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Interview Tatjana Debeljački vs. Jeff Suwak, USA May 2014 |
Jeff Suwak
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Since you are fascinated by fantasy, realism and science fiction, how did you get yourself involved in more difficult genres and styles?
I feel like all genres and styles offer their own unique challenges. I tend to naturally focus more on language and characterization. Plot is not my strong point. That goes the same no matter what genre I’m writing in. When I was a kid, I fell in love with the writing of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman’s “Dragonlance,” and the poetry of Rumi all at the same time, so realist literature, high fantasy, and poetry all hold equally dear places in my heart. I just love words and a good story, whatever genre they might be in.
You've been writing forever. What did you write first and when did you start writing poetry?
It’s funny, but I can actually remember the very first thing I ever wrote. It was this nonsensical horror story about every conceivable form of monster rising from the woods where my family lived and attacking us. Really strange, I guess. When I was about 14 I started writing poetry all the time. I had no ambitions with it…no goals at all. It’s just what I did. Even today, if more than a couple days go by without writing, I start to feel very anxious and will eventually just get flat our depressed. I have no idea why that is.
What is your greatest pleasure writing?
Two things are my greatest pleasures, I think. First, I love when a story or poem reveals its full form to me. They always start in a fit on inspiration, and then I sit there wondering where these images and people are leading to. I usually have no idea where a poem or story is going. That moment when the characters take me to the end of the story and reveal what they’ve been trying to tell me is a moment of magic that I’ve never been able to replicate anywhere else in life. That feeling is about the pleasing thing I’ve ever known in life.
The second great pleasure is not in the writing, but in hearing from someone who has been affected by the writing. That’s such an honor, and something that once in my life was completely inconceivable, that each and every time it fills me with a sort of nervous awe. For someone to take the time out of their finite hours to read my writing, and to feel something from it…that’s just such an honor that it’s hard to put into words. This interview, for instance…someone actually wants to hear my thoughts on my writing. It’s amazing, a true wonder of my life.
When did you publish your first book and how did the success follow later?
My first full length book came out in August of 2013. I had a few shorter works published before then, but that was my first book.
You love and enjoy mountaineering. What is it about the nature that fascinates you most?
I highly value the advances of culture and civilization. I don’t know how I’d live without literature and poetry. However, there is a distinct part of me that does not feel at home in the modern world. I feel most at ease while I’m outdoors. The weird ambitions of humanity (including myself) always struck me as something like diseases. The wilderness knows none of those things.
Beyond that, I like long distance running, mountaineering, and similar activities because the immediacy of the effort involved focuses the mind intensely on the present. In modern life, we very rarely live in the present. We are always planning, remembering, regretting, hoping, but there comes a certain stillness with the repetitive motion of steps up a mountainside. It’s meditative. Eventually, there is just the crunch of my boots in the rocks, the cool air on my face, the pleasurable burning of muscles turned to the task at hand. It’s a feeling of peace that I greatly enjoy.
What are the world's prestigious awards in the genre of science fiction?
I’m not exactly sure how to quantify this, but I’m pretty sure the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Nebula Awards are the most prestigious.
Say something about your opus, rewards, travels, friendships ?
I’ve traveled a lot and think it’s one of life’s great pleasures. I was a bit of a vagabond and loner when I was younger, but I’ve found recently that I realize how valuable good, deep friendships are. I don’t make friends easy. To me, calling someone a friend means something. It’s important.
What are your plans for the future creative work?
I’m just getting warmed up. I have dozens of books planned. But, the work that is and will always be dearest to my heart is something I’ve been working on for over ten years. It’s a collection of poems, short stories, chunks of dialogue, all about the rusted beauties of the world. To give an indication of the sort of thing I’m talking about, I think my essay “Rusted Beauty and Ragged Pride” can probably do better than I can here: http://praguerevue.com/ViewArticle?articleId=4892. I hope that doesn’t come across as me plugging my work. But, honestly, this article says just about everything about my aesthetic, and about what my magnum opus is concerned with.
Is there anything you would like to say that I haven't asked you about?
