Interview with Ed Falco

The following is an interview with Ed Falco, author of Winter in Florida, Plato at Scratch Daniel’s, Acid, Sea Island, A Dream with Demons, a prose poem chapbook , and many plays.  He is the recipient of many a literary award and teaches at Virginia Tech.  Much more information can be gleamed from his website and blog, www.edfalco.us.

ALL MATERIAL IN BRACKETS IS ED FALCO SPEAKING IN THE VOICE OF DAN WICKETT.

Dan:

Hello Ed, thank you very much for taking some time from your schedule to respond to some questions today.

Ed:

You're welcome, Dan.  I have to warn you, though, it's been a crazy busy day and it's late, so this will be a laid-back interview.  I hope you don't mind.

Dan:

[No problem, Ed.  Fine with me.]  How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a writer?  How did you come about realizing it?

Ed:

I started writing poems at age 17 to––what else?––impress a girl.  Guess I shouldn't tell you her name, huh?  We were both on the literary magazine staff, as I recall.  Good memories . . .  The poems, though, were terrible.  Bad imitations of e.e. cummings.  I published one in the magazine, and I still blush at its startling badness when I come across it.

Dan:

[You still have your high school magazines around?  So . . .] you published three books in 2005 – what was more exciting, this fact, or the publishing of your first two books within a couple of months of each other back in 1990?

Ed:

I guess getting out those first two books was a big deal.  I thought I never was going to get a book published.  I had come close to publishing a book again and again, through competitions, with commercial presses, but something always went wrong.  I was near forty before Arkansas took Plato, and then Soho took the novel a few months later.

Dan:

[Actually, Ed, you were 40 when that first book came out, which is really kind of old for a first book.  But since then] you’ve published with publishers of various sizes – both independent and university affiliated, not to mention hypertext.  What sort of differences have you seen between the various publishers who have taken on your work?

Ed:

Well, first there are the university presses, Notre Dame and Arkansas.  University presses are a blessing and without their support I'd be living in a hovel someplace.  But they just don't have the resources to promote a work of fiction and get it out into the bookstores.  Soho was better at that, and Unbridled is far and away the best press I've worked with.  They're great.  They've done everything possible to get Sabbath Night and Wolf Point some attention, and they've done a terrific job.  There have been more than 30 reviews of the books so far, and then Book Sense picks for both, and the New York Times Editor's Choice pick for Wolf Point.  I'm really impressed with the effort they make on behalf of all their books. As for the hypertexts, or digital writing . . .  Well Eastgate Systems' method promoting and selling disks and CDs is the closest thing to the traditional publishing model.  In the last few years, though, I've submitted my work to hypertext sites, like the Eastgate Reading Room and the Iowa Web Online, and the work has posted for free.  There's no money involved anywhere.  And of course distribution is not an issue.

Dan:

Beyond novels, short stories, short fictions and poetry, you have also written at least 5 plays – including two that have the same name as two of your short stories?  Is there a route to publishing your plays, or is the fact that they get produced on stage what you are really after when you sit down with your playwright hat on?
   
Ed:

I got into playwriting about five years ago now at a point where I was backing away from digital writing.  I was spending too much time in front of a computer screen (which is still a problem!) and the world of the theatre was a real joy to find.  I fell in love with it (which is very easy to do) after having a couple of plays produced, and I've been writing plays ever since.  I have a series of monologues upcoming in VT's New Play Festival, and I'm also directing, another first.  Getting in over your head, trying new things . . .  I love that.  So I'm really enjoying working in theatre.  When I write a play, it's all about writing within my theatre community.  There are actors here I've come to know and I write for them.  There's a director here, David Johnson, who's become a good friend, and I try to write stuff that he may want to produce.  And then I've been struggling to get some traction in New York, where Chris Ceraso and Jamie Richards of Ensemble Studio Theatre have staged some readings of my latest play, Possum Dreams.  My niece Edie did a backer's audition of it, Possum Dreams, in September at the Manhattan Theatre Club.  Edie's wonderfully generous that way.  Nothing's come of it thus far, but that's the way it is, and in that sense it's the same as most other kinds of writing.  The work is a joy.  Getting it published is hard.

Dan:

In the case of the plays/stories Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha, and Radon – Did you write the story first or the play?  If the story, did you do also write the play version, or did somebody else adapt it?

