Monday, October 2, 2023

The 40 But 10 Interview Series: Clint Margrave

 


I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!


Today we are joined by Clint Margrave, who is the author of several books of fiction and poetry, including Lying Bastard, Salute the Wreckage, The Early Death of Men, and most recently, Visitor. His work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Rattle, The Moth, Ambit, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.  He lives in Los Angeles, CA., U.S.A.








What do you do when you’re not writing?

 Read, travel, go to the bar.

  

Do you have any hidden talents?

 If I do, they’re even hidden from me.

 

What’s the most useless skill you possess?

 Writing poetry.

 

What’s something that’s true about you but no one believes?

 I’m generally a very optimistic and happy person, even if my poems and sense of humor can seem bleak or cynical.

 

What’s your kryptonite as a writer?

 Self-censorship or any censorship really.

 

What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as a writer?

 Money? Writer?

 

If you met your characters in real life, what would you say to them?

 I’m sorry.

 

What are some of your favorite books and/or authors?

 Some authors: Pessoa, Thomas Bernhard, Dostoevsky, Celine,  John Fante, Carson McCullers, Gerald Locklin, Tony Hoagland, Houellebecq, Szymborska, Zagajewski, James Baldwin, Albert Camus, Bukowski, Fred Voss, Joan Jobe Smith, Christopher Hitchens, Ralph Ellison, Raymond Carver, Jack Gilbert, Hemingway, Melville, Whitman, Charles Simic, Roberto Bolano, Georgi Gospodinov, Malena Mörling

  

Do you think you’d live long in a zombie apocalypse?

 I already live in Los Angeles.

 

What songs would be on the soundtrack of your life?

 Anything by The Smiths.

 

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The poems in Clint Margrave's VISITOR travel to distant lands and familiar ones, through museum doors and down the aisles of grocery stores, into the pages of books and along the shared walls of an apartment complex, far out in space and up close in the inner space of love and loss, life and death. VISITOR is a collection that calls on you to let it in.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Visitor-Clint-Margrave/dp/1630450839/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3FJOHMUXLENOM&keywords=clint+margrave&qid=1673059760&sprefix=clint+margrave%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-1

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