12 or 20 (second series) questions with Kevin Sampsell
Kevin Sampsell
is the authorof a memoir (
A Common Pornography
), a novel (
This Is Between Us
),and a collection of collages and poems (
I Made an Accident
). He lives inPortland, Oregon and runs the influential small press, Future Tense Books. An award-winning bookseller,he has worked at Powell's City of Books since 1997. His collages have appearedon album covers, book covers, and in many publications like KolajMagazine, The Rumpus, The Weird Show, Chicago Quarterly Review, LittleEngines, and Black Candies. His writing has appearedin Paper Darts, Southwest Review, Salon, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney's,Tin House, and elsewhere. He is the co-curator of Sharp Hands Gallery, a website featuringinternational collage artists.1 - How did your first book change your life? Howdoes your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feeldifferent?
Technically, my first book (that wasn't a chapbook)was a self-published collection of stories, poems, and word collagescalled How to Lose Your Mind With the Lights On (Future TenseBooks, 1994). It's pretty wild to think about how long ago that came out. Ithink it changed my life because it was my first experience doing everythingall on my own. I probably could have used an outside editor, but if Ilooked at that book now, I'm sure I'd still appreciate a lot of its goofyweirdness. My most recent book, I Made an Accident, is a collectionof collages and poems. In some ways it feels similar to that first book becauseit's a hodge-podge of things meant to surprise, delight, and even confoundyou.
And how does it feel different? The collages are alot better this time around.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposedto, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I started in high school. My best friend and Iwould write weird little poems, but we didn't even call it poetry. We calledthem pieces. We were basically just trying to crack each other up,which I think was the early mission of the surrealists too, right? Iwanted to write poems that were more Monty Python than Robert Frost.
3 - How long does it take to start any particularwriting project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slowprocess? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or doesyour work come out of copious notes?
Over the years, it's been all over the place. Ithink I was more focused and compulsive for the first ten years or so of mywriting life. I'd write whole stories pretty quickly, and sometimes severalpoems a day. I'm much slower now and I edit myself a lot more. But I knowthat writing, and especially publishing, is a slow game. It doesn't bother meto go slow now. But I'm always working on something, and a lot of times copiousnote-taking is involved.
4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usuallybegin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into alarger project, or are you working on a "book" from the verybeginning?
Two of my books, the novel, This Is BetweenUs, and my memoir, A Common Pornography, were written in anon-linear fashion. I'd write chapters or scenes and then later spread them allout on the floor and figure out what order they needed to go. I finished anovel recently though that I wrote in a more traditional fashion, from thebeginning to the end. And I challenged myself to write longer chapters for thisbook too. Off and on, it took about eight years. Who knows if it will ever getpublished.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to yourcreative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I do enjoy doing readings and I actually host abouta hundred or more readings every year at my job (Powell's Books in Portland,Oregon). I think I'm a good reader and I'm good in front of an audience, sosometimes it helps sell a few more books when I can deliver an entertainingreading. I notice that at my job too–a great reading sells a lot more booksthan a mediocre one.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behindyour writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work?
One of the main things I think about when writingis how people interact with each other and how relationships work. I don'tthink I could convincingly write something very engaging about nature orpolitics. I'm captivated by people in the world and all the strange things thatcan happen to them. I especially love writing about ordinary people who findthemselves in unexpected situations they probably don't want tobe in. More recently, I do find myself fixating on death, loss, and griefas central themes.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writerbeing in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role ofthe writer should be?
There are all kinds of writers and they all havedifferent intentions or missions. I don't really think about what"role" they're trying to fill and I don't thinkthey "should be" attempting to define the larger culture. Ithink questions like that feel too pointed and put too much pressure on writersto do something that others will see as "Important" (with a capitalI). Writing is an art form that can do anything and be anything, and itshouldn't always concern itself with influence.
8 - Do you find the process of working with anoutside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I love it for the most part. I want to know that mywriting is making sense to another human. Most of the time, if I get a story oressay published somewhere, there is very little input from an editor. But thetimes when I've gotten notes from editors, it's been really helpful andeye-opening.
