The Writing Life with Author Dwaine Rieves
Dwaine Rieves was born
and raised in Monroe County, Mississippi.
During a career as a research pharmaceutical scientist and critical care
physician, he began writing poetry and creative prose. His poetry has won the Tupelo Press Prize for
Poetry and the River Styx International Poetry Prize. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, The
Georgia Review and other publications.
He can be reached at www.dwainerieves.com
Find out more about SHIRTLESS MEN DRINK FREE.
INTERVIEW:
What
got you into writing?
I
began jotting down nonmedical thoughts when I was working as a critical care
physician, ruminations that I often scratched out on the back of my “to-do”
list. Typically, these musings only
appeared when I was fixed in an in-between time—such as awaiting completion of
a patient’s CT or MRI scan, moments when I couldn’t actually attend the
bedside. Odd, but I guess the musings
were some form of attending myself.
After a while, I thought these musings looked a little like poems, so I
started sending them off to literary magazines.
Some were published; a great many rejected and ultimately a collection
won the 2005 Tupelo Press Prize for Poetry.
I then put aside the poetry to develop SHIRTLESS MEN DRINK FREE, a novel
that I labored over as if it were a poem, albeit one that took about twelve
years to write.
What
do you like best about being an author?
I
enjoy the great freedom afforded by a blank piece of paper begging to be filled
with a poem. Of course, that the nature
of the poem can take any form is part of the freedom. In my mind, SHIRTLESS MEN DRINK FREE is a
form of a long, narrative poem. A gangly,
poetic creature that evolved once I let it free.
When
do you hate it?
Well,
I deeply deeply dislike “marketing.”
Makes writing seem a commodity, a thing exchangeable with the
dollar. I’ll never believe that. Just as I’ll probably never become
comfortable with marketing my work.
After all, who would advertise their babies for a profit? Availability is the key difference, my work
working for its new father or mother.
What does that mean? It means the
work should be available to those who might be interested in discovering it, in
sharing a drink that tastes better once we’re both shirtless. As in poor.
As in needy. As in too thirsty to
give nakedness a second thought.
What
is a regular writing day like for you?
Unless
my medical world intercedes, I start out my writing day typically with picking
up on a writing project from the day before, or—if I’m really on a
roll—sketching out a new poem. What joy
it is to just let the spirit flow!
Do
you think authors have big egos?
Goodness,
I have little doubt that some authors have huge egos. I’m sure I have an ego, if “ego” is defined
as responsibility for the written words.
And it’s odd, I guess, to have that ego challenged and to enjoy the
challenge. I love to hear what others
read or misread in my work—what’s wrong with it, what’s just not working, what
shouldn’t be changed. Only apathy hurts.
How
do you handle negative reviews?
I
shudder with criticism and the very act of shuddering makes me feel alive,
vital, damaged and gloriously vulnerable to getting better. Pain is a reader saying nothing. I treasure the idea of someone pointing out
what’s not working on the page, and even more so, why.
How
do you handle positive reviews?
The
positive comment is kind and useful and also easily forgotten. My created pieces are creatures—they are thankful
for kind strangers. A kind comment helps
the great many broken knees keep walking.
What
is the usual response when you tell a new acquaintance that you’re an author?
Candidly,
I’d much rather discover someone else is an author than identify myself as an
author. I like the word “writer” much
better; “author” sounds like someone who’s dead—or should be.
What
do you do on those days you don’t feel like writing? Do you force it or take a
break?
I
force my creative writing only when I’m in a particularly masochistic mood. Creativity—my creativity—just can’t work well
under pressure or deadlines. The reflex
says “no”; the soul says “sorry.”
Though I do acknowledge some power in a self-imposed ultimatum—the
frustration alone can lead to self-discovery once the pain quits screaming.
Any
writing quirks?
