Interview With Author Taylor Thornburg
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Taylor Thornburg is Midwestern through and through, born in mid-Missouri, grown up in eastern Nebraska, and now working and writing in Chicago, IL. His debut novel, Agathe, 6:00 pm to 7:27, exemplifies the sharp contrast between his background and subject matter: idyllic Midwest against the dramas of modernism and extremes of melodrama.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Agathe, 6:00 pm to 7:27 is Taylor Thornburg’s first and latest book. This book was inspired by the films of Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Richard Linklater, and Ingmar Bergman. Its central preoccupation is of Bergman, that of human connection. Its execution follows the non-linear narrative experiments of Resnais, the play with time compression brought forward by Varda, and the delicate but deep dialogues of Linklater.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Taylor Thornburg has two unique writing habits. Namely, he prefers to write first thing in the morning just after making coffee, sometimes before the sun rises, and at least 500 words. Then he writes everything by hand before transcribing it in totality on a digital platform. He writes in the morning and transcribes and edits at night after the work has had time to sit.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Taylor Thornburg’s biggest influences have been the Japanese surrealists, Yoko Ogawa, Hiromi Kawakami, and Haruki Murakami who charmed him into writing serious literary fiction as an adult. After the Japanese surrealists, the modernists Hemingway, Faulkner, and Woolf influenced form. Postmodernists like Nabokov, Pynchon, and Krasznahorkai have encouraged him to take additional creative and daring liberties with form and content.
What are you working on now?
At present, Taylor Thornburg is finishing a hybrid-memoir, editing a second manuscript, outlining a third manuscript, and beginning research on a second non-fiction piece.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best promotional method for Taylor Thornburg has been word of mouth.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writers should utilize social media to build connections, communicate, network, build relationships nationally and internationally, growing an underground and independent circuit for exchanging literature and ideas. The mainstream infrastructure cannot support daring or novel ideas as these ventures are rarely immediately profitable at scale. Therefore, writers must put effort into creating real community to keep their literature living and their literary lives active.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice ever given to Taylor Thornburg is this: write as often as you can, every day if possible, workshop everything written with two or three trusted readers, take the advice that the trusted readers offer, and, to publish, show up again and again and again no matter how many doors close. Submit through the discouragement. The most successful writers are the most persistent.
What are you reading now?
Taylor Thornburg is currently reading Thomas Pynchon’s latest, Shadow Ticket.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As a writer, Taylor Thornburg looks forward to launching his first regional book tour, expanding his network of friends and associates, and then returning to Chicago to continue writing.
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?
Stranded on a desert island, Taylor Thornburg would bring the Torah, the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Philip K Dick’s Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and a copy of Playboy February 1970 featuring William Burroughs
Author Interview Series
To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!
If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.
If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.