Interview with Shirani Rajapakse
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
However my all time favorite poets are Keats, Dickinson and Frost and have been for quite some time.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: Write with your heart. Edit with your head.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Chant of a Million Women (self published 2017) Available both in print and as an ebook.
https://www.amazon.com/Chant-Million-Women-Shirani-Rajapakse-ebook/dp/B074SHHJYY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Shirani-Rajapakse/e/B00IZQRAOA
Interview with Mike Meraz
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I started writing when I was 16. I’d sit in my room and listen to bands like The Smiths or Depeche Mode and write about my inner thoughts and conflicts. But these were just ramblings of a teen, I didn’t start writing seriously until about 30 after a long dramatic relationship.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: Women and the struggles of daily existence are my biggest inspirations. As far as writers, early on I was influenced by JD Salinger, his rawness and matter-of-factness got my attention. He wrote like he was talking to you, I liked that. Later I discovered Bukowski which had the same vibe, then Brautigan, Hemingway, Kerouac and John Berryman. I’m also heavily influenced by music, the mood a song creates can produce words in me.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: Anytime I’m inspired. There’s no magic time. If I do sit down to write, it is usually in the morning. Sometimes at night when I am drinking and listening to music words will come to me.
Q: Why do you write?
A; Because I am an introvert with an extroverted soul. Writing is a way to connect with people, reach out to them. I think as humans we all have a basic need to connect.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: There’s a Henry Miller quote that says, “A moment of inspiration is better than hours and hours of push and pull” or something to that effect. What that tells me is, as writers, we need to let it come. Don’t force it. If it doesn’t come, that does not mean you’re not a writer. It just means you need to refuel, get turned on again. Live life, travel, love. Let it come.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Are you experienced? In my opinion, the best writing comes from experience, not from hours in a class room or burying your head in a ton of books. Although, these things can be helpful and supplemental, they are no replacement for the actual food of experience.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Black-Listed Poems (2007) All Beautiful Things Travel Alone (2009) Black-Listed Thoughts (2011) Watching It Burn (2012) 43 (2013) She Poems (2015) I am currently working on a new collection which should be out later this year.
Mike Meraz lives and writes in Whittier, Ca.
Interview With Chris Byrne
Q: When did you start writing?
A: About 7 years ago or so, it used to be just inspirational verses id post on
Facebook, was only after a friend died that I knew from Facebook, did i write a poem and my ex girlfriends father, Michael O Flanagan who is a fine poet and historian seen the poem and told me he was publishing it in bimonthly poetry broadsheet called Riposte. Was then i got the confidence to write more.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: No real inspirations except myself, I’ve seen the rougher side of life have been homeless, ran own businesses and had everything and lost it, drink problems came and went hence a lot of my poems are about the trials and tribulations that life will bring and if my poetry helps someone to realise its not all doom and gloom well I’m happy..
As for fav writers has to be JRR Tolkien, Harper Lee (wrote kill a mocking bird can’t think her second name I will do as soon as i finish typing this and I probably will not be arsed retyping or editing} Charles Dickens favourite book of his is The Old Curiosity shop, It’s the hardest book I have ever read only took me a week to read and some more .. Deidre Keane (Irish satirical writer) Tom Sharpe ( English satire) both funny as hell. Stephen King ( no explanation needed) Dee Jones Bury My Heart at wounded knee, what a book, The Blue and the Gray (a history of the american civil war) only read a bit of it and then it got lost still remember how i got hold of it, drank in a hotel bar called the viking lodge in francis street dublin over 20 years ago, id been sitting reading bury my heart at wounded knee and this American coloured chap a friend of the Egyptian owner approached me and asked what was i reading and told me his story about his grandfather being a slave, so he took my address and I went to work elsewhere, until few months later i was in hospital after ripping my thumb on an industrial saw and a box arrived it was full of books and my love of American history grew from then. Some of my poems I gather inspiration from those tales and stories.. I’ve never had a favourite author and I doubt I will. My most read book is The Lord Of The Rings.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: It depends, mostly in the wee hours of the morning after a few beers, odd time I might get an idea, I rarely sit at a screen and think or see if something comes, there mostly random ideas or thoughts of a long gone past or something I hear
Q: Why do you write?
A: No particular reason, though it could be because something or someone has ticked me off or something in the news, or its my way of dealing with my past issues that still effect me, E.I mental health (how i’m feeling etc) or a social issue, it could be just a piece of music and ping idea and its type.. but when it comes to mental or issues that effect us all (humans) i write so that people don’t feel alone and can read go “yeah me too i feel the same” as for social human issues war etc its to get it out there that we the species are killing eachother for what..? for what money..? land? Say what you feel and eventually people will hear and listen that we are all the same cred, nationality, gender it doesn’t really matter we’re all human we all have same stuff that runs through our veins and no amount of war or money will change that, if and when we realize this the human race will understand when its too late.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A:We are all in the gutter, just some of us are looking at the stars ~ Oscar Wilde
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Keep writing. Never delete as much as you feel like thinking its crap, it doesn’t make sense, keep it come back a week, a month or a year later and reread, edit it if you must, post the original verse or poem, and then see what people think, re-edit it as you feel what works, ask advice.. from editors, fellow poets see what they think and go with what feels write (excuse the pun) I never dreamed id be a published poet, i failed English and most subjects in school so if i can put an idea into a poem anyone can
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: no, but am planning to do a book soon, I am published in two books so far, Dandelion in a vase of roses, and Moonlight dreamers of yellow haze and I have been published on The Poet Community. I don’t go out my way to publish or post poems I probably should though.
Interview with Paul Brookes
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Please visit my Author sites at Goodreads and Amazon
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17456273.Paul_Brookes
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Brookes/e/B000APB478/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
My latest book, “Port Of Souls” due to be released very soon with Alien Buddha Press is a collaboration with fantastic Dutch artist Marcel Herms. It was a challenge I set myself to write 30 poems about 30 of his paintings as part of National Poetry Month. I wish to thank Alien Buddha Press for agreeing to publish the whole series as a book before I had finished writing it.
Thank you again to Adam and Madness Muse Press for inviting me to this interview.
Paul Brookes is a shop assistant, after employment as a security guard, postman, admin. assistant, lecturer, poetry performer, with “Rats for Love”, his work included in “Rats for Love: The Book”, Bristol Broadsides, 1990. First chapbook “The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley”, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). Recently published in Blazevox, Nixes Mate, Live Nude Poems, The Bezine, The Bees Are Dead and others. “The Headpoke and Firewedding” (Alien Buddha Press, 2017) illustrated chapbook, “A World Where” (Nixes Mate Press, 2017) “The Spermbot Blues” (OpPRESS, 2017), “She Needs That Edge” (Nixes Mate Press, 2018), Forthcoming “Stubborn Sod” (Alien Buddha Press)
*Available to teach writing to groups of all ages.
Interview with James D. Casey IV
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Why do you write?
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
~ Maya Angelou
~ Jim Morrison
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to
Q: Do you have any upcoming books or projects you’d like to talk about?
Interview With Heath Brougher
Interview with K.W. Peery
Q: When did you start writing?
