Eric Paul Shaffer

How did you become a writer?

First, I became a reader, and other than writing every day, reading is the most crucial part of being a writer: always be a reader. I learned to read by following my grandmother's finger from word to word as she read my favorite books to me when I was a child. The magic of the moment when I realized that the word she said corresponded with the word printed on the page is still vivid. The combination of words and pictures sunk deep, and some time later, I realized I wanted to provide the same fun and wonder to others, so I began writing.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Anybody as old as I am has thousands of influences, but I can list a few. In poetry, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Robinson Jeffers, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (really the first to electrify me with a poem), William Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye, Diane diPrima, Jim Harrison, Ted Kooser, Dorianne Laux, damn near every one of the Metaphysical Poets, Gary Snyder, and Lew Welch (by far the poet I most admire, mainly for his fierce work and for his ferocious devotion to his craft).

In fiction, influences include Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Lee Child, Robert Parker, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Herman Melville, Ralph Ellison, Jack Kerouac, J.K. Rowling, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and this list includes only those whose works I re-read for the sheer joy of the story and the sentences.

In non-fiction, influences include Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, Aldo Leopold, Loren Eiseley, John Muir, and, of course, the greatest of all, Henry David Thoreau.

When and where do you write?

I write early in the morning--before I do anything else--for an hour starting sometime between 5:00 and 9:00, depending on the day of the week and my work schedule. I wind up my Lux Minute Minder to 60, and I put an hour to work for the work. From where I sit, I have a view of carved green mountains, palms, pines, and papaya trees through windows on three sides, and I use the view to trip over a topic. Once I start, I hear neither wind chimes, barking dogs, or rumbling engines, and though songs from a few birds can break my concentration on occasion, the ticking of my Lux Minute Minder brings me back to the work.

What are you working on now?

Concerning composition, I wish I could be specific. I write frantically from the moment the Minute Minder starts ticking. Usually, I get a poem; sometimes, I get a piece of a story; occasionally, I get a bit of non-fiction. Often, whatever I get requires returning to that piece on subsequent days to complete a draft. About half the time, I write but get nothing useful; that gets tossed. The drafts of the week are reviewed on Saturday, often revised and assembled into something interesting.

Concerning poems, I work on submissions every Saturday. Last year, I published my four hundredth poem, the result of persistence, close reading of magazines, and careful attention to choosing venues for my work.

Concerning poetry manuscripts, I have two manuscripts of poetry circulating, A Million-Dollar Bill and Even Further West (focused especially on experiences in the islands).

Have you ever suffered from writer's block?

Tough question: I've had long patches in my life when I wasn't writing, but I wasn't interested in writing then either. I've also had long patches where I wrote nothing worth keeping. I'm in one now. I don't really think of those as writer's block. On the other hand, I've tried to write about some topics and events with no success; the words flowed fitfully or fine, but yuck, I couldn't focus on the subject at hand. I can't say I've ever sat down for a regular writing session and not written, but I am fairly lucky in that I tend not to expect much, and I'm willing to toss trash when I write some, so I usually get more useful material than I anticipated. I don't fear failure (much), so I'm willing to try nearly anything in writing. Of course, the best part is that I get to dispose of my failures without showing them to readers. My friend James nicknamed me Reckless, and in composition, I try to live up that name.

What's your advice to new writers?

Read. Read. Read. Fear no influences. Read so much that your influences flow together and merge with each other and your words so thoroughly that your voice emerges strong and clear, tinted and tempered with the literary conversation of all of the great writers you've read. Then, read more. If you can manage humility, do. If not, good luck.

Eric Paul Shaffer is author of five books of poetry, including Lāhaina Noon; Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen; and Portable Planet. More than 400 of his poems have appeared in more than 250 local and national reviews as well as reviews in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. Shaffer received the 2002 Elliot Cades Award for Literature, a 2006 Ka Palapala Po'okela Book Award for Lāhaina Noon, and the 2009 James M. Vaughan Award for Poetry. His first novel Burn & Learn, or Memoirs of the Cenozoic Era was published in 2009. He teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Honolulu Community College. Shaffer will join the poetry faculty at the Jackson Hole Writers Conference in Wyoming from June 25-27, 2015.

Robin Black

How did you become a writer?

I took a super circuitous route. Growing up, I wanted to be an actress and a singer, ambitions that I dropped the second I arrived at Sarah Lawrence and saw the theater kids there. They were so sophisticated, so cool, I nearly died of social anxiety, and gave up before I began. (My decision-making skills are not always the best.) In my sophomore year, I took a fiction writing class with Allan Gurganus and very quickly became convinced that this was the new path for me – but then, again, various anxieties intervened, and I took a nearly twenty year detour during which time I married, divorced, remarried, had three kids, lost two pregnancies in emotionally devastating ways, and spent a lot of time mad at myself for letting go of one dream after another.

In May, 2001, when I was thirty-nine, my father died. My relationship with him was complicated (like the sky is big) and I can’t help but make the connection that I started to write three weeks after his death – and have never looked back. I think in the end that though he certainly wasn’t consciously doing this, there were ways in which he inhibited me and contributed to a set of pretty well-developed neuroses that not only kept me from writing, but kept me from making much of an effort at any kind of professional success.

