12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jose Hernandez Diaz
Jose Hernandez Diaz
is a 2017 NEA PoetryFellow. He is the author of
The Fire Eater
(Texas Review Press, 2020),
Bad Mexican, Bad American
(Acre Books, 2024), The Parachutist (SundressPublications, 2025) and Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Red Hen Press,2025). He has been published in The American Poetry Review, The Yale Review,The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Iowa Review, Huizache, Círculo dePoesía, Periódico de Poesía, The Missouri Review, Epoch Magazine, The Nation,Poetry, The Progressive, Poets.org, The Southern Review, and in The BestAmerican Nonrequired Reading. He teaches generative workshops for Hugo House,Lighthouse Writers Workshops, The Writer's Center, and elsewhere. Additionally,he serves as a Poetry Mentor in The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.2 - How did youcome to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I actually started with short fictionin high school and undergrad. My last semester of undergrad I took a poetryworkshop with C. S. Giscombe. It was interesting but I was still very new topoetry. After I graduated with an English degree I didn’t know what I wanted todo. I started going to the public library where I discovered contemporary Poetsof Color. Octavio Paz. Marcus Wicker. Joy Harjo. Francisco X. Alarcon. Alurista. Victoria Chang. That’s when Irealized I could not only study poetry but write it as well.
4 - Where does apoem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end upcombining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" fromthe very beginning?
I usually start with a title or astriking image. I often like to write about iconic Mexican and Mexican Americanimagery or symbols like boxing, piñatas, sombreros, mariachis, jaguars, famlia,etc. Also, in my prose poetry, I tend to create characters and write frompersona and third person, like the Man in a Pink Floyd Shirt or the Man in a“Kafka for President” Shirt.
5 - Are publicreadings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort ofwriter who enjoys doing readings?
I enjoy doing readings in moderation.Sometimes they can be surprising and thrilling. Sometimes they can bedisappointing and low turnout. Sometimes I have social anxiety. Sometimes Iembrace it and go with the flow. Oftentimes, though, I spend more time onwriting and reading and teaching than performing.
9 - What is thebest piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
“Don’t compare yourself to others.” Iheard Eduardo C. Corral tweet that before and I think it is solid advice.
10 - What kind ofwriting routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does atypical day (for you) begin?
Right now a lot of my writing hasbeen responding to prompts I create for my generative workshops.
11 - When yourwriting gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a betterword) inspiration?
Prompts. Reading. Music. Space. Timeaway from writing.
Not looking for it. When it finds meit will come.
Maybe I need time away from it?
12 - What fragrancereminds you of home?
From childhood? Chlorine from thepool in the apartments I grew up in. From adolescence: pan dulce from thepanderia.
13 - David W.McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other formsthat influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
MF DOOM, Chicano Batman, Ramon Ayala,The Get Up Kids (music), the beach (nature), Philosophy (academics), Picasso,Kahlo, Rivera, ASCO, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Basquiat, my friends whowrote graffiti for DFLK, JPAK…
15 - What would youlike to do that you haven't yet done?
Teach full-time at an MFA Program,working with up and coming poets!
16 - If you couldpick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, whatdo you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Maybe boxing or guitarist, not forbrutalist reasons, but I would’ve had to have started young.
18 - What was thelast great book you read? What was the last great film?
Instructions for the Soon-to-beBeheaded by Shivani Mehta. The Williams Sisters movie a couple years agobrought me to tears; inspirational.
19 - What are youcurrently working on?
Teaching workshops online. Readingsand interviews for Bad Mexican, Bad American. The Parachutist (SundressPublications, 2025); Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Red Hen Press,2025).
