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| An Interview with Jeff Stewart Tell me about the writing projects you have been working on and explain the direction of these future writing projects. I’m not working on anything specific right now at all. Last year I had a long stretch, maybe several months, where I picked out parts of my past and wrote 30 or 40 page stories about them. I've found myself reading over older work and doing some rewrites, and somehow liking it. So you finished the novel, March of Time and Skin, some time back. Tell me about the story and plot and conflicts. Right. The plot itself is one big conflict. I would say that the underlying premise of the novel is displacement, but a displacement that revels in itself, even a sense of gratitude from the character toward whatever keeps the fucker going. But also confusion and anger. Overall a caustic experience. A certain type of dignity, maybe. I don’t really know. What kind of feeling do you get as a writer getting past a full length novel? Well, there’s the first time getting past it, as in the first draft. With this particular book, which is largely autobiographical, I had to walk a certain line, and walk it straight and mean. Not in the sense of cruelty or malevolence, but being solid with the character’s instinct and reflexes. I really got past the novel when I took out the first 9 chapters for the final submission. So I really wrote two books by decimating one, because a lot of the references didn’t make any sense once the old foundation was basically demolished, so I had to go back through and clarify, which I think any writer can tell you gives you a stronger sense of the book. But I think it only works out within a narrative. The feeling I got when I finished the novel was good, because I wrote the book as a writer writing, so to speak, and I think maybe it’s a good way to open up a whole body of work. What kind of feedback do you receive from the readers of your stories and poems? Good feedback. It was interesting to get letters from readers. It gave me something like an aerial view of my writing. I don't think I’m a very complicated writer. I think I have a decent range, but I don’t rely too much on incidents or technique. I constantly revert to feeling, like how does it feel as opposed to how it reads. But within that I like to write in a different voice once in a while. Not too much, but it’s always important to push your borders out when your can, and to be aware that they exist not as your enemy but as your ground. Do you think as a writer the commercial aspect of getting your work out helps or hurts your craft? It shouldn’t phase a writer at all. What kind of long time goals do you have for yourself as a writer, especially now that you're full-time? Rose City saved my ass, as I had nor have any desire to sell myself or get an agent or play that little fucking game. I see a lot of writers hustling their names and doing some ugly dances. The reward has always been doing it, writing it out. Don’t get me wrong, I'm glad to make a solid living off my writing, but I was fully prepared to be 75 and working at 7 eleven, or maybe something a bit better. Who knows anymore? But my goal for my writing is to keep going. Especially now when we’re entering such a weird and androgynous time concerning youth, soul and technology. Moving abroad is looking pretty fucking good these days. |
| Jeff Stewart quit school at the age of 16 and began traveling the United States. He worked any job that put enough money in his pocket for fuel and freedom. He spent a great deal of his time alone, writing his stories, poems and novels. At 30, he was published globally by Ride UK, and spent the next five years writing articles in story form for the magazine. He was picked up by Rose City in July of 2008. Look for his book of short stories, Dead Birds Hot, and other works here in spring 2009. |
