5 Questions with Author Derek McCormack
Derek McCormack is a writer who lives in Toronto. His previous texts include The Snow that Smells, Haunted Hillbilly, and The Well Dressed Wound. His new book is Castle Faggot, published by Semiotext(e).
Derek McCormack is in conversation with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore discussing their new books in our City Lights LIVE! discussion series on Thursday, December 3rd
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Where are you writing to us from?
I'm in my apartment in Toronto.
What’s kept you sane this year?
Ambien, Citalopram and Nortriptyline.
What are 3 books you always recommend to people?
I hardly ever recommend books because nobody cares about the crap I care about! But here's a list to prove my point: Horror Magic by Jim Magus; Pleasant Nightmares: Dr. Neff and His Madhouse of Mystery by William V. Rauscher; H.Roltair: Genius of Illusions by John A. McKinven.
Which writers, artists, and others influence your work in general, and this book, specifically?
This book was deeply influenced by Henry Roltair, an American magician of the late 19th century. He created stage effects, he designed theme park rides and mirror mazes, and he toured the world with the House Upside Down, which was exactly what it said it was: an upside-down house that people paid to walk through. If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?
I have always wanted to open a store in my hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, which for me is a town full of ghosts. If I had a bookstore there, I'd fill it with ghosts: books about Halloween, dark rides, spiritism, ghost shows and macabre magic. And I'd hollow out the pages of all the books and hide fake jumping snakes in them.
