Monthly Archives

March 2019

Interview with Accomplice Anne-Marie Kinney
Interview

Interview with Accomplice Anne-Marie Kinney

by CCM
written by CCM

1.  What’s your favorite song to dance to?
I’m on maternity leave with my seven-week-old baby right now, so I spend a lot of my time holding and rocking and soothing her. I discovered by accident that she calms down when I dance her around to “Hey Larocco” by Rayland Baxter, so that’s our current jam.

2. Describe your personal hell.
I’m in a small, windowless room. It’s cold and I have no blankets or extra clothes to put on. My eyes hurt. I’m thirsty. I have a UTI and a nasty cold. I’m exhausted but can’t sleep. And I know my situation will never improve and I will never die.

3.  What’s something that always makes you laugh?
When my husband texts this to me a propos of nothing, which he’s been doing for years and years. It’s from a Mitchell & Webb show, another thing that always makes me laugh.

 

 

 


4. You’re sucked into a bad movie and you have to choose a point in history to live out the rest of your years. What time do you choose and why?
This is hard because all eras suck in one way or another. I guess I’d go to the ’70s so I could see The Ramones in their prime? I don’t know. This is why I don’t write historical fiction.

5. What’s a gif that you can relate to?

6.  You’re hit by lightning. What happens?
I pass out, hopefully survive, and wake up with a cool scar.

7. It’s snowing outside, how do you feel?
Excited and unprepared, putting on tights under jeans and all the sweaters I own because I’m from California and don’t know what I’m doing. I love sledding and stuff, but I see snow maybe once every few years and I’m usually over it and want to go inside after like 20 minutes.

8. What’s a cat picture you can get behind?
Pictures of my own cats, Iggy the tuxedo daredevil and Katla the calico empath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Where did you write most of your book? Why?
I do the vast majority of my writing in coffee shops, and this book was no different. I need the ambient noise because I find silence distracting, and I need to be away from home so I’m not tempted to procrastinate with dishes or laundry. Coldwater Canyon was written in various coffee shops in North Hollywood and Los Feliz.

10. What are your struggles and strengths as a writer?
I struggle with plot. It’s really difficult for me to decide what will “happen” and how to work out all the logistics. My strengths are mood-setting and resonant imagery. That’s the part that flows naturally and doesn’t feel like work, even when I’m rewriting the same sentence twenty times.

11. Tell us a little about your writing process. What works, what doesn’t, what doesn’t but you still try anyway
Each project is a little different, but I always have to get pretty far into something, even all the way through a draft, before I figure out what I’m getting at and what I want to say. That’s when I can go back and start over with intention and awareness of where I’m going. I’ve tried writing by hand but I just can’t, as much as I see the value in it. My hand cramps up and my writing is illegible. But when I finish a draft, I always print it out and make notes on the page as I read through it. Having the physical object to refer to is crucial for me to be able to wrap my head around the whole.

 

ANNE-MARIE KINNEY is the author of two novels, Radio Iris (2012, Two Dollar Radio) and Coldwater Canyon(forthcoming from CCM in 2018). A New York Times Editor’s Choice pick, Radio Iris was called “a spiky debut” and “‘The Office’ as scripted by Kafka” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Her shorter work has been published in journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, The Rattling Wall, The Collagist, Fanzine and Black Clock, for which she also served as Production Editor from 2011-2016. She lives in Los Angeles, where she co-curates the Griffith Park Storytelling Series.

Interview with Accomplice Joseph Grantham
Interview

Interview with Accomplice Joseph Grantham

by CCM
written by CCM

 

1. What’s your favorite song to dance to?
One time I was at a party and “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” by the Talking Heads came on and I leaned over to the person next to me and said, “This is my favorite song.” And she said, “Everyone likes this song.” That made me feel really bad. So now I don’t share this kind of information with anyone. I can’t tell you.

2. Describe your personal hell.
My personal hell would be living in a society that doesn’t value writing/art so that I’d have to get a job doing something that I have no interest in doing for eight hours everyday because I need a special kind of paper that will allow me to buy food and water and shelter so that I don’t die.