A: 1993
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: Favourite writers – in no specific order – Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Bob McDill, Billy Joe Shaver, Donald Ray Pollock, Hunter S. Thompson, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty and James McMurtry
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: After midnight & before noon
Q: Why do you write?
A: The constant sense of urgency
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: ~ Ain’t no money in poetry…that’s what sets the poet free…I’ve had all the freedom I can stand ~ (Guy Clark)
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Ignore the fucking rules.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Gen Z Publishing, Inklings Books in Blue Springs.
Collections of poetry –
Tales of a Receding Hairline, Purgatory, Wicked Rhythm, Ozark Howler
Gallatin Gallows – (Release date: 05/23/18) Howler Holler – (Fall 2018) Cockpit Chronicles – (Spring 2019)
Lawbreaker Blues – (Fall 2019)
Hellraisers Hieroglyphics – (TBD)
Bootleggers Bluff – (TBD)
Interview with Robert J.W.
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I’ve been writing my whole life but started taking it seriously when I was 15.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Never stop, despite rejection.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Yes. Houses I’ve Died In and Screamo Lullabies, both on Amazon!
Robert J. W. is a poet, writer, digital artist, and photographer from Morgantown, WV. His work has been published in San Gabriel Valley Quarterly, Amomancies, Philosophical Idiot, Stranger to Blue Water, among others. He enjoys listening to music,nature walks, and watching videos.
Interview with John and JoAnna Poster
Q: WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?
John: I started when I was in the 8th grade. I was introduced to haikus in an English class and was drawn to the structure of the poems. I didn’t write often, but continued to grow.
JoAnna: My cousins and I would try to write songs and play homemade instruments when we young, my writing interests continued.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
John: My favourite writer is Steven King. The vibrant details in his novels have always painted pictures in my mind.
JoAnna: A few of my favorite writers are Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King Jr.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
John: It comes to me at all hours of the day. Sometimes I have to make notes to come back to a thought. It could be a sound, a smell, or something I see every day that sparks an idea.
JoAnna: I can agree with John’s response.
Q: Why do you write?
John: It gives me a sense of accomplishment and closure. Something inspires a thought, and I need to express it in such a way as I feel it is finished.
JoAnna: I feel the need to be challenged, or to create something unique.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
John: Friedrich Nietzsche said “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I’m not sure who said “No one said life was fair.”
JoAnna: Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. William Shakespeare
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
John: read, Read, READ! Our vocabulary is vastly improved when we read. Our understanding of all things is enhanced by reading.
JoAnna: I agree with John’s response.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Our first book is available on Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
The Little Black Book of
Poetry and Prayers:
MILK AND HONEY, Volume 1
by John and JoAnna Poster.
eBook
Link: http://a.co/59u9w8C
Paperback
Link: http://a.co/fWwVPBi
Resources
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1156062-when-did-you-start-writing
The Posters are the authors of Milk and Honey,
including other types of writings. Currently,
they reside in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Together, they
share five children and many grandchildren.
.
During their first years together John would write
a new Love poem for Joanna almost every day
telling her how important she was to him, or
capturing one of their special moments together.
This activity happened as often as needed until
JoAnna fell head over heals in love with John
and poetry.
.
Their poetic pairing echos from within them and
captures our hearts as they creatively reflect on
their lives, and the emotion of a life with enduring
love.
.
They cooperatively adopt to each other as their muse
while they build a splashy introduction to the soul of their
genre curiosity.
Interview with Shelly Buttenhoff Miller
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I really started writing when I was in the hospital several years ago. I was having an extra tough day and could barely get out of bed. One of the staff came and we talked for quite some time. He encouraged me to put my thoughts on paper. That motivated me to write my first poem. I wasn’t even sure it was a poem but when I showed it to the staff person they really liked it. They even put it up on the bulletin board for other patients to see. It was about hope and freedom. After that I did a little writing but in 2016 I was journaling and just started putting down what I was thinking and feeling. It took off from there.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: My biggest inspirations and favorite writers are the poets who’s works I read on the poetry sites I belong to. I do also really enjoy Mary Oliver and Robert Frost.
If you don’t belong to any poetry websites or groups on Facebook I highly recommend you checking some out. We are each other’s biggest inspiration and supporters.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I don’t really have a specific time of day for writing. Mostly it’s when something strikes me and it sparks the beginning of a poem. Sometimes just as I’m drifting off to sleep I’ll get a line or two in my mind. I then know I need to get up and write down the phrase or what ever it is and it might start a poem right then or one later.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I guess I really write as a way to get things out of my head. It helps me manage my emotions and then feel better about myself. I also really enjoy it when someone will say something about how it made them feel. I like to evoke emotion in other’s. By my writing.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: Sure I have a couple. Mary Oliver writes in her “A Poetry Handbook”, “To make a poem, we must make sounds. Not random sounds, but chosen sounds”.
Another favorite is, “And feel a spirit kindred to my own; So henceforth I worked no more alone;” by Robert Frost.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: I don’t have any secret wisdom to impart but for myself I try to never give up. I also know my style of poetry won’t be for everyone and as much as I want it to be liked I don’t take it personal. Keep going even if you have long breaks in between writing. Come back to it, for yourself.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I haven’t gotten that far in my poetry to try putting together a chapbook. My next goal.
Shelly Buttenhoff Miller currently resides in Springfield, Oregon. She has three grown sons and two new daughter in laws whom she adores. Shelly enjoys hiking, photography, reading, bowling and doing Zentangles. Shelly started writing poetry to help her express her emotions in a way that reflect her feelings at the time. In 2016 and 2017 she has been published in several different venues such as, “Creative Talents Unleashed”, “Setting Forth”, “Anti Heroin Chic”, the anthology “In So Many Words: A Collection of Interviews and Poetry from Today’s Poets”, the inaugural issue of “Madness Muse Magazine”, “Dandelions in a Vase of Roses” , “I Have a Name” and “Destigmatized” Anthologies.
Interview with Fee Thomas
Q: When did you start writing?
A: My parents say that I began to read early and the writing followed that naturally. I didn’t speak much as a kid, just the reading and writing.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Elie Wiesel, Viktor Frankl, CS Lewis, EE Cummings, Dick Gregory, Senator Robert Kennedy, Iyanla Vanzant, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, The Apostle Paul, Dr. King, Oprah Winfrey, Harper Lee, Marianne Williamson, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Paul Tillich, James Baldwin, Tupac, John Macquarrie, Bob Dylan…this list is going to get Real long and Real interesting in a minute…
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: It seems to start around three in the morning until it’s done with me.
Q: Why do you write?
A: It saves me. And in doing so, it saves the people that love me.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: “You did the best that you knew how. Now that you know better, you’ll do better.” – Dr. Maya Angelou’s quote has been a saving grace.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Fuck what people think about you, if you belong and especially about where you come from. None of that is any of your business or concern. You go ahead and make a place for yourself if you have to.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Yes, thank you for asking. I have a chapbook called Owning the Color Blue . It is out and available through Clare Songbirds Publishing House
Bio: Fee Thomas is a poet and activist from North Minneapolis. She is particularly concerned with Civil Rights and the preservation of the arts which she credits for saving her life. Fee is happiest sitting on the grass writing songs with her guitar.