Only that I am honored you’d ask me to be included in Diogen. Thank you.
Have you achieved everything you've ever wanted? If you could start from the beginning would you be an artist again?
I haven’t achieved everything I’ve ever wanted, but I’m still young and still working!
Would I be an artist again? Yes. Absolutely. I’ve never wanted to be anyone but me. The thing about writing and art is that it’s a real pain in the ass to make money at it, but it enlivens the soul in the way nothing else can. I actually stopped writing for a couple years. Well, I stopped writing seriously. I always scribbled words here and there, but I wasn’t producing anything serious or concentrated. Those years were the most grim of my life. To carry a poem or a story in your mind all day, building it and caring for it, brightens everything else in life. I am very grateful that I’ve gotten to walk the walk that I’ve experienced in this life.
Really, I guess the one thing I might change is that I’d like to go back to those years of indecision and tell the young me to focus more on the writing, money be damned.
Tell me, love, is it any kind of reflection of me?
No, it isn’t. At least, it is not a reflection of you unless you allow yourself to become its mirror. You can be as strong, wise, and beautiful as you want to be…so long as you’re willing to fight like hell against what they want to make you, and to work your ass off for your passions.
Jeff Suwak’s career in a few years?
I don’t know. I don’t like to be too rigid in my outlook, because then I’ll miss life’s surprises. I’ll just keep working at what I love and see what happens. About the only thing I can say is that I’ve got a great deal more writing going out there.
I feel like all genres and styles offer their own unique challenges. I tend to naturally focus more on language and characterization. Plot is not my strong point. That goes the same no matter what genre I’m writing in. When I was a kid, I fell in love with the writing of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman’s “Dragonlance,” and the poetry of Rumi all at the same time, so realist literature, high fantasy, and poetry all hold equally dear places in my heart. I just love words and a good story, whatever genre they might be in.
You've been writing forever. What did you write first and when did you start writing poetry?
It’s funny, but I can actually remember the very first thing I ever wrote. It was this nonsensical horror story about every conceivable form of monster rising from the woods where my family lived and attacking us. Really strange, I guess. When I was about 14 I started writing poetry all the time. I had no ambitions with it…no goals at all. It’s just what I did. Even today, if more than a couple days go by without writing, I start to feel very anxious and will eventually just get flat our depressed. I have no idea why that is.
What is your greatest pleasure writing?
Two things are my greatest pleasures, I think. First, I love when a story or poem reveals its full form to me. They always start in a fit on inspiration, and then I sit there wondering where these images and people are leading to. I usually have no idea where a poem or story is going. That moment when the characters take me to the end of the story and reveal what they’ve been trying to tell me is a moment of magic that I’ve never been able to replicate anywhere else in life. That feeling is about the pleasing thing I’ve ever known in life.
The second great pleasure is not in the writing, but in hearing from someone who has been affected by the writing. That’s such an honor, and something that once in my life was completely inconceivable, that each and every time it fills me with a sort of nervous awe. For someone to take the time out of their finite hours to read my writing, and to feel something from it…that’s just such an honor that it’s hard to put into words. This interview, for instance…someone actually wants to hear my thoughts on my writing. It’s amazing, a true wonder of my life.
When did you publish your first book and how did the success follow later?
My first full length book came out in August of 2013. I had a few shorter works published before then, but that was my first book.
You love and enjoy mountaineering. What is it about the nature that fascinates you most?
I highly value the advances of culture and civilization. I don’t know how I’d live without literature and poetry. However, there is a distinct part of me that does not feel at home in the modern world. I feel most at ease while I’m outdoors. The weird ambitions of humanity (including myself) always struck me as something like diseases. The wilderness knows none of those things.
Beyond that, I like long distance running, mountaineering, and similar activities because the immediacy of the effort involved focuses the mind intensely on the present. In modern life, we very rarely live in the present. We are always planning, remembering, regretting, hoping, but there comes a certain stillness with the repetitive motion of steps up a mountainside. It’s meditative. Eventually, there is just the crunch of my boots in the rocks, the cool air on my face, the pleasurable burning of muscles turned to the task at hand. It’s a feeling of peace that I greatly enjoy.