3. What’s something that always makes you laugh?
When I’m at work (I work at a pharmacy) and I can’t understand what a patient is saying to me. So I keep saying “What?” “What?” “What?” And then I give up and laugh and then they laugh too. And no one gets what they want.

4. You’re sucked into a bad movie and you have to choose a point in history to live out the rest of your years. What time do you choose and why?
I’d choose about 5 or 6 hours ago. I was in my bed, half awake, barely knew who or where I was. It felt amazing.

5. What’s a gif that you can relate to?
I can’t. I don’t know what those are. I’m out of touch.

6. You’re hit by lightning. What happens?
I’ll be okay. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here forever.

7. It’s snowing outside, how do you feel?
If it’s snowing outside, I feel like a million bucks or I feel like Joseph Grantham.

8. What’s a cat picture you can get behind?
I like this picture of my friend Bud Smith holding my cat, Tammy Wynette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Where did you write most of your book? Why?
I wrote most of my book at a bookstore in Manhattan called McNally Jackson. I wrote it because I didn’t know what else to do. I had to write it. I was pissed off and sad and the book was my friend. And it gave me something to do at work besides “work.” “Work” is boring and dangerous and not very rewarding.

10. What are your struggles and strengths as a writer?
My strength is that I believe in what I do, and when I’ve written something good, I know it’s good. I don’t get bogged down by much. I don’t do this because I want an end-product, I do this because what else am I going to do? I take the work seriously. It isn’t a joke, it isn’t carefree, it’s work and I like it. Don’t fuck around. Only a little bit. My struggle is the internet. God, I can’t wait to be off the internet one day. It’s a distraction. And it’s cliquey. It’s mostly a waste of time.

11. Tell us a little about your writing process. What works, what doesn’t, what doesn’t but you still try anyway?
If I’m home, I go upstairs and sit at a desk and drink a lot of coffee and bang things out. And then come back to those pages later, the next time I have a chance. And I edit them until they’re good. This usually works. If I’m at work, I use a pen and write on whatever is available. I get interrupted by phone calls a lot and that is frustrating. All of this usually works, if it ever isn’t working then I just read a book and remember that there’s no rush. Keep the fans a little hungry.

 

JOSEPH GRANTHAM was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He grew up in California. He read books for awhile and wrote bad stories and poems and went to school. Not much happened. He lost his virginity when he was 18. He got his BA from Bennington College. He still reads books and writes. He runs Disorder Press with his sister.

The Accomplices at #AWP19
News

The Accomplices at #AWP19

by The Accomplices
written by The Accomplices

We will be at the AWP Book Fair. Come by T2009 for books, totebags, free swag, and your copy of the Portland Literary Map.

Don’t forget to check out Entropy’s Guide to #AWP19.

Off-Site

Center Justify

7PM-10PM / PSU Native American Student and Community Center, 710 SW Jackson St / Facebook Event
An #AWP19 OFFSITE EXTRAVAGANZA co-sponsored by The Accomplices (Civil Coping Mechanisms, Entropy, Writ Large Press), De-Canon: A Visibility Project, Whitenoise Project, The Operating System, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, and NASCC.

Featuring readings from Nastashia Minto, Douglas Kearney, Alex DiFrancesco, Erick Sáenz, Marwa Helal, Theodore Van Alst, Gabrielle Civil, & more. Free dinner (meat & vegan dumplings and fried chicken from XLB) while supplies last.

Author Signings at T2009

Thursday March 28

  • 12PM-1PM Mike Sonksen

Friday March 29

  • 11:30AM-1PM Rocío Carlos
  • 1PM-2PM Mike Sonksen
  • 1PM-2:30PM Alex DiFrancesco
  • 2PM-3PM Gabrielle Civil

Saturday March 30

  • 11AM-12PM Mike Sonksen
Interview with Accomplice Mike Sonksen
Interview

Interview with Accomplice Mike Sonksen

by CCM
written by CCM

1. What’s your favorite song to dance to?
I have many favorite songs to dance to. Most of them are from the 1970s. Especially funk & soul songs. “Running Away,” from Roy Ayers is one of the first that comes to mind. It is a joyful song that never fails to electrify a room. Ayers is best known for “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.” He is the intersection of funk, soul & jazz. “Running Away,” was a huge hit in the disco era, but he was making dance music before they ever coined disco as a name for a genre of dance music.