Interview with Ken Allan Dronsfield
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Ken Allan Dronsfield is a disabled veteran, poet and fabulist originally from New Hampshire, now residing on the plains of Oklahoma. His work can be found in magazines, journals, reviews and anthologies worldwide. His two poetry books, “The Cellaring” a collection of 80 poems of light horror, paranormal, weird and wonderful work and his newest book, “A Taint of Pity”, Life Poems Written with a Cracked Inflection, are available through Amazon.com. Ken is a three time Pushcart Prize and twice Best of the Net Nominee for 2016-2017. Ken loves writing, thunderstorms, walking in the woods at night and spending time with his cats Willa and Yumpy.
Interview with Kat Giordano
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I started writing when I was a little kid. I’m sure a lot of people say this, but I genuinely don’t remember not being in love with writing. Even before I could actually read/write, I loved books a lot, and I would make these little picture books and then instead of writing words I would just write lines of scribbles, like a cartoon character, and make up the story as I was reading it to people. Poetry didn’t come until later though. I was probably in middle school before I realized poets even still existed.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: Speaking as someone who went to college for poetry and then only recently has gotten into indie lit, the list is kind of a mixed bag. On the Mainstream White Dudes side, I really love Stephen Dunn and Richard Siken. They both have this understated sort of discipline to their work but still manage to gut-punch me. And then there’s this whole crowd of people in the indie lit scene who have shown me that you can truly do whatever you want. Sam Pink and Noah Cicero most easily come to mind, but it’s everybody, really. A lot of the time it feels like I just rolled up to this entirely new continent. I also started reading Dorothea Lasky’s Milk the other day, and wow.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I work a 9-5 office job, and I do a lot of writing throughout the day at my desk. I keep a pad of paper with me and jot down weird lines and bits of things that run through my mind, and then whenever I have more time, I flesh it out and try to see if I have a real poem somewhere in there. But that’s less of a conscious practice and more a result of being really good at focusing on anything but the thing I’m supposed to be doing.
(Unless you’re my boss reading this. Then I only write in the evenings after a solid eight hours of being passionately engaged in my number-one priority, which is of course my office job.)
Q: Why do you write?
A: For me, it’s always just been a thing I naturally gravitate towards. I don’t go more than a few days without writing most of the time. I had a bit of a mental breakdown at the end of last year and didn’t write for a few weeks, and it felt like a major disruption of my identity; that’s how unusual it is. There are dry spells, but I don’t consciously think about needing to sit down and produce some poems. Writing is often just the first thing that occurs to me when I have an interesting thought or feeling. It’s the only way I know how to process anything.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: “I’ve tried to become someone else for a while, / only to discover that he, too, was me.” -Stephen Dunn
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: There’s no path and, for most of us, no “making it.” But that’s not cynical. It’s freeing. It means there’s no single person or opportunity that can make or break you, so you can do what you like. I still consider myself a “new writer” and probably always will forever, but I remember a time not that long ago that I was still keeping a really tight grip around this idea of a “writing career,” constantly anxious and concerned about making specific “moves.” Serial predators and harassers are entirely to blame for their behavior, but I will say that thinking of myself as being on some specific path made it really easy for me to fall into the hands of someone who emotionally extorted me in exchange for “opportunities.” Later, I learned that I was already putting in the right kind of work and already very much a Writer before receiving those “opportunities,” and I didn’t need to make concessions to some scummy dude in order to feel valid as one.
You’re already valid. You’re behind the wheel. Write things that move you, hold up those things when you read them, and be genuine. Everything else is sort of pointless.
Q: Do you have any upcoming books or projects you’d like to talk about?
A: My debut poetry collection The Poet Confronts Bukowski’s Ghost is coming out in June 30th under Philosophical Idiot. It’ll be available on Amazon and also through me. 🙂
——-
Interview with Josh Dale
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I wrote a few short stories and poems as an adolescent, but I would consider my “serious” writing to have started in the summer of 2012 after a traumatic car accident. A novel idea popped in my head so I ran with it (still unfinished), while also delving into haikus and prose poetry.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: During my undergrad, I was a big fan of the American Transcendentalists, but now I’ve gotten into the likes of Kafka, Capote, Tolstoy, and Joyce for prose. I also love the poetry from my contemporaries such as Scott Laudati, Karina Bush, Joanna C. Valente, and Angelo Colavita.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: Naturally, during the evenings and nights since I have a 9-5. It’s best to have been away from work for a couple hours and a wholesome dinner/bike ride prior to writing. Maybe a cup of coffee if it’s not too late.
Q: Why do you write?
A: This question is the most opened ended, so I’ll answer in a different way. Now that I’m out of college and have indulged in different poetry scenes around my area, I continue to see new books coming out, poetry readings occurring, and many other communal efforts. It only helps spur my own creative side to push on with new work or to enable those that are underrepresented/newcomers. It (lit. community) is not based on one or a few authors, it’s much larger; a representation of the mosaic of one’s area. Philadelphia is a Neapolitan haven for all the arts, and as long as I’m residing in this area, I’ll continue to drive myself to engage in it, be it on my own accord, or others.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius has been an enduring quote that helped me through those years of pain and endurance. I recently came across this quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that is simply marvellous: “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Look around before thinking the mainstream is where you want to be. They’re many avenues to get started in writing. Opportunities for submissions and poetry open mics are wonderful ways to make connections and to get your work publicly known. Tangentially, being around artists at galleries, working at bookstores, and checking out public events at universities can supplement one’s engagement.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: My first poetry collection, Duality Lies Beneath, and a chapbook can be found at https://www.thirtywestph.com/ but you can check out reviews on Amazon http://a.co/exKpxa9
Bio: Hailing from Philadelphia, Josh Dale is a Temple University alum, bicyclist, and owner of the sweetest Bengal cat in the tri-state area. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in 48th Street Press, vox poetica, former cactus, Huffington Post, Your One Phone Call, and others. He runs Thirty West Publishing House as founder and editor-in-chief and slings words on occasion at bookstores and dive bars. He recently was a judge for the 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
Interview with Nate Maxson
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I started writing as a teenager as a way to flex my angst muscles.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: Among poets, the late great Franz Wright rocks my world, the beats especially Gregory Corso. Some contemporary or living poets who really grab me are BH Fairchild, Elspeth Pancrazi, Jane Lewty, Gary Jackson, Frederick Seidel. I read a wide swath of poetry. I also find myself very inspired by novels. I adore Thomas Pynchon and have also found myself reading a lot of South American literature. Cortazar, Bolano, Andres Neuman. Bolano’s “2666” is among the most powerful novels I’ve ever read.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: Early evening. I kinda collect bits and pieces and phrases throughout my day and then when I get home from work I see what I can coalesce them into. I’m a magpie, I collect shiny pieces and then carry them to my nest to put into a pile and call that a poem.
Q: Why do you write?
A: It’s satisfying in a way nothing else is.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: Bukowski in one of his more contemplative moods said “As the spirit wanes the form appears”. I like that.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Don’t approach your work like a singularity. Total originality is so over rated. Absorb everything you read everything that moves you and let it change and mutate your art. Change is good.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I do. If you go on amazon you can find several books by me including “The Age Of Jive” and “The Whisper Gallery”
Interview with James Otter
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
-The Magnetic Fields, A chicken with its head cut off
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Interview with Janine Linehan
Hi Adam thanks for the interview questions Here is my reply!