What are the world's prestigious awards in the genre of science fiction?
I’m not exactly sure how to quantify this, but I’m pretty sure the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Nebula Awards are the most prestigious.
Say something about your opus, rewards, travels, friendships ?
I’ve traveled a lot and think it’s one of life’s great pleasures. I was a bit of a vagabond and loner when I was younger, but I’ve found recently that I realize how valuable good, deep friendships are. I don’t make friends easy. To me, calling someone a friend means something. It’s important.
What are your plans for the future creative work?
I’m just getting warmed up. I have dozens of books planned. But, the work that is and will always be dearest to my heart is something I’ve been working on for over ten years. It’s a collection of poems, short stories, chunks of dialogue, all about the rusted beauties of the world. To give an indication of the sort of thing I’m talking about, I think my essay “Rusted Beauty and Ragged Pride” can probably do better than I can here: http://praguerevue.com/ViewArticle?articleId=4892. I hope that doesn’t come across as me plugging my work. But, honestly, this article says just about everything about my aesthetic, and about what my magnum opus is concerned with.
Is there anything you would like to say that I haven't asked you about?
Only that I am honored you’d ask me to be included in Diogen. Thank you.
Have you achieved everything you've ever wanted? If you could start from the beginning would you be an artist again?
I haven’t achieved everything I’ve ever wanted, but I’m still young and still working!
Would I be an artist again? Yes. Absolutely. I’ve never wanted to be anyone but me. The thing about writing and art is that it’s a real pain in the ass to make money at it, but it enlivens the soul in the way nothing else can. I actually stopped writing for a couple years. Well, I stopped writing seriously. I always scribbled words here and there, but I wasn’t producing anything serious or concentrated. Those years were the most grim of my life. To carry a poem or a story in your mind all day, building it and caring for it, brightens everything else in life. I am very grateful that I’ve gotten to walk the walk that I’ve experienced in this life.
Really, I guess the one thing I might change is that I’d like to go back to those years of indecision and tell the young me to focus more on the writing, money be damned.
Tell me, love, is it any kind of reflection of me?
No, it isn’t. At least, it is not a reflection of you unless you allow yourself to become its mirror. You can be as strong, wise, and beautiful as you want to be…so long as you’re willing to fight like hell against what they want to make you, and to work your ass off for your passions.
Jeff Suwak’s career in a few years?
I don’t know. I don’t like to be too rigid in my outlook, because then I’ll miss life’s surprises. I’ll just keep working at what I love and see what happens. About the only thing I can say is that I’ve got a great deal more writing going out there.
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Copyright © 2014 DIOGEN pro cultura magazine & Sabahudin Hadžialić
Design: Sabi / Autors & Sabahudin Hadžialić. Design LOGO - Stevo Basara.
Freelance gl. i odg. urednik od / Freelance Editor in chief as of 2009: Sabahudin Hadžialić
All Rights Reserved. Publisher online and owner: Sabahudin Hadžialić
WWW: http://sabihadzi.weebly.com
Contact Editorial board E-mail: [email protected];
Narudžbe/Order: [email protected]
Pošta/Mail: Freelance Editor in chief Sabahudin Hadžialić,
Grbavička 32, 71000 Sarajevo i/ili
Dr. Wagner 18/II, 70230 Bugojno, Bosna i Hercegovina
Design: Sabi / Autors & Sabahudin Hadžialić. Design LOGO - Stevo Basara.
Freelance gl. i odg. urednik od / Freelance Editor in chief as of 2009: Sabahudin Hadžialić
All Rights Reserved. Publisher online and owner: Sabahudin Hadžialić
WWW: http://sabihadzi.weebly.com
Contact Editorial board E-mail: [email protected];
Narudžbe/Order: [email protected]
Pošta/Mail: Freelance Editor in chief Sabahudin Hadžialić,
Grbavička 32, 71000 Sarajevo i/ili
Dr. Wagner 18/II, 70230 Bugojno, Bosna i Hercegovina