“You’ve got to do two very contradictory things as a writer: you’ve got to enjoy spending a lot of time alone—and a lot of people don’t—and you’ve also got to go out and see about the world and immerse yourself in that world….” Irvine Welsh, whose latest novel, Dead Men’s Trousers, is forthcoming from Melville House in February, contemplates the words of wisdom and advice he would offer to young writers in this interview with Christian Lund for Louisiana Channel.
“I want to write about tiny miracles: I woke up this morning. I woke up this morning.” George Abraham, author of the chapbook The Specimen’s Apology (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), reads his poem “Against Consolidation” at the 2017 VOX POP Poetry Slam Tournament in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Esmé Weijun Wang, a 2018 Whiting Award winner, reads from her essay “On the Ward” from The Collected Schizophrenias (Graywolf Press, 2019). Wang is featured in “Portraits of Inspiration” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“When I’m stuck and feeling overwhelmed (or underwhelmed for that matter) by my writing, my thoughts go right to water. I think I’m looking for the equilibrium of simply being whelmed, of being right in the flow of words, immersed in story. If I have the time, I’ll drive to the beach, float on the waves for a while, then pop in my earbuds and take a long walk with one of my favorite singer-songwriters like Joe Henry or Jason Isbell or Rose Cousins. I gravitate toward lyrical writing, so music helps me drown out mundane life noises and pinpoint emotional beats I’m missing. Of course, beach trips aren’t always practical or possible. Sometimes I have to settle for a nice hot shower. I even have a portable speaker in the bathroom and a waterproof notepad suctioned to my shower wall just in case I get that spark of inspiration. When it comes to the writing itself, I work best in complete silence.”
—Susan Bernhard, author of Winter Loon (Little A, 2018)
“Carson McCullers is probably the author I feel the strongest connection to, in the way of empathy and seeing the world.” Benedict Wells, whose fourth novel, The End of Loneliness (Penguin Books, 2019), translated from the German by Charlotte Collins, is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, talks about his writing process, how he began as a writer, and some of the authors who have inspired him.
“It was easy to worship obedient things.” Mario Chard reads a selection of poems from his debut poetry collection, Land of Fire (Tupelo Press, 2018) at Litquake in 2012. Karp is featured in “Wilder Forms: Our Fourteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Dorianne Laux reads her poems “If It Weren’t for Bad Ideas, I’d Have No Ideas at All,” “Evening,” “This Close,” and “Savages” at a 2017 reading in Washington, D.C. for the Field Office. Laux’s new collection, Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems (Norton, 2019), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
