Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a poet and speculative fiction writer. To Drown a Man, a poetry collection, is my first published book, and When Fire Splits the Sky, a novel, will be my second when it comes out next year. I’m also a high school English teacher, husband, and father of five.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
To Drown a Man came out of a time in my life when I was re-evaluating a sort of aimlessness I’d taken on, and the way I related to other people. I’d become very closed-off and guarded, and behind that was a lot of shame. Even my writing, which is something I’d been doing for almost a decade at that point, I realized had become something I used as a barrier between myself and others. I wanted people to see me in a certain way, in other words, so I tried to present myself that way in my writing.
So, as I started to dig into some of this internal work, I actually stopped writing for a period of 6 months to a year, I don’t exactly remember. Deciding to start again is another story in and of itself, but these poems are some of the first things to come out of that time period, looking at myself, others, the world, and my own work through different, more vulnerable lenses.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Probably the opposite of unusual, actually. I’m definitely a person of routine, and that shows in my writing habits. I generally try to get a certain number of pages done a certain number of days a week. Sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not, but after long enough the good piles up. Showing up and sitting down has been the formula for me.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love the New Weird writers: China Mieville, Jeff Vandermeer, Gene Wolfe, and the really wild spec stuff. David Mitchell, Helen Oyeyemi. Carmen Maria Machado blew my brain wide open when I read her collection—I’ve been obsessively re-reading “Especially Heinous” for months now.
Then there’s the New Sincerity: Maggie Smith, George Saunders, David Foster Wallace. Writers who are unapologetically un-ironic and vulnerable in that they’re writing about things like kindness and empathy.
And then I love writers who are able to convey even glancing takes on the spiritual and sublime, and that’s a tradition that goes back millenia.
I’d say my own writing mostly comes out of exploring the cross-roads of these three traditions, simply because it’s what resonates the most powerfully with me.
What are you working on now?
I’m about finished with edits on a collection of short stories, most of which have already been published in a variety of journals. I’m also working on a New Weird novella, a chapbook of prose poems, and I have an early draft of a small-town sci-fi mystery. However, the main thing that’s been occupying my writing time for the last year or so has been a far-future science fantasy epic that I’ve jokingly begun to call my Middle Earth. I’d say I’m 8-10 years away from even an early draft, but I love it. It’s been a lot of fun.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know that I can say it’s the best, but I’ve had a lot of fun with Twitter. I stayed off all social media for years, but got on Twitter about a month ago. It’s a genre all it’s own, man.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m going to steal Wendell Berry. “Make a place to sit down. Sit down.”
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Can I use that Wendell Berry quote again? Probably not. In “Make Good Art,” Neil Gaiman says the best advice he received that he didn’t take was from Stephen King, who told him to “enjoy this.” It’s easy to worry about outcomes, or stress about this or that in the writing life, but at heart it’s really fun, and if you can remember that it can remain so. There’s enough space at the table for all of us.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading a lot of poetry right now, specifically Zachary Schomburg, Maggie Smith, and old issues of Rattle and Image. I also just finished Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind and David Mitchell’s Slade House, which were both brilliant. Just today I’m finally—FINALLY—getting started on NK Jemisin, many years too late.
What’s next for you as a writer?
This summer I’ll be working with my editor on final passes on When Fire Splits the Sky, my first novel. It’s a pretty wild, cross-genre ride. I keep describing it as a mid-apocalyptic, road trip, marital thriller. Basically, a husband and wife are on the verge of divorce when an unspecified catastrophe strikes and they wind up stuck in a car together, driving through fire and hell and dealing with their own addictions and traumas, as the outside world collapses around them. It’s sort of like Twister meets The Road meets Silver Linings Playbook.
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?
I want a few really dense spiritual texts, things that would only dole themselves out in little pieces, and unfold differently each time. As far as novels go, I’d want a doorstopper or two, maybe Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy.
Author Websites and Profiles
Tyler Russell Website
Tyler Russell Amazon Profile
Tyler Russell’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account
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