Q: Who inspires me as a writer?
Q: What time of the day do I do most of my writing?
Q: Why do I write?
Q: What’s the advice you would give new inspiring writers?
Interview with Daginne Aignend
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch writer, poetess, photographic artist Inge Wesdijk. She likes hard rock music, fantasy books, and loves her animals. She’s the Poetry Editor of Whispers and has been published in many poetry journals, magazines and anthologies, in the ‘Tears’ Anthology of the NY Literary Magazine to name one. She has a fun project website http://www.daginne.com
Interview With Soodabeh Saeidnia
Q: When did you start writing?
A: First of all, thank you so much Adam for inviting and having me in this interview with the great Madness Muse Press. I’ve been writing poetry in Farsi since I was a happy 12-year old girl. Perhaps poetry runs in my family as my father is a poet and my uncle was. The education, research and teaching in Pharmaceutical Sciences made me learn scientific writing in English during the time I studied and worked at schools. Then a turning point happened in my life, IMMIGRATION, and suddenly I found my poetry nonsense for the people who didn’t know my language and culture. I had no choice but writing my poems in English. So If your question is when I started writing English poems, the accurate answer is 40!
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: They were different depends on the age I was. In childhood, I was affected by Parvin Etesami’s simple, rhyming, morals, storytelling but multi-layer poems. She is a famous Iranian poetess in early 20 century. Then, the well-known Sohrab Sepehri’s and Mehdi Akhavan Sales’ books located on my shelf. I reckon my inspiration of middle age has been Geysar Aminpoor’s smart, concise, and confessional poetry which is so similar to the Sylvia Plath’s and Anne Sexton’s pens at least for me. In English, I fell in love with the short poems from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman but now I read from so many other poets who currently live between us.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: It’s timeless! Anytime a poem wants to happen, I let it be live on my notebook, cell phone or computer.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I don’t know just like I don’t know why I live or breathe but out of why questions, there is beauty in writing and expressing the human’s feeling and thought. For me, writing has always been easier than talking, since I would rather people read my heart and mind whenever they really want to than they listen to and forget about it. When I ask myself why I am obsessed with reading and writing, I tell myself it’s better not to pick an answer because there are unknown and deep layers of being yet to be defined by scientists.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: Yes, though hard to choose one. It would be “A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.”
[Becoming a Writer/ The List, O Magazine, November 2009]”
― Junot Díaz
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: I would say to them, “Don’t even step in writing, if you don’t have the brave heart of a lion, the complex eyes of a fly, the complicated mind of a dolphin and the warrior attitude of a wolf because once you come in, the whole world’s editors may reject your writing, the whole universe’s critics may criticize your way and the sky may fall all over your decision. But if you be patient and strong enough, you’ll grow slowly but toughly, the way a slim stem sprouts from behind a rocky ground and stretches to become a tall tree.”
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: Yes I do, and appreciate for asking me. For poets and readers who like to read bilingual anthologies, the recently published volumes I and II of “Persian Sugar in English Tea” are now available on Amazon. They both together include the English poems by 54 American, Canadian, Australian, … living poets together with the Farsi translations. I kindly benefited from Aimal Zaman’s co-translation in there. If they are interested in visiting my own books of poetry like “Nobody in The Box”, “Street of the Ginkgo Trees”, and “A Poem And Three Generations” published on amazon, the link to all is here:
At the end, thank you again Adam for this opportunity to talk with your wonderful readers.
Biography: Soodabeh lives in Queens, NYC. She got her Pharm D and PhD of Pharmacognosy and has worked as a researcher, assistant and associate professor in the Kyoto University (Japan), TUMS (Iran) and University of Saskatchewan (Canada). She writes in English and Farsi. Her English poems have been published in different anthologies and literary magazines including Careless Embrace of the Boneshaker (GWFM), Squawk Back, Indiana Voice Journal, Sick Lit Magazine, Dying Dahlia Review, etc. She has authored, translated and edited both scientific and poetry collections and anthologies (https://www.amazon.com/s?field-keywords=soodabeh+saeidnia).
Interview with Jonel Abellanosa
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu City, the Philippines. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Rattle, Anglican Theological Review, Poetry Kanto, The McNeese Review, Filipino-American Artist Directory and Marsh Hawk Review. His fourth chapbook, “Songs from My Mind’s Tree,” and full-length poetry collection, “Multiverse,” are forthcoming from Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York. He is a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Dwarf Stars Award nominee.
Interview with Matthew Lawler
Q: When did you start writing?
A: Originally I started writing raps in the 7th grade. I grew up in the golden era of hip-hop listening to KRS-ONE, N.W.A, The Fugees, Nas, Rakim, Wu-Tang, and they all definitely inspired me to get lyrical. I didn’t get serious about writing until high school, but I was still writing raps and scrawling lines on napkins while walking home from school. I was 19 years old when I took a poetry class at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago and it changed my life. I became serious about learning the forms, structures, rhythms, rhyme schemes, and overall use of figurative language. I started studying the greats, Keats, Milton, Poe, Rossetti, Whitman, Blake, L. Hughes, Plath. I was consuming poetry at a frenetic pace. I started writing sonnets and villanelles, and really fell in love with the fixed form. I composed my first Sonnet and it was published in The Wilbur Wright Creative Writing Magazine. I guess it’s just been a series of baby steps to get to the realization of my “vocation” as a poet. The good news is once you realize your “vocation” nothing can stop you, not even a little writer’s block. Nothing can hold you down because you know poetry is what you are meant to do. To me it’s beyond a physical thing. Poetry is a introspective encounter with the immaterial world within and without. It’s a language that can’t be explained to the logical mind. Every time I put pen to paper and really delve inward I can honestly say I’ve experienced God through writing. Poetry is the language of the soul.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: I have a whole lot of favorite writers and I’ll start with Denise Levertov. In her book This Great Unknowing, she writes about hearing the whispers of the vine leaves. Levertov wrote with such attention and awareness of her surroundings and with a keen eye to uniquely see beyond the surface of things. I love the fact that she’s always asking questions throughout her poems and searching for a deeper self. Ai Ogawa is another one of my favorites and I’ve never read any poet who is better at the dramatic monologue than Ai. If you want to learn how to write a persona poem just study Ai’s work and you will be enlightened. I also can’t forget the father of the modern detective story Edgar Allen Poe and the poet who once wrote a 15,000 line poem(The Battlefield Where the Moon says I Love You) without using any punctuation, the great Frank Stanford. I’m a big Theodore Roethke fan and one of my all time favorite poems is “The Waking.” Roethke is definitely in my top 5 just on the basis of mere contemplative language, images, and movement that run throughout his poems.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I write mostly at night usually around midnight. There’s just something deep, and mystical about midnight and its always been my favorite time to write, but sometimes poems just come to me while meandering down the streets of Chicago. All it takes is one image and that can trigger memory, emotion, words. Most of my writing is spawned in those moments, but I usually write them down around midnight.
Q: Why do you write?
