Writing involves a lot of discipline and hard work, but also procrastination and often a deficit of human interaction. Online communities, social media and instant messaging all provide an outlet for human contact, a tool for bouncing ideas off of others and a very common procrastination technique. I took a writer’s best friend/worst enemy, gchat, and used it to my advantage to converse with and interview Alex Leslie. Leslie is a spectacular Vancouver-based writer (and dynamite conversationalist) with two new books on the horizon: a chapbook of microfictions, Twenty Objects for the New World with local Nomados Press and her debut collection of short stories People Who Disappear, to be published in spring 2012 by Broadview Press imprint Freehand, who recently announced that they will temporarily suspend acquisitions.

On Monday morning I interrupted Alex Leslie’s online viewing of the previous night’s airing of the MTV Video Music Awards to conduct this interview.

show details Aug 29 (4 days ago)

11:40AM

me: okay. let’s do this.

alex: ok.

LETS DO THIS.

me: thanks for doing this.

alex: for sure. oh bieber just won. i hate him. he’s crossed over to the dark side.

OK i’m focusing…. focusing…he’s a lesbian. we should discuss that.

me: we should. first off, let’s talk a little about what we’re doing. how important is gchat to your day?

alex: ok. gchat is a huge source of procrastination for me…also sometimes i can’t remember whether conversations were in person or on gchat which is hella generationally specific. or somebody should tell a sociologist or something.

me: yes. i’m sure our parents aren’t having this discussion.

alex: have you read tao lin?

me: no.

alex: he put gchat in his novella, shoplifting from american apparel. i freaked out a little bit. but/also i think it’s awesome to put that into your ‘writing’.

me: i agree. if writers want to include gchats, they should, because a lot of writers spend half their day on there. here.

alex: yeah. there’s some poetry collection that’s all Facebook status updates. i admit i balked at that and then thought it was brilliant.

me: it’s like with anything, if it’s done well, thoughtful, interesting it will be brilliant. to some people. others will balk and balk.

alex: which just means it’s thoughtful and interesting.

me: it’s great for people to have strong reactions. speaking of, you’re primarily a short fiction writer – do you find it strange that novels are often considered the prom queen of fiction and short stories are the bad kids hanging outside 7-11?

alex: Absolutely. I think it’s a shame particularly in Canada where so many writers who cross the line of prose/poetry work in short fiction. To me short stories are about compression. There’s usually more focus on language, making it do more things in a smaller space. Writers like Mark Anthony Jarman and Lisa Foad come to mind.

I also find that people who have a bias against short fiction haven’t read any. that last sentence made me sound like an a******. oh well.

me: it made you sound like you do read it and know what you’re talking about.

alex: right. also short stories are often more difficult to summarize because they often work with structure or atmosphere for dramatic effect, rather than plot.

I just checked Facebook. During our interview. Just keepin it real.

me: I checked it too.

alex: Dina is typing

me: and i was reading dlisted

alex: I can’t tell if this interview is revealing something about how gchat messes with conversations or whether it is really affected/irritating. Just checked Facebook again.

Dina has entered text.

me: you have a new chapbook published by Nomados, Twenty Objects for the New World. It’s a book of microfictions, which sound really adorable, but you’re not writing about kittens and puppies here. Talk a little bit about the concept.

alex: i went around taking photos of public signs. billboards, park signs, etc. i cropped the photos to produce new words. for example: Please Leash Your Dog became Ease Leash — The Ease Leash. So each microfiction (or prose poem? back to genre — ha) takes a part of a public sign as its title and i wrote basically through a process of association and improvisation from there. like you said, i’m a short story writer so for me this way a way to break that up and do something more procedural, i guess, more of an experiment.

Nomados makes beautiful books. kudos to meredith quartermain for the design.

many of the objects are tied to the public language they came from. The And Registry came from The Land Registry. Yeah they’re in Strathcona. EAT LOCAL. No more farmed tish! haha vancouver joke.

I should mention that i love the artist Quintan Ana Wikswo. She makes narrative with prose and photos. I was inspired by her work. I also published a narrative made of alternating photos and prose poems on Branch. the Objects are connected to those things for me.

me: I’ve read the branch narratives.

alex: i think the way to keep writing is to tie it into your dailyness as directly as possible. photos do that for me.  there is a lot to consider in a photo: shape, colour, proportion

me: and in this case it was your photo, your experience in that moment. and then you writing and transforming it later.

alex: the Objects also came out of my reading of prose poems/prose things like Stein’s Tender Buttons and Harryette Mullen’s Sperm Kit. when i write short stories i need to balance attention to language and attention to story/character, but in projects like the Objects i can let that go.

me: on the short story front you also have a collection forthcoming from Freehand, who announced a few weeks ago, that they’ve suspended acquisitions. How excited and bummed does that make you?

alex: I’m excited to work with Freehand. Nothing’s changed in my editing schedule or in terms of the promotion/distribution of my book. Freehand’s a great press. Like everyone they’re having a hard time. So I admire them for soldiering on, honouring their previous commitments, being honest and clear with me about the situation. Since they’re part of Broadview I think that gives their writers more security. Also, things are tough all over.

me: Real tough.

alex: I’m a short story writer…

me: You’re the bad kid hanging outside 7-11!

alex: I’m happy about every publication, I try to help other people out with their projects, you know? What’s happening with Freehand is a cohesive part of the picture for me. Struggle isn’t exactly anomalous. Obviously I was worried and surprised, but that faded. Yes, tough.

me: What kind of culture are you into right now? Pop, literary, etc.

alex: I read autostraddle all the time. I read HTMLGIANT. I like RnB a lot. Music-wise I like Janelle Monae but I also like singer songwriters like Matt Pond. Literary-wise…I’m into prose poetry. I just read Elizabeth Colen’s book ‘Money For Sunsets,’ which is amazing. I’m fascinated by YouTube. How it’s become this repository of people’s lives.

