David Hollander
Author Interview - David Hollander
Author I draw inspiration from: Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Up again, old heart!”)
Author Interview - David Hollander
Favorite place to read a book: On a porch, in the early evening, in a rocking chair, beneath the bloodred light of another murdered day.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Bartleby the Scrivener.
Author Interview - David Hollander
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: That’s a hard one. I’m not sure there was a moment… but I know that reading the story collections of Harlan Ellison as a young teenager affected me and made me wish I had written those stories. Later, while studying with Rick Moody as a college undergraduate, I began to realize that fiction writing might (weirdly enough) be the best possible avenue for pursuing the capital-T Truth. That’s probably when I really started thinking about it seriously.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback. Though sometimes an old hardback from a library seems to whisper to you in a way a paperback cannot. I can’t read ebooks because the part of my brain that’s addicted to the internet seems to get involved, simply by virtue of looking at a screen. I cannot concentrate.
The last book I read: Stephen Florida, by Gabe Habash. Easily one of the best books I’ve read in the past five years. At its heart it’s a novel about obsession, but it morphs into something deeply disorienting. It reminded me a little of Open Curtain, by Brian Evenson. Both were published by Coffeehouse, which is maybe no coincidence?
Author Interview - David Hollander
Pen & paper or computer: Pen & paper, 100%. But I feel like a dying breed.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: All the characters I like best are deeply flawed and might not make very good friends. But I think Push the Bully (from Stanley Elkin’s “Poetics for Bullies) and I might have a good time talking shop. “What have you settled for? What have you settled for?”
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: Marine biologist. Or X-wing pilot.
Favorite decade in fashion history: That’s easy. The 70s.
Place I’d most like to travel: (When I was a kid I thought that by the time I was the age I am now we’d have colonized the moon and Mars and trips back and forth would be routine. Now I’m just hoping I live long enough to see a person step on the red planet.)
My signature drink: Water.
Favorite artist: The guitarist David Rawlings
Number one on my bucket list: To swim with the Giant Squid. Or to get tenured.
Anything else you'd like to add: I prefer long division.
Find more from the author:
https://www.instagram.com/animalriotpress/
Author Interview - David Hollander
