poetry collections.
The Conditions We Live by E.A. Johnson is a debut poetry collection that unveils life as it really is (not how many portray it to be) -- messy, beautiful, painstakingly cruel -- and explores a rainbow of emotions. The Conditions We Live follows a loose narrative of growing up in modern society where we are constantly torn between our better and baser natures, how to live in an increasingly fractured world, and how to find solace in the moments. When the big picture looks bleak, the moment holds a transcendent beauty nonetheless. Johnson sat down with the Unsolicited Press team to answer a few personal questions...the ones all readers want to know about their favorite writers. Here is what he had to say. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? He died recently, but I would have loved to have dinner with Kurt Vonnegut. His rejected masters thesis on story design is brilliant and the stories he created were truly inspired. As far as what I’d serve, I’d probably make pulled pork sandwiches. Two reasons. First off, I make a mean pulled pork, but more importantly, there’s something equalizing about talking to someone with the drippings from pulled pork sliding down their arms. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I can’t really say much scares me about the writing process. To me, writing is one of those things that I just need to do, like breathing and holding my kids. I love putting words on the page, getting what is in my head out into the world. If there is something that scares me about the writing process, it would probably be editing. I understand the importance of editing in the writing process, and I know why people don’t really like to do it because it’s work. Really hard work, like digging a ditch. When editing, I make sure that I make myself small goals and reward myself a little each time I reach one. Maybe I’ll make myself a coffee, or I’ll play a game on my phone for a minute, then I get back in working toward my next small goal. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I’m not sure if I’d say I have a literary crush, so to speak, but the closest I can think of would have to be Antigone, from Sophocles’ play. She is unapologetically herself in a world that does not accept it. Despite her father’s tragic story, she is still there for him at the end. Despite her brother’s disputes, she still insists on honoring his body. Despite the societal conventions, she sticks to her convictions and loves and lives (and dies) for the life that she knows she deserves. I like women who know they deserve to rival any man’s place in the world. Strong, confident, sure, loving, nurturing. These are valuable traits in a person, and of the characters I can think of at the moment, Antigone embodies these. What books are on your nightstand? I have a whole library. I read mostly on my Kindle, particularly at night. But I’ve been churning through contemporary dystopian novels lately. I just finished reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman based on a recommendation from a student, and it was great. Now I’m working on What Survives Us by Kathy Miner. Interspersed with that I’m going back into the classics as I do every year. Teaching keeps me grounded in classic literature, and reading contemporary authors keeps me sane. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? The short answer: Life. I take my inspiration for my poetry from everyday life, the foibles and follies most often, but success too. I have always had an active imagination, so projecting simple situations out to a possible solution, often one that doesn’t necessarily come around, has always been fun to me. I did this in poems like “Tetrominoes” and “This is Us Tomorrow” to name a couple. Often time in life, though, that sort of projecting isn’t needed and I simply write what happens, for instance “Tasting Iron” narrates my thoughts and the events as they happened during the death of my Nana, and “Scarecrows” was literally the scene when my wife and I came home after our first miscarriage. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? My wife thinks I’m a total geek for having such a ready answer for this question, but she just doesn’t understand. It used to be the ellipsis, because it presented the unfinished thought, trailing off into the unformed. A few years ago it switched to the comma. Taking a breath, a moment to think. That worked for me because things were going too fast in life, and I found myself looking for a moment to breath. Now though, I’m all about the em dash. It seems these days that I can’t always get through thinks in one sitting like I used to– too many interruptions. The em dash represents the interrupted thought or moment. It has the same potential as the ellipsis, but instead of intentionally leaving things unsaid, there just wasn’t enough time to say them. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Almost all of them, but don’t tell my teachers. I was not what you would call a motivated student. I would listen in class as the teacher talked about the book, then I’d just sort of muddle my way through the discussion. I feel kinda bad because now that I’m an English teacher, I see every kid who does that as karma coming back to laugh at me. I’d probably say the one that I was assigned and didn’t read– but really should have– would have been The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Holden’s struggles and introspection would have resonated with me back when it was assigned, and might have sparked my love of reading earlier, which couldn’t possibly be a bad thing. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? There are so many I can think of, but seeing as I’m sitting here with a cup of coffee, as I so often am when writing, I guess I should go with that. I work full time as an English teacher, so early mornings are a necessity, but I am definitely not a morning person. I bring a thermos with half a pot’s worth of coffee to work daily. During the summer, my two year old makes sure that I keep getting up early, so coffee is kinda a mainstay in my life. Lately I’ve been putting honey and cinnamon in it instead of my typical black coffee. There something comforting about a cup of warm coffee on a New England morning. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Create, Explore, Discover, Share, and Learn If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Write because you love it, write because it is part of who you are, because you can’t not write. On June 12, 2019, John W. Bateman's novel Who Killed Buster Sparkle? hits the shelves. Bateman lives in the Deep South, chasing words and finding stories. His work has appeared in OneNewEngland, The Huffington Post, Glitterwolf Magazine, Nately's, the SFWP Quarterly, and lots of notebooks stacked in a bookcase somewhere. He has won awards for screenwriting and received a 2018 Emerging Filmmaker grant from the Mississippi Film Alliance.