Ed:

Stories first.  When I decided to take a serious shot at writing plays, I started by adapting two stories that I thought had potential as theatre.

Dan:

Many of your stories have been published in literary journals.  Are you a big reader of such journals?  What would some of your favorites be, and why?

Ed:

Yes, I'm a big reader of journals.  I subscribe to several, and I read others in the library and in bookstores.  There are so many good journals out there.  Missouri Review, one of the ones I subscribe to, is great.  Southern Review, Notre Dame Review, Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares . . .  Too many to name.
 
Dan:

Having published with various publishers, I’m assuming you’ve had many different editors as well.  What differences have you noticed between your various editors?  What type do you believe you work best with and enhance your work the best?

Ed:

Actually, I haven't worked with a lot of editors.  Only Greg Michalson and Juri Jurjevics, really.  University presses just don't, in general, provide the writer-editor relationship typical of a commercial press.  Juri was a good editor, but that first novel, Winter in Florida, was just so unwieldy that I think Juri was editing a different book than the one I thought I had written.  I thought I had written a modern, vulgar retelling of the Morte d'Arthur story--but no one in the world got that, including Juri, because I just didn't do it very well.  The book does have its strengths, though.  Let's just say it's a first novel.  By the time I got to working with Greg, I was a much better writer--and Greg was able to help me see the strengths and weaknesses of Wolf Point (which was at that point titled Red Guitar).  I don't want to go on at length here so I'll just say that I believe the novel absolutely never would have been finished and published if it weren't for Greg.

Dan:

For those [like most everyone on the planet] who do not have access to your collection,  In the Park of Culture, what do you believe short fictions to be?

Ed:

The traditional short story foregrounds character and action, or another way of saying this is that the traditional short story is about a fully developed character at a significant moment in his or her life.  If I'm not trying for that, if I'm not principally interested in character and situation, then I don't think in terms of the short story anymore, and I usually wind up writing short, tight, compressed work that looks pretty much the same as what some people call prose poems, but that I call short fictions.  I used to like the term prose poem, but now if feels like a bit of an equivocation, and so now I prefer short fictions. 

Dan:

Does living and working in West Virginia have any benefits to your writing?  Any detractions for your career?

Ed:

I don't know, Dan.  I know there are some great West Virginia writers, so maybe it does help their writing, and I'm positive it doesn't hurt my career any.  But where I live and write, here in Virginia, is also a good place to be.  I do think it helps to live in one of the big cities on the coast where there's so much cultural activity--but a university town in the mountains is a pretty good place to live and think and write.

Dan:

Nice job of research on my part!  Do you enjoy the teaching aspect of writing at Virginia Tech University?

Ed:

No "University" on the end, Dan.  Just Virginia Tech. People think there are three universities in Blacksburg: VPI, Virginia Polytechnic University, and Virginia Tech.  But they're all different names for the same place: Virginia Tech.  I absolutely enjoy teaching.  The young tend to be excited and wide-eyed about the world in ways that keep old guys like me from growing too old too fast.  Plus I get to work with guys like Fred D'Augiar, and Bob Hicok, and old friends Jeff Mann and Bonnie Soniat and Lucinda Roy, and lots of other good writers and friends.

Dan:

By now you’re probably getting stunned by the level of research I have done.  You have received many awards over your career.  Does one specific one stand out in your mind, and if so, why?

Ed:

The Virginia Quarterly Review's Emily Clark Balch Prize came at a time when I deeply needed the encouragement.  Beyond that, it was a factor, I'm sure, in getting me hired at Tech (which is what we locals call Virginia Tech).  Early in my career, VQR published three stories in as many years and then gave me the Balch prize, and that helped me immensely to establish myself as a writer, which in turned helped me get this teaching position.  Missouri Review is also important to me in the same way.

Dan:

Do you enjoy doing readings and bookstore appearances?

Ed:

I enjoy readings more than bookstore appearances, and I'd enjoy the bookstore appearances if anyone ever showed up.

Dan:

Horse racing seems to pop up in your writing every so often – are you a big fan of the ponies and racing?