A: It’s all I’m really good at and though it is a gift that may not earn you a penny it will give you something much deeper than money. It will give you joy and completeness. I often wonder why I had to be a poet! I mean, why not an astrophysicist, engineer, a doctor, shoot even a CTA bus driver would have sufficed. Nope. I had to be a poet, but honestly I’m not complaining because only poets know the true joy of poetry. I believe the real reason I write is to free myself from all of my experiences, whether good or bad there is a certain freedom of emotion that comes with writing poems. I was diagnosed with type one Diabetes when I was 13 years old and I think it really deepened my soul in that it exposed me to suffering. This constant crutch that I had to live with made me feel things (empathy, compassion, pain). Suffering is the gateway to the interior life and it awakened me in a way that altered my perception of myself and the world around me. Anyone who has type one Diabetes since they were a kid knows the agony it entails. But luckily for me it birthed something deep, something real and tangible like an acorn blooming into a monumental oak. Poetry is in my blood and it’s been there since a very young age. I write because I live and I live because I write.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: Robert Frost said, “Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.” My favorite quote is from Emily Dickinson and it pretty much sums up what I try to do when I write. She said, “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. My last quote is from William Wordsworth who called poetry, “The spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions.”
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: “Don’t you give up, nah-nah-nah, I won’t give up, nah-nah-nah,” in my Justin Bieber voice. On a serious note, i would say just keep writing, keep putting pen to paper and let your emotions guide you. If you feel strongly about something it’s bound to show up in your writing. The great English romantic poet John Keats said, “nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced.” I would say just pay attention to the moments because they are fleeting and all it takes is one image, one experience to capture your imagination and turn the immaterial into material. Paying attention is an arduous task nowadays with all our technological advancements, but I would say if you really want to become a better writer to listen more, talk less, observe more, and be still.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I’ve been published in numerous literary journals and an anthology titled “Illinois’s Best Emerging Poets” available on Amazon. I’m currently working on my first full length poetry collection (Concrete Oracles) and hope to have it out sometime this year.
Interview with Darrell Herbert
Darrell Herbert is a nationally recognized poet. He has earned a national silver medal in the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. He earned a gold key from Casita Maria Center for the Arts & Education. He is also a songwriter, humanitarian, author, and artivists.
Q: When did you start writing?
Interview with John Yamrus
Interview Questions
Q: When did you start writing?
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: my books are on amazon…my latest book is MEMORY LANE…for lack of a better word, it’s a slim “memoir”…a look back at what it was like growing up in a Pennsylvania coal town in the 1950s… why i hesitate calling it a memoir is that it’s really (as one newspaper review called it) a reflection on Time and the fallibility of memory. i see the book like jazz…like an extended poem…it’s not linear in any sense of the word. i intended it to be what it would feel like kicking back and having a couple of drinks and talking about what it was like way back when. as for my latest books of poetry…there’s AS REAL AS RAIN, which is a book of my poems fully illustrated by the Swedish artist Janne Karlsson. that book was a real hoot and a real risk…it gave me a chance to look at my own poems as seen thru someone else’s eyes. it was a lot of fun. the book right before that was I ADMIT NOTHING. of course, all of my books that have been published by Epic Rites Press (and there’s been 9 so far) are high on my list of personal favorites. i’m 67 now, and i think i’m starting to hit my stride. maybe in another couple of years i’ll finally get it right.
Interview of Arbind Kumar Choudhary with Dr.Ashok K.Yadav, Associate Prof. of English,Arts College, Shyamalaji, Gujarat,India.
Arbind Kumar Choudhary who has been awarded with the crown of Universal Ambassador of Peace from Poetry in 2017 by Gabrielle Simond, the president of Geneva based duo organizations—Universal Circle of the Ambassadors of Peace & Universal Embassy of Peace -has been popularly called the pioneer of the Phrasal Movement and Indianised Version of Arbindonean Sonnets in Indian English poetry for the spiritual whirlwind for Tom,Dick and Harry in general and the versifiers in particular inspite of the materialistic monarchy infecting the society.He has been perfuming the poetic passage with his nine poetry collections in English, dozens of literary awards in America, China, Geneva and India, and, above all, more than sixty interviews published in Malta, Romania, Albania and India.His Arbindonean Racy Style of Versification, cluster of the phrasal passages and Indianised Version of Arbindonean Sonnets speak volumes about his magnetic poetic personality in Indian English poetry.
Dr.Choudhary who has been incorporated in Cambridge Dictionary of English Writers in England,Penny Poetry in America, World Poetry Almanac in Mongolia ,World Poetry Yearbook in China, Four Indian English Poets in Romania and Sahitya Akademi in Delhi has been included as an editorial board member of a number of literary journals in America,Tunisia, Nigeria and several literary journals of India.Mahatma Gandhi Education and Welfare Society sponsored maiden national poetry award entitled Phrasal King Arvind Choudhary National Poetry Award 2018 has been instituted to honour an Indian English poet annually for the promotion of English verses in India that has been given to Dr.Brajesh Kumar Gupta Mewadev of Banda,U.P on 17th February 2018 in the International Seminar held at Bharat Ratna Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Research Center,Aurangabad,India.
Q 1 : When did you start writing ?
AKC: Versification has become my passion rather than profession that comes out as naturally as the water flow of the river. I have been composing verses and turning in to pieces for want of proper atmosphere of flourishment around my surrounding. But the germs of creation that was planted long ago through the Hindi poems of great poets -Dinkar, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Mahadevi Verma, Jay Shankar Prasad and many others started to flourish with the passage of time while started the job of a lecturer in a college. I have not seen behind since the publication of Eternal Voices, maiden poetry book, in 2007 that has been followed by eight more poetry collections.
Q2: Who are your biggest inspirators/ your favourite writers ?
AKC : Shakespeare, Milton , Spenser, John Keats and several English others have remained the captivating spirits while Tagore, Aurobindo, Ezekiel ,Sarojini Naidu, and Kamala Das from Indian English poetry, Kalidas from Sanskrit literature and Dinkar, Maithli Sharan Gupta, Jayshankar Prasad, Mahadevi Verma and several others from Hindi literature have been adding fuel to the poetic flames from time to time.
Q3: What time of day do you do most of your writing ?
AKC: Morning is the spring for the creative wing because silence becomes the monarch during morning period.
Q4: Why do you write ?
AKC : Versification that runs wild from one day to another is the emotional eruption rather than mechanisation.It is my passion rather than profession that sends my creative spirits in the seventh heaven.
Q5 : Do you have any favourite quotes from writers ?
AKC : The most striking quote that haunts me time and again for the sake of the deprived voices of the world community as a whole is quoted from The Elegy of Thomas Gray.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert.
Q6: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers ?
AKC : The essence of patience will knock your door sooner or later in literature.The essence of patience breeds florescence of conscience sooner or later before the last resting place .
Q7: Do you have any collections chapbooks ?
Or other books available for people to purchase ?
AKC : Here lies a list of published poetry collections.
1.Eternal Voices,2007,PBD,Bareilly,UP
2.Universal Voices,2008, IAPEN,Begusarai.
3.My Songs,2008,IAPEN,Begusarai.
4.Melody, 2009, IAPEN,Begusarai.