Since interviews are so much fun (we all want to know more about the writers we love!), Bateman answered some poignant questions for our team: What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The Wall. Sometimes it feels like a Great Wall and other times it feels like a little ditch that only requires a running start. More of a dread, than a fear. I hate The Wall, but have learned to live with it. Sort of like sunsets before 5 p.m. in the winter. It happens and it’ll change. I stopped beating myself up over it. Everything is part of the process. Just show up to the page and the rest falls into place. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Jack Kerouac, without the alcoholism or the closet What books are on your nightstand? What night of the week? Right now: Wizard of the Crow. Dispatches From Pluto. Hornito. Dream Life of Astronauts. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Some days, it feels like the ideas grab me. They fly by, out of the blue. Sometimes, they sit on people’s shoulders, like a bug. Sometimes like spinach in teeth. Other times, they drag behind people, buildings, corners, like shadows. Blank pages and a pencil are my favorite: anything is possible. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The parentheses (this strange sort of non-binary, non-conforming mark between math and writing). It’s fantastic for side commentary (it’s not in the novel at all, which is kinda weird, considering). Maybe I’m lying (but I really love them). What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? *books And I’m not answering cause my high school English teachers are friends with me on Facebook. (I READ THEM ALL, I PROMISE. AHEM.). What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My stuffed animal Mac. He’s a Rottweiler puppy of the perfect kind: always a puppy, never pees on the floor or begs to go out at 4 a.m. in a blizzard, and never barks. Perfect cuddle buddy. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Cause I can’t NOT write If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Keep going. No matter what. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d love to have dinner with Debra Magpie Earling, Emily Dickinson, Jim Harrison, Layli Long Soldier, Edward P. Jones, C.D. Wright, Melanie Rae Thon, Shusaku Endo, Makoto Fujimura, and Li-Young Lee all at one long rough-hewn table out in the wilderness of southwest Montana, with venison and golden trout shaken in a bag of flour, herbs and spices, sauteed asperagus spears, and fresh buttered bread. Water and wine. The questions for the evening would be of life, love, and death. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Long projects, when they are born and growing. I often feel desolated and that the work will never come to a decent place. I usually pray. I ask my wife and daughters to pray for me too. Then I listen to beautiful music, go to sleep, and try again. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Michael Ondaatje, for the beauty, the power, and the soul laid bare. What books are on your nightstand? Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis, Whereas by Layli Long Soldier, The 7th Man by Melanie Rae Thon, Deepstep Come Shining by C.D. Wright, Joy: 100 Poems, edited by Christian Wiman, and A God in the House, edited by Kaminsky and Towler. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I feel deeply loved by my wife and daughters. I feel gratitude. I feel humbled by those who face violence with courage and love, worldwide. All the ideas come from love. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The comma, for it’s transitory nature, and for how it is a pause between here and there, like us. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Most of them, sadly. Then I met my wife, and her radiance made me a reader. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The Beartooth Range in southern Montana. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To give love and beauty. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? We believe in you. We love you. Keep going. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d cook dinner for Maya Angelou. I’d make something in the crockpot so I could focus entirely on her. I’d probably make Moroccan soup. (Before she’d arrive, I’d put a roasted head of cauliflower in the crockpot with almonds, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and some harissa chili paste. After a few hours I’d puree it with my immersion blender and let it cook a bit longer.) I’d serve it with Garlic Naan Bread from Trader Joe’s. If she wanted to stay longer than a day, the next evening we’d cook together. We’d stand next to each other and follow a recipe from one of her cookbook’s, like California Green Chili and Cheese Pie. We’d talk about writing, her philosophy of cooking, and how the two overlap. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Do plumbers ever wake up and worry that perhaps today will be the day they forget how to plumb? I doubt it. So, while it strikes me as irrational, I occasionally fear I will forget how to write. What if what I just wrote was a fluke and I can never write something that decent again? What if I’m just fooling myself? What if I can’t write at all? How do I combat my fears? I write! Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I just finished The Underground Railroad by Colum Whitehead and now have a huge crush on Cora, the main character in the book. There is so much to love about her. She is fierce and resilient. Despite being born into slavery and experiencing hell on earth, she doesn’t permit anyone or any system to define who she is. What books are on your nightstand? The stack is high and precarious. The ones on the top of the pile are: The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman, Ordinary Light by Tracey K. Smith, My Brilliant Friend by Ellena Ferrante, It’s All Relative by A.J. Jacobs, and Luxury by Phillip Schultz. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? When it comes to inspiration, I have an extremely low threshold. I’ve been inspired by spoons, dirt, broken branches, you name it. I’m also inspired by bits of news that I pick up from the radio or newspaper. I’m particularly intrigued by stories in which nature and human nature collide. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? That’s like asking a mother who her favorite child is! I’m a fan of all punctuation marks but pressed, I’d say that my favorite is the comma. It does a lot of heavy lifting, combats confusion, gives us pause, and more. Yet it remains humble. I also believe in the oxford comma. Oh, and speaking of punctuation marks, I once wrote a poem about a monk and an exclamation point. I should find it and send it somewhere. It’s pretty good. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I read them all. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The large wooden table in my living room. This former pine tree let me write most of A Beginner’s Guide to Heaven on it. I bought it years ago at Goodwill for $10. To give it a shabby chic look (even though it already looked shabby), I painted the legs white, then white washed, sanded, and polyurethaned the top. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. It’s a form of breathing. And here’s 5 more: I’d die if I didn’t. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. -Percy Bysse Shelley Jennifer Clark is the author of A Beginner's Guide to Heaven, a poetry collection. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Jack Gilbert, and probably salmon or Swordfish What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I think like many other writers, my fear is not being able to write. Which I experienced for a few years. Having already suffered my worst fear, I just write without investing a lot on what I write. Although I have been very pleased with recent work.I think no longer having my major fear has freed me considerably. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Wow! I don’t have just one really Anyhow, Jack Gilbert, who really taught me how to write, Robert Creeley, one of the first contemporary poets I read and whose book, For Love, is forever imprinted on my brain, and who has influenced my work in ways that often surprise me. And the last, one is Philip Levine for creating an incredible oeuvre starting in 1963 through his last, posthumous volume in 2016. Also, he made poetry possible for many others, especially given his working class roots, which he celebrated. What books are on your nightstand? Right now Breathturn into Timestead, Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan (translated by Pierre Joris), Sorrow Bread by Mark Cox, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell, The Great Fires by Jack Gilbert, Zero K by Don Delillo Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Usually words and/or images will appear in my head demanding to be written down, or a phrase, and occasionally prompts. Once I start writing, it’s very much like jazz improvisation, one word, image of phrase, suggesting the next and so on. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I must confess to a fondness for commas. Partly because I use them frequently. They’re handy keeping a poem from becoming a train wreck. When reading, they’re a brief interruption. I like to view the entire page as an aspect of the poem: punctuation, white space, the visual/physical arrangement of words and lines on the page guide the reader through the poem. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Hmmm, High school? It’s been way too many years to remember that! I do recall an Ancient Philosophy class I took and never read Aristotle. And still haven’t. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My desk. It belonged to my grandfather who reputedly wrote poetry on occasion. It’s a really lovely leather topped desk. And while it appears to be big, it is actually extremely light. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Because I absolutely must write. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Oh boy! So many appropriate and inappropriate quotes come to mind. I have to go with “When you run out of red, use blue.” Excellent advice not only for writing, but life in general. Rick E. George is the author of Vengeance Burns Hot, a thrilling suspense novel set to release on May 7, 2019. Our team interviewed Rick and here's what he had to say: If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I'd be thrilled to have Dennis Lehane visit for a bowl of Irish stew and a pint of Guinness. He writes the kinds of thrillers I admire: hold-your-breath what-the-hell’s-going-on and oh, by the way, some substance to it, too. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The first draft scares the hell out of me, but I’m getting over it because Anne Lamott’s essay “Shitty First Drafts” gave me permission. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? As a kid, my first literary crush might have been the author Franklin W. Dixon, the writer of all those Hardy Boy mysteries--except this writer never existed. When later on as an adult I discovered Dixon was the pen name for a stable of authors, it crushed me as much as learning the truth about Santa Claus. What books are on your nightstand? A Drink before the War by Dennis Lehane, Americanah by Chimamanda Adiche, and Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Many ideas come while walking or running on the dirt roads through the woods where I live. Also, every Friday morning I begin my writing day with a stream-of-conscious quick-write in my idea journal. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The question mark, because aren’t we all curious? What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was a good boy in high school. I read what my teachers told me to read. But to this day, despite the recommendations of my college professors and my own daughter, I refuse to read Dante’s Inferno. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I’d like to thank my belt, because it’s difficult to function in society when one’s trousers keep falling down. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Truth. Impact. Adventure. Heart. Love. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Sit your ass down and write. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
John Cheever. I would prepare a slow-cooked Bouef Bourguigon with a simple green salad, a crusty baguette and some decent red table wine. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I think the scariest thing about writing and being a writer is the possibility that you suck, that your work sucks–that nobody will ever want to read it. So when I feel that possibility of sucking creep into my psyche, it turns into a complete existential crisis, almost like death. When I feel it, when I catch it, I practice a lot of self-soothing. It has taken me a long time to use those skills, but they work. I actually think this is a normal thing, a good thing for all artists to experience, because in a way, it leads to motivation, to do better work, to not suck. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Someone who I fell super hard for when I was in my early twenties is the late writer, Robert W. Bingham. I return to his story collection, Pure Slaughter Value, every few years and it never fails to inspire and engage me just like it did when I first read it. He was a tremendous literary talent and a truly interesting character in his own (too short) life story. What books are on your nightstand? Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I cull a ton from my past. I am inspired by how both funny and insightful it is to be able to look at a memory from a distance, even if it’s a difficult, traumatic memory. How you can’t oftentimes believe that was you who actually experienced that thing. It turns me more into a character at that point, like I am seeing myself as a different person entirely which in a lot of ways, I am. I find that this process is where a lot of healing takes place. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The question mark. Because I am very probing; I am always asking questions both on and off the page. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Iliad and The Odyssey. Let’s just say I didn’t connect much with any of the Greek tragedies. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? A Stabilo fine point ink pen in black. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Companionship, belonging, trust, creativity, pain If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Get out of your own way and onto the page. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I would have to invite Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, both were members of the Theater of the Absurd. They took writing out of the norm and moved literature into human reality which can be harsh, mundane, and absurd. Escargot and asparagus comes to mind with toasted sesame oil and almonds with lemon on the asparagus, vinegar would be optional. Simple butter on the escargot. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That I’m not doing enough. I do more. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Alain Robbe-Grillet has influenced my writing perspective the most in that he was initially a cinematographer. My first military occupation was a photo journalist. Blending the senses in a synesthesietical manner I found fascinating. Using language to strip societal definitions from objects and then using language to reassign meaning is what brought Robbe-Grillet’s writing in to the New Novel movement. He brought sociology into literature via Heideggerian philosophy. i.e. Theory of pure surface – phenomenology. What books are on your nightstand? I don’t read in bed. I have trouble sleeping as it is. However, on my coffee table where I do read many books at a time: Descent into Chaos, Like Light-Bright Hill Press Anthology, Ray Youngbear – Manifestation Wolverine, Complete Works of Ai, Gleason’s Oya, in Praise of an African Goddess, Randy Brown – Welcome to FOB Haiku, Kevin Power’s Letters Composed in a Lull in the Fighting, Sydney Lea’s I Was Thinking of Beauty, Plath’s Ariel the restored edition, Galway Kinnell – Strong is Your Hold, A Rough and Rocky Place about Methana, Greece which is an island of volcanoes. The newest book is The Kiss edited by Brian turner. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? The Natural World all around me no matter where I am or what environment. Spirit of place and people – good, bad, or indifferent. All has a voice in the conversation of the Universe. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The hyphen – because it supports pause like the pause between inhale and exhale. What book, were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I grew up poor. Every book and opportunity to read was sheer luxury. I read all books that were assigned to me, even the political ones I didn’t agree with. How can one make decisions if we only hear what we agree with? Knowledge is power. In order to make wise decision we need to hear the facts and be allowed to ask questions. One should always be leery of any society or government that does not allow or does not answer questions or hides / destroys the facts. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Chanupa Wakan, which is alive. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. I was born this way. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? 1. Keep creating NO MATTER WHAT!!! 2. Do NOT secede to quitting! Quitting is silence. Create art LOUDLY! Think, Horton Hears a Who…. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Allen Ginsberg, my favorite poet of all time. I would make chicken pesto pasta, because it’s all I know how to cook well. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Sitting down and facing what I’ve written is horrifying, and then looking at what I’ve written from an editorial perspective. I just combat it by looking at it as objectively as possible; it’s never as bad as I think it is. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Pennywise from It. What books are on your nightstand? All of my signed Chuck Palahniuk books and Boy George’s autobiography. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I get my ideas from the things I experience and the things I feel. I’m inspired by everybody else’s poetry and passions. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Exclamation mark. It’s so exciting! What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Heart of Darkness. Sorry about it. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My emo t-shirt blanket from high school. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To get my feelings out. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Allow yourself to be inspired by everything. Allow yourself to be surprised and don’t ever, ever give up, If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Jane Austen – something with polonium. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The decision to write another book. I write the book. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Allen Ginsberg. What books are on your nightstand? Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince and Katherine Mansfield’s At the Bay. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Everything inspires me. Everything. Creativity is an act of discovery. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The upside down Spanish exclamation mark. ¡It’s drunk! What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I read the back page and the first sentence. On my essay, my high school English teacher wrote, “David – you can’t just read the back page and the first sentence.” What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My Taxi Driver poster: “He’s a lonely forgotten man desperate to prove that he’s alive.” Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Because then I am free. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? The page is a better mirror. |
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