Five Questions We Always Ask People We Love
A new Pioneers Press author interview series!
Installment #9, Craig Kelly, author of the book Dear Shane: A Mental Health Resource about Staying Alive
Q: How did you get into writing? I began to journal when I was a kid. Somewhere in my stacks of journals is one with a torn spine and a Garfield cover embellished with stickers of dogs that I decorated when I was in third grade. Garfield is sticking his paw out, dressed in a security guard's uniform and pointing to a sign that says "Authorized Personnel Only." Most of the journal is written in colored marker. In 8th grade, my school librarian, Ms. T, held an independent study group and started talking to me about zines and about how I could use them to tell my own stories. She's probably the main reason I ever felt encouraged enough to continue writing and producing zines.
Q: Who are you reading these days? This question bums me out because my depression interferes with my ability to concentrate and read so I haven't been reading as much as I would like. But I've been slowly working my way through Haruki Murakami's new book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
Q: Tell us about your work-space. I have a kitchen table that I've appropriated into a desk. Right now it's 3/4ths covered with notebooks, books, scraps of paper, pens, cords, an alarm clock, bills, anything and everything gets piled up and I end up pushing things out of the way so I can have the 1/4th to use to work. When I'm not at home, a lot of my writing is done in transit--the bus, the MAX, airplanes. There's something about being stuck in a spot where I'm forced to think that motivates me.
Q: What about new projects. Anything cool you're working on? Sarah B. and I have been talking about putting together a split zine, if I can ever get it together. After Dear Shane, I was so tired to writing about my mental health that it has taken me a year or so to go back to the place where writing about it is something I'm up to doing.
Q: If you could do anything in the world right now, what would it be? Get a car and take a road trip across the country. That or get a dog.
