Interview With Author Dyson Russell
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My names Dyson – I’m a Masters of Counselling student from Melbourne, Australia, and I currently work as a supermarket manager.
My newly released poetry book Marching with a Broken Shadow was the first book I have written, and I am currently working on a second book entitled Stories Heard from the Hearts Whisper.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Marching with a Broken Shadow was written basically as a consequence of years of writing poetry for self-expression and emotional rationalization… It got to a point where I had all this content – most of it terrible – but I thought, maybe I can actually turn this into something that is conceptually realized and thematically linked. I centred on trying to tap into the idea of collective human existence and the binding realities of human life; once I understood what I was aiming for, I essentially filled in the gaps in terms of content, writing through the cycles of emotion and experience that I hadn’t yet captured in my writing. It also took a lot of heavy editing to lift it up from something that was originally very personal and very insular, into something with more depth and quality.
In terms of the title, there was one night I was going through a particularly rough time caring for my sick mother, and we had huge financial burdens and pressures, and the very real threat of homelessness… and I wrote two poems, both of them terrible, but both just filled with raw emotion and anguish. One was called Walking Against a Tidal Wave, and the other was Marching with a Broken Shadow… I guess for whatever reason I liked Marching with a Broken Shadow and it took on a life of its own.
It’s like Billy Corgan’s song ‘Today’ where he sings ‘today is the greatest day’ in response to a period in his life where he was suicidal… but he makes the choice to persist and so the day is great… I guess ‘Marching with a Broken Shadow’ carries similar sentiments, similar ironies… We all have parts of us that are broken or hurt, maybe like our shadows they’re hidden, or maybe they’re in plain sight… but we’re going to march on anyway!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if this is unusual but everything I write creatively is handwritten first.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I would say I am probably more inspired by music if I’m honest… I think music has probably had more of an impact on my poetry and my writing more broadly in a creative sense. Maybe it’s because of the conveyance of a story in such a truncated mode and the similarity with a song or lyrics, but there’s definitely more songs I’ve heard that make me go ‘wow I want to write now!’.
What are you working on now?
Stories Heard from the Hearts Whisper is the next book I’m working on. It is also poetry, however I am attempting to write in completely different styles and using a fundamentally different structure for the overarching narrative. I think it’s always important to be breaking new ground, so this work will be my attempt to do that.
Marching with a Broken Shadow has an overarching narrative, read sequentially it follows a character’s passage from birth to death, and I hope that ultimately reader’s become the central character and absorb the experiences in a way that encourages them to ponder about their own. The poems are therefore very randomized in some ways, lots of different lengths, structures, tones etc. to reflect the capriciousness of life.
Stories Heard from the Hearts Whisper… it is completely different in terms of a structure. It’s broken into ten chapters, each chapter containing two epic poems – poems of significantly longer length, both of which are preceded by five short sharp punchy poems, where I’ve basically tried to reflect on the key takeaways from the epics and pack as much meaning into as few words/lines as I can… I’m definitely enjoying writing this work.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am hoping I am still yet to find this answer, but hopefully it’s just around the corner.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write for enjoyment as the first priority.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
This isn’t necessarily related to writing, but there’s a quote “everyone thinks we start at the same place… we don’t.”
I think it’s important to remember we don’t all have the same opportunities, the same resources, the same possibilities. Opening up to other people’s stories is a wonderful thing.
What are you reading now?
Honestly, mostly counselling textbooks and scholarly articles! Study is keeping me very busy, but the most recent book I read was Don’t Look Away by Danielle Laidley, which was beyond outstanding.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully the continual enjoyment of producing new material.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Billy Corgan – Blinking with Fists
Any book by Chris Carter, though preferably An Evil Mind
My Two Centuries in Africa by Carl William Henn
Dyson Russell’s Social Media Links