A Tribe Called Quest among many others sampled “Running Away.” Another favorite is “September,” by Earth Wind & Fire. There’s also “Boogie Nights,” by Heat Wave. The grooves from that era are so undeniable that they even get me moving no matter what kind of mood I am in. A hip hop song that gets me grooving is “Paid in Full,” by Eric B & Rakim.

2. Describe your personal hell.  
My personal hell is having too many books and not enough time to read them all. It’s a first world problem, but there is never enough time to get caught up. Actually having too many books is not a personal hell, but I wish there was more time to enjoy them all.

3. What’s something that always makes you laugh? 
I always laugh at the sarcasm of my wife and daughter. They both have a cutting wit that can stop you dead in your tracks. I have learned to just laugh about it because they are both so good at it and they are constantly calling me out. Another thing that makes me laugh is the curiosity of my five-year-old son. He just asked me the other day, “Dad, what’s the Illuminati?” he was smiling as he said it. Somehow he saw it on YouTube. He spends a fair amount of time on the iPad and he really gets around somehow. All I could do was laugh.
Another time I got on the iPad right after him, and he had a $300 Lego spaceship in our Amazon Shopping cart. He hadn’t clicked it all the way through to finalize the sale and I was able to intercept it before he did, but the fact that he had got that far with almost purchasing it cracked me up. He’s a clever dude and never fails to make me laugh.

4. You’re sucked into a bad movie and you have to choose a point in history to live out the rest of your years. What time do you choose and why?   
I choose the early 1970s because this was the beginning of America awakening to broader consciousness. I like 2019 even better, but the early 1970s was a period where the seeds of our current moment began to disseminate.

5. What’s a gif that you can relate to?
My daughter is always showing me a million of these. Most of the ones she shows are hilarious. Regarding my book though, here’s one that I like a lot because it shows the city’s transformation.

 

6. You’re hit by lightning. What happens?
I get magnetized and become one with the electromagnetic spectrum. At that point I vaporize and become a part of the sky.

7. It’s snowing outside, how do you feel?
I love the snow. It makes me wanna either cuddle up with a good book and read for hours on end or eat a warm bowl of corn chowder soup. I don’t like driving in the snow because I was once a passenger in a van that crashed on black ice near the Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona.  The van ended up sliding across the ice, into a meadow and then taking out four Ponderosa pine trees. Fortunately no one was injured, but it was a wild ride and one of the scariest moments of my life. That being said, If I am not driving and already warm and safe somewhere, I love the snow.

8.What’s a cat picture you can get behind?
Our cat Aiko is photogenic and my wife’s assistant. She is adorable and always steals any picture she is in. My wife and daughter sometimes feed the local stray cats and there are now about 4 or 5 cats from around our block that can be frequently found in our backyard. My daughter has drawn a few of them and my wife painted a portrait of Aiko.

9. Where did you write most of your book? Why?
I wrote some of my book in our upstairs attic while my wife and kids were asleep. I also wrote a lot of it at various coffeehouses with my good friend F. Douglas Brown writing his. We are both teachers and dads with extra busy lives and those few hours we can meet up at a coffee spot to write are gold.

10. What are your struggles and strengths as a writer?
The struggle of course is about finding enough time. I love to read and research. I could read for years and years. Sometimes you get to a point where you want to research more but the deadline looms and you have to go for what you know. A strength I have is retaining information and I have the ability to learn a lot about a topic very quickly. The struggle is to condense it all down and get it into an accessible form.

11. Tell us a little about your writing process. What works, what doesn’t, what doesn’t but you still try anyway?
I write at least 5 haiku everyday. I also try to read for 15-20 minutes before I write just to get the juices flowing. I now have to write in chunks because of my family and teaching schedule. I used to write several days a week at night from about 10 PM to 2 or 3 AM, but now I write in the afternoons, in between classes, while my kids are at various lessons and any other time I can squeeze in.

What always works for me is reading up on a topic and really doing my research before i write about something. I also like to get out in the city and spend time in reconnaissance studying a neighborhood, community space or whatever I am writing about. The field work is huge and the more of it I do, the better the piece usually is.