Interview with Kelle Grace Gaddis
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I was one of those kids that could read at age three. My love of reading quickly lead me to writing. I was given a diary in kindergarten and I’ve been writing ever since.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: There are so many I can’t list them all so I’ll list the most recent inspirations. I love Lance Olson’s work, particularly theories of forgetting and Dream Lives of Debris and Katy Bohinc’s recently released collection Scorpio.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I can write anytime. If I have time in the morning I write in the morning and if I don’t I make time to write at night. If an idea comes to me while I’m working at my other job I’ll send a text message to myself so I remember the idea when I get home.
Q: Why do you write?
A: I don’t think I could stop myself. I’ve written my entire life. For decades I didn’t even care if anyone read my work, I wrote for the sake of writing, this changed after I began submitting work for publicaton. I became addicted to acquiring publishing credits because it felt like I’d finally been heard and understood. So, now, I also write because I want to see how people respond to my work. It’s a way to relate the world and to change it.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: I have many, but I’d like to share a Lewis Caroll line because it’s one of the truest things ever written. “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” Caroll wrote it for the character of Alice in Alice in Wonderland but I think everyone feels like this, we’re all Alice.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Write as often as you can and avoid long breaks. Long breaks don’t help writers, writers write.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: My first book My Myths was published by Yellow Chair Review in 2017. I sold 547 of the 550 copies printed in ten months. I was disappointed that YCR wasn’t financially able to produce a second edition. I’m going with a larger publishing house next time. While supplies last My Myths is available at Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle, Washington; they can ship anywhere. Right now, I’m publishing short stories in literary magazines for my new collction. I wish I had a title to give you but I’m struggling with that right now and can’t bring myself to commit to one yet. My work is also in Dispatch Editon’s Resist Much Obey Little and the Brightly Press’s anthologies Shake The Tree 2017 and 2018 (the latter will be out in May). My Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dreams and the Unexplainable stories were published by Simon & Schuster, it’s available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. It was edited by Amy Newmark and Kelly Sullivan Walden. I annouce my book launches on Facebook, so, if anyone wants to join me online they’re welcome to do so. I’m listed by my full name Kelle Grace Gaddis.
Q: Do you have any upcoming books or projects you’d like to talk about?
A: I’m excited about all of my projects! For now, I’ll talk about one. Most of the 1000 – 10,000+ word short stories in my forthcoming collection have been published by small presses in the United States, England, and Australia. I adore short story collections with diverse themes so I’ve aimed to create one where each story is dramatically different from the last. I want to take my readers to many places, possibly because I’ve been obsessed with the Best American Short Stories series since I was nine and every story in it is unique. Of course that collection is written by many different authors rather than one, but, since I understand a lot of different perspectives, I felt I could take up the challenge. To some extent, a range of voice comes naturally to me because I’ve acted in plays since I was ten-years-old and have stood in many a character’s shoes.
Thank you for the interview!
Interview with Zachary Dilks
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I started writing pretty early on in my childhood. I’ve always had a fairly healthy imagination and I suppose making up stories and exaggerations just came naturally to me. I remember writing a bunch of crappy songs in the fourth grade that I was sure were pure gold. The first time I ever wrote a poem was about some girl I had a crush on. I remember I read it to my mom and sister from the back seat of our car and my mom, very sincerely, told me it was good. So naturally I wrote two sequels to it and they were terrible. I dabbled with writing all of my life, but I never took it too seriously until about junior year in high school when I knew for sure I wanted to spend the rest of my life writing. Thanks, Holden Caulfield.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: My biggest inspirations are not necessarily who’s, but what’s. Sitting in nature and watching animals and plants and connecting the stars and talking to the moon and laughing about the contradictions in life; these are what typically give me inspiration to write. The natural world is my greatest motivator. I find if I try to take too much inspiration from a certain writer then I start to steal their style. My words may be garbage, but at least they’ll always be in my own dumpster. With that being said, my favorite writers are J.D. Salinger, Poe, Whitman, Tom Robbins especially, Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame, Lewis Carroll and a lot of others that might make this list too long. However, and I’m sure I’ll catch hell for this, I really don’t like Ernest Hemingway. His work bores me to no end. Also, although I enjoy his sarcasm immensely, I’m not that into Shakespeare either.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: Unlike a lot of writers, I don’t ever set out a time that’s dedicated to only writing. I’m a full-time father, husband and tool maker on top of poet and so many other things. At any given time, my attention is being pulled to a thousand different places. So really, I’m an in-between kind of writer. I’ll shoot for in between machine time, in between diaper changes, in between grocery shopping and family time. The easiest time for me to write is late into the night after everyone is asleep. I can sit and stare at the moon and give my thoughts my full attention. However, with that being said, I can never force a poem to come out. It either comes to me or it doesn’t and I never write anything that I wouldn’t want to read, so there are plenty of times that I have to shut down what I’ve started and walk away from what I think is inferior writing.
Q: Why do you write?
A: The why is an ever-evolving thing for me. Sure, it’s easy to say that I do it because I can’t not do it; because my every fiber compels me to do it, but that’s not the whole truth. The rest of it is because I truly feel like no matter how well I might mesh with a society or situation, I still always feel like a bit of an outsider. Like I was put here for the sole purpose of observation instead of interaction. I guess it’s me reaching out, hoping to be understood. Hoping to make that connection I was never able to. I’ve got a lot of pain and joy and anger and sadness and love inside of me that I know others have too. I just want to share those feelings and be open to others sharing theirs as well. Simply put, writing is the place where I feel fully and most unabashedly me.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: Ah, we literary types love a good quote, don’t we? I feel like there is this obsession with writers to have a meaningful quote on standby for any occasion. As if to say you’re not a real writer unless you can recite a word of wisdom by Twain or Poe or Chaucer. I used to be that guy. I used to quote Faust to anybody that would listen. You know, “Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici”. I’m just not that person anymore. My favorite quotes are really lowbrow movie lines that make me laugh. The one that sticks out right now is from Blazing Saddles when Bart, as the new sheriff, goes over to the Waco Kid in his cell and says “are we awake?”
Waco Kid says “that depends, are we black?”
Bart nods yes and the Waco Kid says “then we are awake, but we’re very confused”.
However, if you’re interested in a more serious quote, one that I’ve turned over in my mind many times is from, I’m fairly certain, Grendel by John Gardner. “Does not the lion wish to become a man”. To this very moment, that line still trips me up. I know it’s meant to be taken as the savage beast aching to be more than that, but I can’t help but think that the lion has a bit more sense than to want to become an even more savage human. If I were the lion, I’d eat the man, take a nap and move on. That’s elegance in its simplest form.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Stop trying to be the quintessential writer and just write. Don’t write for anybody but yourself. That’s the pit fall of most writers in the world. We get so hung up on whether or not a piece of work will be well received that we overlook the fact that it needs to be well delivered. If you aren’t putting any passion into what you’re doing then perhaps you shouldn’t be doing it; writers and otherwise.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I have one chapbook of poetry called Wire My Scars Electric. It’s available on Amazon and the wonderful people behind Alien Buddha Press helped to make it come to fruition. It’s my first published collection of work and dedicated to my first daughter who sadly passed away too soon.