I
have an obsessive tendency when it comes to words and metaphors. I tend to ruminate on the inexplicable, which
should make writing essays fun—but that is not the case. Essays too often teeter toward journalism,
and as the critic Cyril Connolly noted, journalistic work tends to favor a
single read. I prefer work that calls me
back to the page—more than one read. I
prefer the voice prompting rumination. My
writing rumination typically demands a stage where something has to
happen. As in my Shirtless novel,
someone has to become the next governor of Georgia. People demand it. They obsess over it. For this reason, our politicians (in the
novel and real life) pay the price for the communal thirst. Ah—now we’re coming to the guy that hangs
shirtless before all Georgia.
What
would you do if people around you didn’t take your writing seriously or see it
as a hobby?
I’m
fortunate in having friends and lovers interested in my obsessions, including
the writing projects that keep me from creating less presentable trouble. Writing takes time, just as life does to
those determined to write another way through it.
Some
authors seem to have a love-hate relationship to writing. Can you relate?
Love-hate? Hmmm…perhaps that ties into why it took
twelve years to write SHIRTLESS MEN DRINK FREE.
There are characters there that wanted me to hate them, but eventually they
just gave up, drank up and made themselves available as challenges for new
lovers.
What’s
on the horizon for you?
I’ve
just finished a new poetry collection titled (tentatively) SEX, GREED AND FRIED
PIES. I’ve been told the title is
off-putting, i.e., needs to be more poetic.
The poems deal with where I come from, which is a Mississippi trying
mighty hard to be comfortable with grease, peaches, dirt and redemption. But then, what state—in one way or
another—isn’t? Perhaps my Mississippi
poems just don’t need as much foreign butter.
Leave
us with some words of wisdom about the writing process or about being a writer.
The
hardest word is “the.” As in the book, the paper, the
message. “The” is an article, a word
that signifies (i.e., its definitive purpose) but in itself means nothing (for
example, when “the” needs a headshot, the camera captures nothing). “The” holds
no pretense, no weight and ultimately no substance. “The” is essential though. “The” helps just by being there, by propping up
the word that comes next, which testifies to the humility it takes to become
the author, the creator, the near-god who knows his next word, like his world,
can be better.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Shirtless Men Drink Free, Doctor
Jane Beekman has seen her dying mother’s soul, a vision above the bed—a soul
struggling with a decision, some undone task, something in this world too noble
to leave. The question that lingers—why?—prompts a shift in the doctor’s
priorities. In this election year, Jane
must do what her mother, an aspiring social activist, would have done. Soon,
Jane is embroiled in the world of Georgia politics, working to make sure her
dynamic younger brother-in-law Jackson Beekman is selected the next governor,
regardless of what the soul of the candidate’s dead father or that of his
living brother—Jane’s husband—might want done.
Indeed, it is a mother’s persistence and a father’s legacy that will
ultimately turn one Beekman brother against the other, launching a struggle
with moral consequences that may extend far beyond Georgia. Set amidst 2004’s
polarizing election fears—immigrants and job take-overs, terrorists in waiting,
homosexuals and outsider agendas—Shirtless
Men Drink Free makes vivid the human soul’s struggle in a world bedeviled
by desire and the fears that leave us all asking—Why?
Engaging, beautifully written and resplendent with realism, Shirtless Men Drink Free is a standout
debut destined to stay with readers long after the final page is turned. A meticulously crafted tale that showcases an
outstanding new voice in Southern fiction, Shirtless
Men Drink Free has garnered high advance praise:
“This is brilliant and rare
work, as attentive to an absorbing plot as it is to a poetic, chiseled
cadence."—Paul Lisicky,
award-winning author of The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship
“These characters are all too
real. Rieves, as Faulkner, McMurtry and Larry Brown, writes people and story
that will worm, burrow into you. Change you even.” —Adam Van Winkle, Founder and Editor,
Cowboy Jamboree
“Vividly
sensuous, this novel is full of textures, sounds and smells. Rieves tells
a terrific story with the sensitivity of a poet.” —Margaret Meyers, author of Swimming in the Congo
Published by Tupelo Press joint venture partner Leapfolio, Shirtless Men Drink Free will be
published in trade paper (ISBN: 978-1-946507-04-4, 326 pages, $16.95) and eBook
editions. The novel will be available
where fine books are sold, with an arrival on January 22, 2019.
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