 

Equally a scholar and performer, Mike Sonksen, also …known as, Mike the Poet, is a 3rd-generation L.A. native acclaimed for poetry performances, published articles and mentoring teen writers. Following his graduation from U.C.L.A. in 1997, he has published over 500 essays and poems. Mike has an Interdisciplinary Master of Arts in English and History and his prose and poetry have been included in programs with the Mayor’s Office, the Los Angeles Public Library’s “Made in LA,” series, Grand Park, the Music Center and the Friends of the Los Angeles River. Mike has taught at Cal State L.A., Southwest College and Woodbury University. In June of 2018 one of his KCET essays was awarded by the LA Press Club.

Interview with Accomplice Brian Ellis
Interview

Interview with Accomplice Brian Ellis

by CCM
written by CCM

1. What’s your favorite song to dance to?
Though I don’t really dance, I find I am most motivated when listening to the music of C+C Music Factory.

2. Describe your personal hell.
Forever reliving the moment I walk into my kitchen and see the new roommate and he’s wearing Aladdin pants and those weird shoes with the toes and he’s making his own candy and everything is smoky because he’s just lit sage and I consider calling the cops.

3. What’s something that always makes you laugh?
Anytime Conan O’Brien pulls the Walker, Texas Ranger lever. Google it.

4. You’re sucked into a bad movie and you have to choose a point in history to live out the rest of your years. What time do you choose and why?
If I had to be sucked into a movie I’d want it to ei­ther be A) Repo Man, specifically the scene where Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stan­ton sit in a car and they talk about a lot of bullshit while snorting coke, B) Encino Man, but instead of being “rescued” by Pauly Shore and Sean Astin, I am left frozen inside a block of ice for 90 minutes, or C) a potential remake of Scrooged where David Johansen reprises his role as the cabdriver and, before being visited by the ghosts of all the dead members of the New York Dolls, he runs me over with his cab.

5. What’s a gif that you can relate to?

6. You’re hit by lightning. What happens?
I watch a 90-minute documentary on YouTube about the making of the movie Caddyshack and then fall asleep for several hours.

7. It’s snowing outside, how do you feel?
Same way I always feel—like a big, smoldering pile of E.T. Atari video game cartridges that were dug out of a mysterious landfill and then set on fire.

8. What’s a cat picture you can get behind?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Where did you write most of your book? Why?
In bed, surrounded by garbage, drinking Rolling Rock tallboys, and listening to Oasis at 6 am while my cat gave me pitiful looks from across the room. “P, A, R, T, Why? Because I gotta!”—The Mask (1994)

10. What are your struggles and strengths as a writer?
I struggle with anxiety and depression, which is also my strength as a writer. *winks*

11. Tell us a little about your writing process. What works, what doesn’t, what doesn’t but you still try anyway?
Writing every day is cool, but have you tried taking 24 caffeinated and junk food-fueled hours out of every month—after getting fucked up, making bad decisions and thus setting fire to your already scorched life the previous 29-30 days—to write? Oh boy, what a ride!

 

BRIAN ALAN ELLIS runs House of Vlad Productions, and is the author of three novellas, three short-story collections, a previous book of humorous non-fiction, and Something to Do with Self-Hate, a novel. His writing has appeared at Juked, Hobart, Monkeybicycle, Electric Literature, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Funhouse, Talking Book, and Queen Mob’s Tea House, among other places. He lives in Florida, and tweets sad and clever things at both @brianalanellis and @HouseofVlad.

Interview with Accomplice June Gehringer
Interview

Interview with Accomplice June Gehringer

by CCM
written by CCM

1.   What’s your favorite song to dance to?
 Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance With Somebody. I’m not gonna try to write about Whitney at length here because I’ll start crying, but suffice it to say that we were lucky to have her on Earth for as long as we did.

2.   Describe your personal hell.
That feeling when someone you’re dating texts you “Hey, can we talk later?”, and you’re left waiting for like three hours. Except it’s not three hours, it’s eternity, and the little iMessage ellipses keep telling you that the other person is typing but they never send you anything and you just have to wait to find out what you did. Forever.