Fall 2001, I entered The Rittenhouse Writers group in Philadelphia, and July 2003, I entered the Warren Wilson MFA Program. I’m not a bit convinced that everyone needs an MFA, but in addition what I learned there, I also wanted that professional stamp, in part just to believe in myself.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Allan Gurganus and Steven Schwartz are without question the teachers who have had the greatest influence on me. In both cases what I would say is that they have an incredible combination of knowledge, talent, compassion, humor, and a sense of responsibility to their students. Other teachers of mine also have had those characteristics, but if you're lucky some matches “take” and those two have for me.

Authors who have influenced me include Virginia Woolf (of course!), Henry James, George Eliot. Many, many short story writers, notably A.S. Byatt and  Mavis Gallant. And then, in some weird way, the greatest influence on my work may be a writer about whom no one ever speaks, due for a revival: Margery Sharp, whose genius novel Britannia Mews may well be the book I have read most in my life. I am trying to be influenced by Jane Gardam because I want to write just like her when I grow up, but influences are funny things. They tend to sneak in, while you’re looking the other way - while anything forced ends up merely as poor imitation. 

When and where do you write? 

All the time and all over the house. My kids are grown, and writing – which includes magazine work and reviews, and occasional teaching too – is my full-time job. I am incredibly fortunate that way. So I have a lot of time in which I can do it. And I am a wanderer. Have laptop, will sit in different room. I am currently, though, trying to make a study for myself – we will see if I stay in it.

What are you working on now? 

I am working very hard at revising, reshaping and adding to a collection of essays that will be out from Engine Books in April 2016. It’s called Crash Course, 52 Essays From Where Writing and Life Collide – and for once I actually think my title explains exactly what the book is.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?  

That would be 1982-2001.

And then, post 2001, it depends how you define it. There are periods when I “can’t” write – but I think those are probably appropriate and necessary breaks. There were definitely periods when I couldn’t get my novel going, but I wasn’t blocked as a writer, just on that project. Maybe it’s because I am willing to shift genres constantly or maybe it’s because I’m content throwing away nine tenths of what I write, but I never actually stop writing. It may be also that after losing twenty years, I am just smart enough to know I have no time to waste.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Don’t confuse help with unkindness. Don’t buy into the bullshit view of writing that we all have to learn to “take it” in order get better and that anything other than scathing criticism is coddling. Don’t buy it as a reader or as a student. Criticism is good and necessary, but by no means improved by insults or one-upmanship. Kindness counts. Similarly though don’t take all criticism as an insult. Be discerning.

Don’t try to make other people’s work into what you want to write and run like hell form people who do that to you.

Forgive yourself for jealousy and never act on it – except maybe to protect yourself by shutting down Facebook the day the NEA’s are announced and such private, harmless acts as that.

Pay more attention to the people who like your work than to those who don’t. Interesting fact: Once you reach a certain point in your career, you will ONLY work with people who like your work, because the ones who don’t won’t accept it or buy it or commission it. Pay attention to the negative responses, just to learn, but your people, your readers, are the ones who are excited when they read your stuff. Critical, maybe, but excited, for sure.

Robin Black is the prize-winning author of the story collection If I loved you, I would tell you this; the novel Life Drawing (newly in paperback, April 2015); and the forthcoming book Crash Course, 52 Essays from where Writing and Life Collide - which Engine Books is publishing and will be launching at the AWP Conference, April 2016. Her short work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, One Story, O. Magazine, and Conde Nast Traveler, UK. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.

Catherine McKenzie

How did you become a writer?

I’ve always been a writer — I wrote poetry from an early age. I started writing novels kind of by accident. I had an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone, but I didn’t know what it was. So I sat down and started writing. Six months later, I had something resembling a novel, but I knew I could do better. So I put it in a drawer and wrote another one. That book eventually sold and became Arranged.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I'm an avid reader - have been all my life. I grew up reading detective fiction - Rex Stout, PD James, Dick Francis and Agatha Christie. I had a couple of great English teachers in high school who instilled some rigour in my writing. I love Jane Austen and Nick Hornby, and I think from the beginning, I was trying to write something that was in that space — character driven stories.

When and where do you write? 

I write anywhere really, but often in front of the TV - it helps me to have something distracting me when I write. I most often write on the weekends.

What are you working on now? 

I’ve just turned in my fifth novel, SMOKE which will be releasing on October 20, 2015.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I wouldn’t say I’ve suffered from writer’s block. Writer’s fatigue sometimes. Idea block for sure.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Read, read, read, read. If you don’t love books, why do you want to write one? And then write. Learn to write whether you’re feeling inspired or not because you’re not always going to feel inspired but you’ll have to write nonetheless.

Bio: A graduate of McGill University in History and Law, Catherine practices law in Montreal, where she was born and raised. An avid skier and runner, Catherine's novels, SPIN, ARRANGED, FORGOTTEN and HIDDEN, are all international bestsellers and have been translated into numerous languages. Her most recent release is SPUN - a novella sequel to her first novel, SPIN. HIDDEN was also a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Digital Bookworld bestseller. Her fifth novel, SMOKE, will be published in the US by Lake Union on October 20, 2015. And if you want to know how she has time to do all that, the answer is: robots. Visit her online at www.catherinemckenzie.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/catherinemckenzieauthor, and on Twitter at @cemckenzie1.