Emerging Writers Network

Interview 2007-006: Alan DeNiro

The following is an interview with Alan DeNiro, author of two chapbooks of poetry:  The Black Hare and Atari Ecologues, as well as a collection of short stories, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead (Small Beer Press, 2006).

Dan:

Thank you, Alan, for taking some time from your schedule to answer some questions.

Alan:

No problem!

Dan:

You attended Catholic school for 12 years – I’m assuming 1st grade through graduation.  Have you determined if, and if yes, how, those years may have had an effect on the way you write?

Alan:

Yes – a huge effect.  It gave me a cosmology and belief system to work with, and later, work against to an extent.  I still feel “culturally Catholic” in spirit, in a lot of the ways I approach looking at aesthetic issues of politics (e.g., the storytelling of the saints’ lives).  I also have written a lot about people grappling with religious experiences – and there are no easy answers to such things.  Growing up, I really did believe.

Dan:

You received you BA in English from College of Wooster and then your MFA in Poetry from the University of Virginia.  Did you go right from Wooster to the MFA program, or was there any time spent out of school in between?

Alan:

I went straight through.  Definitely a different experience than most of my colleagues, who were generally older.

Dan:

Your most recent published book is a collection of stories, and per your website, you’ve published many more than are included in this book.  Did you also take any fiction classes during your MFA program, or just poetry?

Short Story Month - Work of the Day - May 7, 2007 - Salting the Map by Alan DeNiro

SHORT STORY MONTH

This story was originally published in Fortean Bureau, and as this has recently been included in Alan DeNiro's Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead.  As this is the current Litblog Co-op Read This! selection, my post on it can be found over here.

Continue visiting the LBC this week for more looks at individual stories by other LBC members, as well as guest blogging from DeNiro and an interview from myself and a podcast from Carolyn "Pinky" Kellogg.

Interview 2007-004: Marshall N. Klimasewiski

The following is an interview with Marshall N. Klimasewiski, author of The Cottagers (Norton, 2005).  He currently is a Writer-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dan:

Thank you Marshall, for taking some time out of this near the end of the semester craze to answer some questions.

Marshall:

My pleasure.  Thanks for the questions.

Dan:

Were you a big reader as a youngster?  Is there an incident from your youth that you recall that might have been the spark towards your becoming a writer?

Marshall:

I wasn’t a big reader, compared to other writer friends I have.  I always had deep attachments to certain books—that old, red-covered volume of Winnie-the-Pooh first, then The Lorax, then From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler—but I don’t think I read especially widely, for a kid.  But yes, I also had a third grade teacher who gave us an assignment to write a story, and who then typed up and mimeographed the story I turned in, passed it out to the class, and read it aloud.  I’ve always said I decided I’d be a writer at that moment, while her voice enunciated my sentences, and I think it’s really true, even though I went through long stretches of my youth neither writing nor reading much.  It was as if I’d secured a future that didn’t require my present—as if I’d decided I would be a doctor when I grew up.  But then I did only apply to undergraduate colleges that offered creative writing as a major, and not surprisingly, I arrived at mine (Carnegie Mellon) a truly awful writer.  I still remember a couple of my teachers there having a good, long laugh together, one day when I was a senior on the verge of graduating, about just how bad I was when they first saw me—they could recall in detail my early poems and stories, and quoting them still brought tears to their eyes.

Dan:

Besides reading and writing, what aspects of pop culture (if any) grab much of your attention?  For instance, growing up in Harford, CT, were you by chance a Whalers fan?

Marshall:

Ah, the Whalers—you couldn’t avoid them.  And in my youth, coaches Calhoun and Auriemma hadn’t yet arrived so UCONN basketball was nothing, making the Whalers all we had to cling to.  I was (and remain) a huge sports fan, though hockey wasn’t a favorite.  Last summer a writer for The New York Times traveled around Connecticut, interviewing people and visiting sports bars, trying to trace out the border where Yankee territory gave way to Red Sox nation, and my town was right on that line.  Because my family was full of Red Sox fans (well, mostly—my mom had a crush on Mickey Mantle), I became a dire Yankee fan.  I had a poster of Thurman Munson in my bedroom (and his was my first experience of death).  I remain one, too.  Sorry.  Though with how much better your Tigers have been lately I have nothing to be sorry about.  I do love pop music, too—sometimes write while listening to it.