3.   What’s something that always makes you laugh?
My friend Lily is the funniest person on Earth. Like, if I had to pick one person to be stuck on a desert island with, I’d pick her. She’s proof that earth signs do in fact have personalities. I’d link to her twitter but she keeps getting doxxed by neo-nazis. Suffice it to say that her tweets are very outrageous and very good

4.   You’re sucked into a bad movie and you have to choose a point in history to live out the rest of your years. What time do you choose and why?
Oh gosh. I don’t know. There aren’t a lot of historical moments I can imagine in which I’d wanna be trans. Am I allowed to choose the present? If so, I’d pick that. Everyone I love lives here.

5.   What’s a gif that you can relate to?
This gif of Lucy Liu in Kill Bill is everything to me.

6.   You’re hit by lightning. What happens?
Ok, one of two things happen. Either I die or I don’t. If I die, there’s a funeral and it’s like this big tragic thing and a whole big mess and it fucks up everyone I love forever, to such a degree & in such a way that it’s hard for me to think about it, even in a completely hypothetical context. That or I… just get up and keep walking, and probably, like, try to go do whatever else I have to do that day.

7.   It’s snowing outside, how do you feel?
Like, cathartic melancholy. Thinking how it’s sad & pretty like a SZA song. At some point in the back of my brain there are practical voices telling me that snow is a major nuisance, especially here in Philly, but mostly I feel gratified. Sad & peaceful & consoled.

8.   What’s a cat picture you can get behind?
This picture of my partner’s cat, Scrambles, makes me scream w/ laughter. Like, Scrambles is visibly a Pisces, lol.

9.   Where did you write most of your book? Why?
I wrote the first half of the book in various places in New Orleans, mostly in the bathroom at a restaurant I worked at. The second half was written on my phone, mostly while out drinking at Pageturners Lounge in Omaha, NE. I wrote at work because that was when I had time to write, and I wrote at the bar because I spent most of 2017-2018 in like a pretty unhealthy alcoholic haze. I’m glad to be healthy & (just over 9 months!!!) sober these days, & I can’t wait to soberly author my next book from the comfort of my bed.

10.   What are your struggles and strengths as a writer?
The pressure to publish has lead me to rush a lot of work out when I maybe didn’t need to. I love this book, but it’s not the book that I set out to write. It’s hard for me not to think about how good this book could have been if I had given myself another year or two to work on it. That said, I tend to produce a lot of work, to the point where it was relatively easy for me two put out two full-lengths almost exactly a year apart. I’m pretty much always churning stuff out. With my next book, I want to take the time I feel I deserve to produce something I’m really proud of. Like, if I really wanted to, I have enough work right now that I could feasibly assemble a publishable manuscript and start sending it out, but it wouldn’t be the book that I want to see in the world. I’m trying to coax myself into a little patience, and to be more loving with myself. I guess that’s my biggest struggle (and isn’t it everyone’s?)—loving myself and loving my work.

11.   Tell us a little about your writing process. What works, what doesn’t, what doesn’t but you still try anyway?
Sometimes I get this idea in my head that if I just go about my life and try to like be a conscious, decent person, that I’ll just naturally have these ~deep insights~ into life and I can just write them down in my phone notes as I go, casually casting off gems as I wander the world. It’s like the stupidest idea ever. That’s just not how making stuff works. A poem is a crafted object, like a kitchen table or a violin or macaroni art. If you practice often and attentively, you can get really good at making anything through thoughtful repetition. When I make time to read & study & actually sit down with ideas and force myself to work on something for a long time, that’s when my best work comes out. From the outside, all art seems esoteric & mystical, & on the inside it couldn’t be more unromantic. All it takes is repetition & a genuine desire to improve.

 

Born and raised in Omaha, NE, JUNE GEHRINGER is a mixed Chinese trans woman who is somehow still alive. She is the author of I love you it looks like rain (Be About It 2017), and EVERYONE IS A BIG BUG TO SOMEONE (self-published) 2017. She is the co-founder of tenderness yea, and tweets @unlovablehottie. She holds a B.A. in English from Loyola University New Orleans and has worked as a cook since she was 16.