I love this:

me: I love me some Jay-Z.

alex: Canadian lit journals I like: Dandelion, Poetry Is Dead, The Capilano Review. I’m into queer writing and I wish there were more space for language-focused queer writing in Vancouver.

me: Do you want to be the instigator?

alex: The instigator? Hmmmmm. I want to work with others.

me: it’s good to have a team

alex: I’m glad for the writing community I have in Vancouver, which I see as feminist. I’m editing the Queer issue of Poetry is Dead because Canadian literary journals never have queer issues. But it’s done a lot in the US. So. What’s up with that? I refer you to: Pank’s queer issue, Drunken Boat’s sex/slant issue.

me: That’s a good question.

alex: and i don’t know why that is. i truly don’t.

me: it’s not as if there are no queer writers.

alex: hell yes. So, i’m hoping all the people who’ve noticed this too will send their work. yeah. i had a lesbian friend who was fiction editor of an unnamed canadian lit journal and i suggested having a queer issue and she said that she “didn’t want people to think that she was biased towards queer content” so there are layers of strategizing/ possible self-loathing/ being afraid to alienate straight editors.

me: queer content is so obvious.

alex: hahaha. maybe if she just printed the gay stuff in pink ink, you know, just to be fair.

me: okay, so since we’ve talked about queer writing and autostraddle…

alex: uh oh, is this the part where we talk about?

me: Justin Bieber!

alex: YES!

me: i scared you.

alex: gchat = also great for comic timing.

me: i actually mean: tell me all your lesbian secrets.

alex: Justin Bieber’s crossed over to the dark side. He’s become a PR maniac. Are his people going to find this interview?

me: I hope so. I would love to gchat with you and the Biebs. triple chat! I bet he has a lot to say about microfiction. and tender buttons. you wrote a thinly veiled bieber story that won last year’s Matrix Litpop contest. so you have a connection.

alex: Yes. The story is all descriptions of youtube videos.

me: do you think people are wary of writing about pop culture in a literary way?

alex: Absolutely. I don’t like to categorize people according to age, but I think this is something that is age-specific. I’m in my 20s and the internet is all-pervasive. Music i get through music videos. News I get through links posted by friends. Not entirely, but it forms a significant part of  how I get news. How many people found out about Jack Layton’s death from Facebook? I did.

me: I found out on Twitter.

alex: I’m working on a book of short stories about the internet. Or every story is set inside the internet. So much drama happens because of things that happen online. How we witness foreign wars, through YouTube videos. Is that more immediate, or more surreal?

I’m also interested in breaking down the High/Low art thing.What short stories should be about. i don’t see why I can’t write about YouTube, about Facebook, etc. That’s something I do see more in US fiction.

me: Was your experience vastly different from Nomados to Freehand?

alex: Oh definitely. I just corrected a typo. I retyped definitely.

Freehand has a long editing schedule. I sold my book to them last fall. It’s out in April. Many stages of editing, production, design, etc. They’re in Calgary so it happened over email and phone. Nomados is here. I know Meredith Quartermain, who edited my book. The process was much faster, much more personal. With a small press there’s a formal contract, there’s money that changes hands, there’s a formal schedule. It’s a work-like set up. It’s a long process. I’ve had to be patient with it. It’s hard to place one’s first book. So I’m just enjoying the process.

me: Good.

alex: So to all y’alls who haven’t sold your first book (yet) keep going! See? Solidarity.

me: Your positive advice pleases me. Now, I know you watch reality tv.

alex: i love top chef.

me: If there was a reality tv show about writers, what would that look like? Let’s break it down. is it even possible?

alex: Yes. There would be writing exercises. At the end of every episode everybody would hold hands about talk about their insecurities. And then they would transcribe each other’s experiences. And fictionalize them. Producing deep-seeded resentments.

me: Who would be the Tim Gunn-like mentor?

alex: KD Lang

me: That would be great. Her voice is very soothing. Everyone would have to read their work in a room full of judges.

alex: No. Rufus Wainwright.

me: He could be a judge.

alex: Anne-Marie Macdonald?

me: Now we need judges.

alex: Atwood.

me: She has to be the main judge.

alex: Can I mention that I love Atwood? Everybody should read her story ‘The Age of Lead’ Because I said so.

me: CBC, are you paying attention to this? We have a show here. People, listen to Alex Leslie already.

alex: Hahahaha. I think the judges should all be small children. Or teenagers. Teenagers. Brutally honest teenagers.

me: Imagine a room full of writers and teenagers. Would they be prom queens or the bad 7-11 teens?

alex: Prom. To bring in an edgy class-conflict element.

me: now, would you be a contestant on the writing reality show?

alex: No, because I’m a terrible liar. Also because I’m a solitary writer. It would make me write terrible, terrible short stories.

me: would you watch it?

alex: Yes. But I’ll watch anything.

To purchase Twenty Objects for the New World visit Nomados Press. And look for Alex Leslie’s short story collection, People Who Disappear, in spring 2012.

Alex Leslie, Broadview Press, dlisted, Facebook, Freehand Books, justin bieber, Lisa Foad, Mark Anthony Jarman, Meredith Quart, Nomados Press, Tao Lin, Youtube Literature