Dan:

Your debut novel, The Cottagers, came out last year.  How much reviewing attention did it receive?  Was it about what you expected, or a surprising amount (in either direction)?

Free Book Contest at the LBC

Today begins Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! week.  This novel, written by Mark Binelli and published by Dalkey Archive is being discussed all week over at the Litblog Co-op.  Mark will be there to guest blog on Wednesday and there should be an interview on Thursday and a podcast interview on Friday with the author as well.

Stop over early today and put your entry in to win a copy of the novel and a signed copy of the publicity poster!

Litblog Co-op - Read This!

And the title has been announced!

LBC, LBC, LBC

Remember to show up at the LBC tomorrow to find out the Spring 2007 Read This! selection!!!!

Read This!

Remember, it's Wizard of the Crow week over at the Litblog Co-op as we spend the week discussing the READ THIS! selection of the Winter 2006 quarter.  Like many of the LBC members, I truly enjoyed reading this one.  Wander on over and partake in the discussion!

Contest at the LBC

Do your best to win a copy of Stephen Graham Jones' Demon Theory!  Go to the LBC and post a comment about your best/worst/strangest experience at an 80's hair metal band concert. 

I'm betting on a Britny Fox show myself.

Interview 2007-001: Stephen Graham Jones

The following can also be read over at the Litblog Co-op, as we are discussing Stephen Graham Jones and his novel, Demon Theory over there this week.

The following is an interview with Stephen Graham Jones, author of All the Beautiful Sinners (Rugged Land, 2003), The Bird is Gone:  A Manifesto (FC2, 2003), The Fast Red Road – A Plainsong (FC2, 2000), Bleed Into Me:  A Book of Stories (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), and Demon Theory (MacAdam Cage, 2006).  He’s also published many short stories online, and is currently an Associate Professor of English at Texas Tech University.

Dan Wickett:

Hello, Stephen.  Thank you very much for taking some time out of your writing and teaching schedule to answer some questions.

Stephen Graham Jones:

Man, there’s also my Heroes and 24 and Lost schedule. But the day’s full of hours, near as I can tell.

Dan Wickett:

Out of curiosity, had your heard of the Litblog Co-op prior to your being nominated for this quarter?

Stephen Graham Jones:

Yeah, through Scott’s Slushpile.net, I’d guess. Cool place—I mean, well, both, Slushpile and the Co-op. Really, I think I have a lot of Co-op hats hanging on various deer around the house. Growing up, we’d always pull the Co-op patches off once the hat was trash and use it on our jeans. Cheaper than a Metallica patch, and they look sharp too.

Dan Wickett:

You have a blog of your own at www.stephengrahamjones.com.  Do you find this helps you as a writer at all?  Or is it just a convenient place for fans of your work to keep up one what you’re doing, what you’re reading, watching, etc.?

Stephen Graham Jones:

I wouldn’t say it helps me, and yeah, I can definitely see the dangers of blogging, but, too, I mean, I’ve never been afraid of running out of writing juice, either. I’ve always got some left for fiction. But no, wait, I’m lying. Sure, I can blog and keep up with just an avalanche of email and student work, all that, and still write novels. What I’ve found I can’t hardly do, though, is program and write fiction. Like, web-programming, writing code, a hole I nearly fell all the way into a few years back, when PHP was still young and stealing all the Perl die-hards. For me, writing code, it’s just so, so fun, because there’s always the chance of elegance, if you stick with a line long enough. Problem is, the brain muscles I use to program are the same muscles I use for fiction. And there’s not enough brainpower for both. So I try as hard as I can to stay away from the code anymore. Sometimes it involves lashing myself to the mast, but oh well.

Dan Wickett:

Speaking of what you’re reading – the list goes on and on at your blog.  Fantastic recommendations, wandering all over the literary map in terms of what sections one might find them in a Borders or Barnes and Noble.  How important do you believe reading is for young (and even not so young) writers?  What do you tell your students?

Litblog Co-Op Reminder

Just as the title suggests -this is a reminder that the Litblog Co-op is in the midst of its quarterly discussions of books.

Last week we discussed Valerie Trueblood's Seven Loves.  This week's discussion on Stephen Graham Jones' Demon Theory kicks off with a roundtable discussion that I'm a part of.  And next week, we discuss this quarter's Read This! selection, Wizard of the Crow.