kevin mcpherson eckhoff’s is the author of Rhapsodomancy (Coach House Books, 2010). His visual poetry has appeared in the anthology Boredom Fighters (Tightrope Books) and in such magazines as dandelion and filling Station. A winner of the Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award, he studied English literature at the University of Calgary. He recently traded his life for a house in Armstrong, British Columbia, and a job teaching literature at Okanagan College.
1. What do you want to talk about—which question do you wish interviewers would ask, and what is your answer?
What was your best day this past week and why? Yesterday: I spent 2 hours in The Bookshop in Penticton with my bestfriend, then saw a double feature at the Starlight Drive-in in Enderby with my lady love. Btw, don’t ever watch The Expendables.
2. What advice do you wish you’d received, but didn’t, when you first started to take your writing seriously?
Persevere, and you don’t always have to be (or pretend to be) serious-like in the face and fingers and brain.
3. What is wrong with the publishing industry, and what are they getting right?
Not enough sex, but far too much procreation.
4. How will technology change writing?
The exact way that writing has changed technology.
5. What is your process for a typical piece of writing, from idea to publication? (Give a specific example.)
I think of some words or an image; I write it down on a scrap of paper; I lose the paper; I try to remember it into a Word document; I misplace the file because I’ve named it something inappropriate… in the end, I usually just steal some words from someone else, rearrange them, and send it all to magazines and publishers, less than half of which prove half-interested.
6. What are your daily habits as a writer, and as a reader?
Sucky. Inconsistent. Nonchalant. Unappreciative.
7. What is your ambition as a writer—what do you want to accomplish, personally and professionally?
I want to connect with human beings by sharing the experience of exploring, enjoying and being surprised by language.
8. Why don’t you quit?
Why don’t YOU quit? I might quit one day. Right now, I don’t quit because I’m stubborn.