Ed:

I worked with standard bred race horses in my mid-twenties: first as a farm hand on a standard bred breeding farm (where I did a variety of jobs, including working with the studs during breeding and being a foaling man), later as a groom on race tracks in Florida and New York, and finally as a trainer at Monticello Raceway upstate New York, where I got taken to the cleaners by the pros who had spent a lifetime around horses.  I left the racetrack and retreated to the university where I've been hiding out ever since.

Dan:

You have a very nice author website – easy to maneuver and informative about your work and events, etc.  Is this something you do yourself or is there a webmaster back there pulling the strings?  What led to your doing an author site online?

Ed:

Alice Fulton has the best author site on the web (http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/af89/), in my opinion.  It's designed and maintained by her husband, Hank De Leo, who is himself an artist.  When I decided to update my own site for the publication of the new books by Unbridled, I hired a student to design it, told him to model it on Alice's site, and I've been maintaining it since as best I can.

Dan:

Is The New River still around?

Ed:

Yes, though it's been in hibernation the last year while I was off first in Switzerland for a semester and then later on sabbatical in New York for a semester.  Now that I'm back we're talking about where to go next with the New River (http://www.cddc.vt.edu/journals/newriver/), and what looks most likely is that I'll work with a couple of MFA students beginning next fall to get the site rolling again.  I suspect it will be much improved with some new energy added.

Dan:

You are known for being an innovator in terms of writing in Hypertext and some of your work is traditionally taught.  What exactly is Hypertext and what are some of the best sources for readers looking to learn more about it?

Ed:

Hypertext, or digital writing, is writing that's designed to be read on the computer screen.  Unlike writing on the page, where one must follow word for word, paragraph to paragraph, page to page, writing for the screen can offer the reader the choice of moving between numerous linked screens, screens which may also contain multiple media.  My piece, "Charmin' Cleary"   (http://www.eastgate.com/Charmin/Welcome.html), is a simple hypertext.  I'm working on a Flash piece now called "Chemical Landscapes Digital Tales."  The chemical landscapes are a series of photograms by Mary Pinto which suggest landscapes but are created entirely in the dark room using only chemicals and a flashlight.  For the project, I've written a series of "digital tales" suggested by the particular chemical landscapes.  I hope the relationship of  language and  narrative to the "tale" parallels the relationship of light and chemicals to the "landscape."

Dan:

For family reasons, which do you prefer, Oz, or The Sopranos?   

Ed:

Oz was the only show I've ever watched that was too gritty for me.  Now the Sopranos, that's some brilliant TV. Great acting!  And David Chase is a damn good writer, too.

Dan:

Lastly, if you were a character in “Fahrenheit 451,” what work(s) would you memorize for posterity?

Ed:

Moby Dick.  I loved that book when I first read it. The short story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," which reminds me to love this life and fear decorum.  Theodore Rothke's poems in The Far Field, which put me in touch with mystery.

Dan:

Thanks again Ed, and I hope you’ve been enjoying your LBC experience!

Ed:

I have!  I'm a bit dizzy from a long day of writing and teaching, but it's been a pleasure.  Thanks to you and Ed C and Scott and David Milofsky and everyone who's participated.

Comments

[ed]

Nice interview, Dan. Though I have to wonder whether your Fahrenheit 451 query is your answer to the Pivot Questionnaire. :)

[Anne Marie]

Very enjoyable review and interview. I've just bought the collection through Amazon.co.uk, and if ever Ed wants to make an appearance this side of the Atlantic, (and especially in Cornwall) I'd be sure to go.

Hope the collection does well.

AM

[måle radon]

One of my favorite things to do when writing code is to make functions that do more than one thing so instead of having 10 different functions I have 1, maybe 2, that can do the same. Part of the reason I code like this is for the challenge, and the other reason is so that when I make changes I don’t have to rely on find & replace but I can simple make my change once or twice (or add code) and not have to make sure I don’t break 1 or 2 of the 10 functions,thanks for sharing these views in the post of this blog.

[måle radon]

One of my favorite things to do when writing code is to make functions that do more than one thing so instead of having 10 different functions I have 1, maybe 2, that can do the same. Part of the reason I code like this is for the challenge, and the other reason is so that when I make changes I don’t have to rely on find & replace but I can simple make my change once or twice (or add code) and not have to make sure I don’t break 1 or 2 of the 10 functions,thanks for sharing these views in the post of this blog.

[Inversiones en petroleo]

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