Q: Do you have any upcoming books or projects you’d like to talk about?
A: I’m in the middle of a couple of things, at the beginning of a lot of things and near the end of very few. I like that chaos though. I do have one project that I’m particularly excited about. It will be another collection of poetry and themed around nature and human interference. The tentative title is If The Lion Doesn’t Eat You, Something’s Wrong. I don’t have much to say about it other than I hope to get it to a rough draft by the end of this year and when and if I do, I really hope people will dig it. Other than that, I’m just trying to focus on being a better writer and a worse procrastinator.
Interview With Weasel Patterson
Q: When did you start writing?
John: I started when I was in the 8th grade. I was introduced to haikus in an English class and was drawn to the structure of the poems. I didn’t write often, but continued to grow.
JoAnna: My mom and my older sister (twelve years my senior) used to read to me several times a day. When I was two years old, even with learning disabilities, I started to read to them. It wasn’t a surprise to me that I became a writer. When considering writing, the surprise came when I was in seventh grade. While attending a new school, during a placement exam, I tested out of reading, as a result, my instructor assigned me writing assignments to have a grade for that subject. Though long ago, I strongly believe these advanced writing exercises helped me immensely to fine tune and prepare my writing skills for the future.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
John: My favourite writer is Steven King. The vibrant details in his novels have always painted pictures in my mind.
JoAnna: Devouring short stories from readers digest, also, greatly poetry . When I was between the ages eight and ten years, I started to seek out pieces by Maya Angelou and Helen Steiner Rice. Still today, they are my absolute treasures.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
John: It comes to me at all hours of the day. Sometimes I have to make notes to come back to a thought. It could be a sound, a smell, or something I see every day that sparks an idea.
JoAnna: As a two years veteran of writing full-time, I don’t have a favorite time. When every the muse strikes me is when I sit down forget everything else, and start to write. I have learned the more I stay away from TV and Social Media sites the more inspired I become.
Q: Why do you write?
John: It gives me a sense of accomplishment and closure. Something inspires a thought, and I need to express it in such a way as I feel it is finished.
JoAnna: I am unaware of ever having a choice. I will need to contemplate this question further. Perhaps, I will be prepared to answer it sometime in the future.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
John: Friedrich Nietzsche said “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I’m not sure who said “No one said life was fair.”
JoAnna: While I was raising my children and before the internet became a big deal, I used to study quotes. I loved them. I have too many favorites to mention. I will conclude this answer with I loved inspirational the most.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
John: read, Read, READ! Our vocabulary is vastly improved when we read. Our understanding of all things is enhanced by reading.
JoAnna: Read, read, read. Pay attention to the occurrences when you are motivated to write, do it often. Mostly, regardless of where you start, never give up because you will improve.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
Our first book is available on Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
The Little Black Book of
Poetry and Prayers:
MILK AND HONEY, Volume 1
by John and JoAnna Poster et al.
eBook
Link: http://a.co/59u9w8C
Paperback
Link: http://a.co/fWwVPBi
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I don’t even know, man. I guess I’d have to say I started back in grade school, writing small poems, but I didn’t actually take it seriously until I started college. In my last year of community, I took a couple of writing courses and those teachers kicked my ass. But damn it felt nice to have a couple of things published that year. I still keep the worn-out prints as a reminder.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: When I was in high school, I loved Lovecraft. It made me want to be a horror writer, which never worked out because I opened Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and Kerouack’s “On the Road” and I ain’t never been the same since. Buddy Wakefield has been a good inspiration, I hope to catch one of his shows some day.
My husband, Sendokidu. We’ve seen so much shit together, and he’s gotten me out of some rough spots. I don’t know where I’d be without him.
Damian Rucci is definitely an inspiration. I see him post on Twitter, see him workin’ his ass off and I always think, “man, I need that kind of fuel.”
I can go on forever talking about people, but I’ll list a few more and keep it short. Folks like Thurston, LuLynne Streeter, Emily Ramser, David E. Cowen, Neil S. Reddy, Chris Wise, and Mary Margaret Carlisle have really pushed me over the years, and I couldn’t thank them enough.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I don’t really pick a specific time of day to write. My brain is scrambled most of the time so I write when I can. I can say though, that I enjoy writing early in the morning, when sun is just barely rising.
Q: Why do you write?
A: It’s cathartic.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: “I am standing like shoe polish on an overstocked shelf hoping that one day someone will pick me to make things better.”
― Buddy Wakefield, Live for a Living
“It’s not that I wait for you.
It’s that my arms are doors I cannot close.”
― Derrick Brown
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Read. Write as much as you can, when you can. Study submission guidelines before submitting your work. And don’t take shit from nobody.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I’ve published seven books so far. Mostly chapbooks. My last three projects are, “a warm place to self-destruct” (Poetry, WZL Productions), “We Live for Half-Moons” (Novella, Thurston Howl Publications), and “Jazz at the End of the Night” (Short Story Collection, WZL Productions). Everything is available on Amazon, and you can find all my books at www.poetweasel.com
I’m working on a chapbook of fiction called “Honey & Fire” as a prequel to my novella, and I hope to have my chapbook of poetry titled, “We Don’t Make It Out Alive,” out by April (But we’ll see how that goes, depends on the cover artist and illustrator).
Interview with Red Focks
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I remember being in first grade, and my teacher Ms. Carpenter had us
writing stories. I wrote a story about my sister and I going through a tunnel in
our basement and finding a bag of money. I don’t remember many details,
except that it made everybody laugh. The next year I had the same teacher
for second grade, except she married the janitor during the summer and was
now Mrs. Cohen. I would get in trouble a lot that year, and when Cohen would
chastise me, she’d always bring up the story I wrote in first grade. Something
must have clicked, because I started writing little stories at my house around
that time.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: Stephen King is a big modern inspiration as a fiction writer. I love how he
uses settings and other subtler aspects to allow his many masterpieces to
exist in the same canonical universe. He has a simple formula, but he does
it damn well. What I learned from King is that if you want to scare the reader,
you need to develop characters properly. Make up a person that we’ll care
about, and them put them in absurd danger………………….……. As a poet,
I have been moved many times by the work of Charles Bukowski. I also must
mention the poets I read the most of all. The many talented poets in the Alien
Buddha Press, Pressure Press Presents, and Wingnut Brigade networks.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: As of late, between noon and the time I go to sleep. I get up, drink coffee
until I BM, eat 4 eggs, drink more coffee and check my messages related to
my work as a publisher. In my down time between jobs, I write.
Q: Why do you write?
A: It’s simply what I like to do. Everybody has their unique deck of tendencies.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find an outlet that pairs with your deck. I think that
anybody who writes a lot would agree with this on some level. Some guys
like to golf. People who golf tend to golf a lot. I would never be a “golf person”,
but I believe I can understand why it would pair well with somebody else’s
deck.
Q: Do you have any favourite quotes from writers?
A: George Carlin is the most quotable writer for me. His whole bit about
“nature getting even” is full of killer lines
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: Explore the part of your psyche that you keep on the downlow. Take
psilocybin. Take Kratom. Ingest THC. Get drunk. Drink too much coffee. Go
off the grid and live in the woods for a couple of months. Dip your feet in the
ocean. Listen to classical music. Be anything except boring.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for
people to purchase?