As an editor myself, I love it when I can help awriter make their work better, whether it be through small edits, suggestions,or playful challenges. With Future Tense, I work alongside my co-editor, EmmaAlden, and it's appreciable to have her input and notes. We usually workthrough a shared Google doc and seeing how our thoughts help shape the bookwe're working on, makes it really enjoyable.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard(not necessarily given to you directly)?
A publisher friend told me a long time ago that Ishould be writing off things for my tax returns each year. I found a good taxlady who helped me figure out what I can and cannot do, and frankly, it waslife-changing.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move betweengenres (fiction to poetry to memoir to collage)? What do you see as the appeal?
I think it's been a natural progression. I mean, Idon't intentionally say, I have to do this genre now. I'vealways liked to make different things depending on whatever I might feel mostinterested in. For a while, it was personal essays, and then it was flashfiction, and eventually it was visual art. I even had a haiku phase! And Iadmire other people who can express themselves in various forms aswell–musicians who can write novels, poets who can write memoirs, actorswho can paint. Having a range of interests and talents has helped me not getstagnant. It gives me a sense of creative freedom, and also permission to experiment.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend tokeep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Ugh. I have such a bad writing routine most of thetime. But the important thing is that I stick to it and I do have stretcheswhen I can be focused and GSD. That stands for "Get Shit Done" and atthe end of the day, that's what gives me satisfaction, whether it's writing,editing, collaging, stuff at work, etc. The name of the game is GSD.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do youturn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Reading is the main kickstarter. It wakes up mybrain and gives me ideas, especially poetry or a good disjointed lyricessay or something like that. Sometimes a good walk can do the trick too.Late night collaging can also inspire.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Sometimes, when my cat, Susan, yawns, I lean in tosmell her cat breath, which I find so cute and comforting. I love herthat much.
The smell of baking brownies is probably a closesecond.
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books comefrom books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whethernature, music, science or visual art?
Art for sure. Collages especially. I amobsessed with collage art and have made a whole new world of friends inthat world over the past few years. You could look at some collage art andprobably transcribe it into poems. And yes, I've always loved music. And moviestoo! Good, slow movies about people. I don't really like action or superheromovies.
15 - What other writers or writings are importantfor your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Early favorites like Richard Brautigan, Diane Williams, Garielle Lutz, Gordon Lish, Larry Brown, and Mark Leyner were key tomy enthusiasm for writing and reading. There were also a lot of British musicwriters I enjoyed a great deal, before I was even a serious reader inmy twenties. A lot of friends of mine are writers I am constantly inspiredby as well: Kimberly King Parsons, Miriam Toews, Zachary Schomburg, Caren Beilin, Shane Kowalski. Plus the brilliant graphic novelist Daniel Clowes.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yetdone?
I'd love to have a book reviewed in EntertainmentWeekly or record an album of Prince covers.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation toattempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would haveended up doing had you not been a writer?
I didn't go to college, so I always imagined myselfworking at a factory or something. I think being a mailman would be kind ofcool. Or a third string quarterback in the NFL, so I could make a lot of moneyand probably never have to play in a real game. Working at a bookstoreisn't bad though.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing somethingelse?
I wasn't smart enough to go to college or braveenough to join the military. I wanted to be a radio DJ and I was for a fewyears before moving to Portland (in 1992). Working in the world of books waskind of an accident. I just ended up here and held on to it because it wasrewarding in a nurturing and creative way. Not sure if that answered yourquestion very well. What makes me write is the constant urge to create and makethings.
19 - What was the last great book you read? Whatwas the last great film?
I really loved Someone Told Me byJay Ponteri. It was published by a Portland small press so it might be hard tofind, but it's an outstanding book of thoughtfully probing and beautiful lyricessays. My favorite film of last year was Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. It made me weep.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I'm working on a couple of Future Tense projectsand a new group show at my virtual collage gallery, Sharp Hands Gallery. As faras writing, I'm working on a couple of essays, or maybe they're more like longconceptual poems. One is about things in Portland turning into other things andanother one is about things I don't remember–like the opposite of JoeBrainard's I Remember.
