1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first novel was published in 2007. Since then I’ve focussed on music and theatre, so I don’t know how my new book compares because I haven’t gone back and read my old one. Should I? To be honest, I’m too scared. 15 years is a long time.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I came to fiction first, but I did this project as poetry because the world was changing so rapidly every day (even though we were just sitting alone in our houses) that I needed a form that was good for wrestling with different subjects one by one by one. I couldn’t have written a novel in the state I was in – it was too chaotic. I needed to be able to jump between emotions quickly, so it was either poetry or songwriting. I don’t know why poetry won out, but I’m glad I didn’t overthink it.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
My first drafts are all garbage. I’m a spewer. Just get it out. Then try to make something coherent out of it, or give up, or, eventually, both.
4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
In this case, I wasn’t working on a book. One of the last poems is titled Day 533. If I’d known I was going to write that long about the pandemic I wouldn’t have started, so thank God for ignorance.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I come from a spoken word background so I’ve always thought it was helpful to the editing process to see the looks on people’s faces and gauge their reactions to the words. It definitely helps for humour, at least.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I’m interested in how to discuss mental illness openly and in a nuanced fashion that lessens stigmas around it in a manner that broader things like the Twitter “Let’s Talk” campaign cannot. I’m interested in how and why we grieve what we do and how power structures inform that. Currently, I’m interested in how to do art about climate change that is realistic without being nihilistic.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I think about that a lot, but I don’t know.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
My editor was Alessandra Naccarato and I can’t imagine this book without her. Actually, I can, and it would have sucked. I think the writer’s brain is important, but of equal importance is to have a different brain interrogate the writer’s intention/motivation/expertise/purpose. Since the writer is in their own brain they often take these things for granted, and they’re some of the most important questions.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Work without hope or despair.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction to theatre to music)? What do you see as the appeal?
Mainly it’s a monetary appeal. I’ve diversified so that I can live full-time as an artist. I wish my aesthetic forms overlapped more because it would be less work, but they rarely do. Each form is a whole thing onto itself and I think when I’ve made assumptions about things in one form and tried to cut and paste that assumption onto the next form it hasn’t worked out for me.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I used to work like a banker from 9-5. I wrote a lot, but it wasn’t very good, so I tried to switch it up in the last 5 years and become more of a hippie and just do what needs doing when it feels right to do it. As you can tell from that sentence, that might not be working either.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Music, walking, having a drink with a friend, researching cool UFO stuff.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I suck at stuff like that. Nothing comes to mind. For some reason I thought of a banana, but that’s not right.
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I’m big into history and science, but I think only in the way that someone with limited capacity in those subjects can be. I love quantum mechanics and consciousness and the nature of reality and space, but I’d be hard-pressed to explain how a vacuum works, unless I had a few drinks, and then I would try. I think I’m good at learning, getting inspired, synthesizing information, and then forgetting what I just learned.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
It’s close, but I think Mary Karr is the best writer to re-read. So I go back to her often because there’s always something new in her work no matter how many times I’ve read it.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Go to Greece.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I think it would be fun to be a lawyer, but only because I like courtroom dramas. I don’t really know what their work entails on a day-to-day basis.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I’m not sure!
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Film: I really enjoyed The Father. Book: Don’t Call Us Dead.
20 - What are you currently working on?
A new album with The Fugitives and a theatre show about capitalism and a middle grade heist novel!
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