A: I am on the verge of releasing a collection of short stories titled “Duffy
Street & Other Dubious Incidents”. The stories are interconnected and range
over the course of two-hundred years, from the late 1800s and into the future.
It’s all about the mechanics of conspiracy theories, and murder…. I would
also like to mention American Antihero, a graphic novel I have been
developing over the last two years. Issues 1-5 are available with writing
contributions from Mike Zone and Jay Minor, and art by Ammi Romero and
Carman Benoit. The long version “first canon” set to be over 300 pages
released in Black and White is in production.
Interview with Timothy Mbombo
When did you start writing?
Q: When did you start writing?
A: My first published poem was when I was ten. A horrible little piece about my teacher for the school competition that I had to keep reciting for people until I forgot it. I remember being SO nervous…probably has a bit to do with my social anxiety disorder now. But as for any real writing attempts they came much later in my late teens and on. Still clumsy fumblings of course, but it is hardly ever a pretty process I should imagine. Probably quite the horror show when viewed from the outside, but boy do we like to stew in our own dark little cocoons. I’m 38 now, so mine has been going on for quite some time. No butterflies at the end. Just the magic of some half decent words with any luck.
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favorite writers?
A: I don’t know about inspirations, but I do have many favourite writers: Kafka, Fante, Orwell, Hamsun, Joyce, and Dostoevsky in terms of prose and novels. When it comes to poetry: Richard Brautigan, Leonard Cohen, Bukowski, William Blake, early Ginsberg, Al Purdy, E.E Cummings, Siegfried Sassoon, Auden, etc. Basho is fantastic for economy of verse. I’m normally not a fan of haiku, but Basho is amazing! I also enjoy Roald Dahl stories very much.
Ben John Smith out of Melbourne, Australia is the best modern writer out there today in my opinion. I also enjoy the work of Rich Wink and Wayne F. Burke and Steven Storrie among others.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I used to write at night. I would start about 8 in the pm and go until about 3 in the morning. Then I would make dinner, eat, and go to bed. Now I write during the day whenever I can. Life gets in the way as it does for all of us but I was diagnosed with PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder (among other things) so the medications I have to take throughout the day at specific times ensure that I have to stick to a more normal schedule than I used to. Still, writing is more of a compulsion for me than anything else, so whatever is going on in my life I always seem to find time to write even when it seems I don’t have it. I’m often reminded of Monet standing over his dying wife’s deathbed and studying the colour gradations of death so he could paint it later rather than mourning properly. Not that I am Monet or anything, but it really does become that kind of self-absorbed sickness. Writing is a selfish thing to do. Outside of it, I try to be a better person when I can
Q: Why do you write?
A: Like I said, writing is a compulsion for me…a sickness of sorts. I believe they call it Hypergraphia. I write all over everything: mirrors, old newspapers, oatmeal packets, envelopes, the computer, yellow sticky notes…whatever. I know others write as a form of therapy and others still for enjoyment but it is just a compulsion for me; a repetitive mechanism more than anything. I remember when writing used to make me happy, that feeling you would get, that great swelling inside when you knew you had done good – better than any drug in existence! But I don’t feel that anymore. I feel good for those that do. If writing is therapeutic in some way or makes you happy than do that. It is good to be happy. There is much too much of the other in the world.
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: Plenty:
“I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.” – Ray Bradbury
“The earth laughs in flowers” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Reduce intellectual and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself, and listen to it.” – Richard Brautigan
“All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name” – Andre Breton
The summit sings what is being spoken in the depths” – Tristan Tzara
“Even when we sleep we watch over one another” – Paul Eluard
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” – Charles Bukowski
“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations” – Ray Bradbury
“We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings…Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it’s up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting” – John Updike
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
A: You will most assuredly begin with some form of mimicry based on what you have read and how you have come to it but you must find your own voice and be uncompromising in that voice. Also, do not be so worried about what others will think. Write fiercely and with a brutal honesty that will lose you friends and put strains on your personal and familial relationships. Lastly, never forgot to inject your work with humour. You either laugh at the joke or you become the joke…I choose to laugh.
Q: Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?
A: I do. If you are interested in checking out some of my work you can find it at the usual haunts: Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, Barnes and Noble etc., as well as at lulu.com or from many of the individual publishers directly. The easiest way is probably from my personal website: http://ryanquinnflanagan.yolasite.com/
Interview with Sarah NorthWood
Q: When did you start writing?
A: Apart from stories in school, I started writing a little over 2 years ago. Although looking back I had always used writing as a therapeutic outlet. Writing with intent started one morning, I was frustrated finding myself redundant and unable to find a job that would fit my work/life balance. The kids were kicking up a fuss, you can imagine the scene, one of those mornings? I sat down and a poem came bursting out. I’ve never looked back. Now I have published a children’s poem book, a romance novel and escaping shortly is The Volunteer, a Horror Novella. As well as this I’ve written a couple of hundred poems that I’m proud of!
Q: Who are your biggest inspirations/your favourite writers?
A: I was and am an uneducated literary individual. Not one of those who could point to a famous poet and say, yes its them, they inspire me. I loved to read children’s books, all the obvious, Enid Blyton, AA Milne and Road Dahl when I was younger. My tastes these days are darker and I prefer psychological stories and emotive ones. As for poets I’m constantly inspired by my fellow poets from the website All poetry as well as the wonderful facebook groups I am in. I read obsessively and watch a huge amount of films and series. A big influence for me in terms of Poetry writing comes musically as I also like to write songs and lyrics. Some of the finest poems are in fact songs.
Q: What time of day do you do most of your writing?
A: I would say it is not so much a time of a day as a space in my head. Late at night, when my brain is trying to process the thoughts from the day is often productive. I do have to sit down at other times and force myself to write to fit in with family life and working part time. Sometimes I prefer total isolation, quite often in fact and other times I like to be surrounded by family. I’ll often find a tune and lyrics come to me when I’m not thinking about them, and I’m doing something routine. Hoovering is a favourite for this! I think perhaps it’s my minds way of telling me I don’t like housework..
Q: Why do you write?
A: I write primarily for myself. It satisfies a creative need I’d been searching for all my life. Until I put pen to paper I didn’t realise that it would be writing, now I can’t imagine it being anything else. A lot of things held me back earlier in life, lack of confidence the most obvious one. As I can’t sing and I am not artistically inclined I could never find that thing, I guess sometimes you have to wait until later in life to realise your dreams. Writing poetry conveys and captures so many different things, it is a way to deal with emotions, capture a memory, or find out what you are thinking. It’s a tool to create something positive out of a bad situation and a place to take you where only dreams can go. I love it!
Q: Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?
A: Yes and far too many too write here. One recent one is almost a motto rather than a quote, “the only limits we have are the ones we put on ourselves.” I’m making this my mission statement.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?
Not everyone can be as lucky as I am and are able to write freely and have the time available to them. I’m not sure I can stick to just one, but as a bit of general advice I’ll try! Write with freedom and confidence, push deeper and further than you think you can, experiment but most of all write what drives you, your passions will keep you going when times get rough.
Madness Muse Press 
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