1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Not much has changed. I continue to work, continue to write. Of course, knowing I have a book out there in the world is a strange thought I remember from time to time and it does give me pleasure knowing there are people out there reading my weird, little stories. It's a surreal kind of space that I like to exist in.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
Weirdly, I actually came to poetry first. In my undergrad years there was so much poetry being taught where I went to school, it just seemed like a good idea to write. Always, though, with an eye towards fiction in the back of my mind. A lot of those poems that I wrote were very prose-ish.
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?
I actually cannot quite say. It's all very moody. Some pieces come really quick, others it's a more protracted process. I do a lot of drafting as I write, so the revision process is streamlined. It's rare that the final shape doesn't closely resemble most of what I started with.
4 - Where does a 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?
I'm definitely a writer of short pieces that end up having to find a home. I always start with a small thing in a prose piece—an image, a phrase, but more times than not, it's a first sentence. What happens from there is the story.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I enjoy doing readings, weirdly. They end up being fun. Even though I don't quite look forward to them.
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 don't think I have any theoretical concerns. I just like doing voices.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I have no clue, really. I always like taking a workmanlike approach to these types of questions. Simply: Use the language—Tell good stories. People will take it from there.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I think it's a cool process. Working with a really good editor is like putting on a pair of glasses and seeing your work more clearly.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
I remember J. Robert Lennon saying, "Your novel is perfect until you write the first line, and then it is forever ruined."
10 - 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 usually try to write and post a very short story to my tumblr every day. My single writing habit I've sustained since 2011. Everything else has just been a mood or passing fancy.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I usually go back to the previous sentence. What's going on in it? What can I use? It is usually giving a direction forward.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
It's a fragrance I couldn't describe unless I was dreaming.
13 - 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?
Absolutely. Music, paintings, movies, television—they all have at one point or another influenced my work.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Lydia Davis, Robert Walser, Jane Bowles, Chelsey Minnis, Jamaica Kincaid just to name a few.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Write 10 novels in one year.
16 - 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?
Probably some kind of mundane work you could disappear into. Custodian. Librarian. Postal worker. Butler. Who knows...
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
It was too much fun.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I recently finally read Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, which is a masterwork. I didn't think it could live up to the hype, but it is one of the finest examples of human storytelling. They should send it out into space. I also recently watched for the first time Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, which was beautiful and quietly harrowing.
19 - What are you currently working on?
Oh, a bunch of things. So many short fragments of pieces. A novella-length piece that I've been tinkering with for a few years now about a woman who is a peeping tom. I'm just surrounded by tiny, little pieces of work. Who knows where they'll lead—if to anything at all?
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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