Spotlight On…

Today, Ethel Rohan brings Matthew Salesses to the Dark Sky stage.

Thank you, Matt, for your generous and insightful responses. I especially appreciated your frank thoughts on the internet and on online and print publication. I look forward to reading The Self-Beating Drum and watching Lost in Translation.

I note you were born in Korea. In O’Kim’s bar, Seoul, there’s video of me doing an Irish jig on the stage, in their surveillance camera archives. But that’s another story for another time. For now, the spotlight’s on Matthew Salesses. Enjoy.

– Ethel Rohan

Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?

I have two small books in development. The first is about an island on which people get epidemics like laziness, memory loss, magic, charisma. The wonderful people at PANK are doing that one, along with little books by Nicolle Elizabeth and yourself (hooray!). The second is about a POW after the Korean War. At the end of the war, a few Americans stayed in North Korea. This guy was one of them. Later he went back to America, got a few months furlough, married and had a honeymoon, and finally was arrested as a traitor. The novella is coming out from Flatmancrooked, who are doing some really exciting things.

I’m also working on a story about an adopted boy who goes to Korea and meets his birth mother without knowing who she is, and on a co-writing experiment with Nicolle Elizabeth.

Then there’s a novel that I’m hoping to finish final-ish revisions of soon. That’s the big project.

What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?

Crazy shit happens all the time. To me, it’s choosing which crazy shit to write about, and seeing the connections between everything, that’s the inspiration.

In addition to writing, you wear other fancy hats. Do you ever worry about spreading yourself too thin and diluting the quality of your writing, editing, living?

Certainly I do (though my editing stint with Redivider is now at an end). Though what I worry about is not quality, but quantity, of time.

How has the Internet impacted your reading and writing? What is the future of print publication?

The internet is a great way to meet people. I think that’s its best virtue. Writing-wise, the internet has created (or at least has the potential to create) a massive audience. Sometimes I wonder whether many writers, myself included, aren’t looking at publishing the wrong way, holding onto our better stories for print when online publications get more reads. Though I also think that print journals are read differently: more carefully, more fully. I think people read through more of a print issue than an online issue. Online, I’m easily distracted.

As far as the future of publishing, this distraction may have a big role to play. There will always be houses that print books the way that they are now — thank God! — and I think small presses will have a growing role in this. But the larger presses may have to change. I think books will become more interactive (think Ander Monson’s latest, or the McSweeney’s treasure hunt book). The written word just can’t compete, among the general public, with other forms of media. I don’t like this; I don’t think it’s a good thing; but I think it’s true. Writers may have to change how they write, even, if they want that large audience. I can imagine a different kind of book, an e-book with links and video and other media, in the future. I can imagine many people disagreeing with this, too. I can imagine many writers going on writing the same as always and being happy with what readers they can get. I don’t know. What do I know?

Tell us something that most people don’t know about you?

I have a bad temper.

If you didn’t write, what would your life look like?

I’d have more money. I can’t really imagine. I’d feel a lot emptier.

Please tell us your favorite, and why:

a. Musical

There aren’t many that I can stomach. Unless opera counts. I do like most Disney movies, though.

b. Fable/Fairy Tale

The self-beating drum. I came across this one recently. Lovely.

c. Movie

Currently, anything by Miyazaki. But also, Lost in Translation. It’s the only movie I could watch once a week and not get sick of.

d. Painting

My favorite painting is my wife’s in our living room. Seriously. I like to have art, to have it close to me physically. Maybe this is why I like print.

e. Place

The south island of New Zealand. Everything’s just a crazy amount of pretty.

Please do a five minute free-write with the word “immigrant” and share:

He couldn’t believe this was a boat. He couldn’t see a boat. There were only bodies, everywhere. Some were dead. The living smelled like the dead. It was dark and they were rarely allowed to come up for air. How could this be worth it? A land of freedom, his brother had said, was only a myth. And he had laughed in his brother’s face.

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Matthew Salesses was born in Korea. He lives in Boston with his wife and cat. He is the author of The Last Repatriate (Flatmancrooked, forthcoming) and Our Island of Epidemics (PANK, forthcoming). His stories have or will appear in Glimmer Train, Witness, American Short Fiction, The Literary Review, and over forty other publications. He writes a column for The Good Men Project.