Adelaide Literary Magazine No. 50. July 2021

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page. These poets have taught me through example to be more truthful about myself. I’ve nev-
er been so honest about myself as I have been since I started to read the work of these poets.

7.  What are you working on right now?
Anything new cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

I am a little over ninety per cent finished with a collection entitled A Feast of Losses. This is
the first time I haven’t evolved my own title. I owe Stanley Kunitz. I recently finished reading
his complete poems, and I latched onto a group of words that led me to that title. In other
zones, I have two new books, Dark Guitar and The Sanctity of Seasons on a publisher’s desk.
I await his decision. Also, on yet a different publisher’s desk sits two chapbooks, The Only
Country I’ve Been Dead In and Gods of Disharmony. Again, I await a decision.

8. D id you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think – who reads and who should read your books?

I think about the profile of my readers with every poem that I write. I want my poems to be
accessible. That is very important to me. I don’t want my readers to need reference books to
enjoy the poem. Of course, there have to be some exceptions along the way. Not everyone is
knowledgeable about mythological or biblical allusions, so, yes, there are some times when
a person has to do a little research. I am mostly talking about abstract and unapproachable
poems, the kind that, after reading the poem, makes the reader ask what the poem was
about. I don’t object to a reader having to peek into a dictionary occasionally.

9. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?

Yes, First, do not pass your poem around to too many people for advice. That will mostly con-
fuse a writer. I think the ideal arrangement is to have one or two people whom the writer can
rely on for objective, intelligent, informed help. Yes, I’m talking about the mentoring situation.
A writer is very lucky to have a mentor. I’ve almost always relied on one or two other people
to critique my work, but sometimes I finish a piece and pass it off to a magazine without
anyone else looking at it first. I once joined a writer’s critiquing group comprised of very fine
writers, but it didn’t work for me. I do better with one on one or no one. Second, learn not to
take rejection personally. That’s a hard piece of advice to follow, because the first reaction a
writer usually has when a poem is rejected is to take the rejection personally. The editor’s job
is a subjective job. I recently had a poem accepted that had been rejected eight times. Don’t
give up. Don’t let rejection deter from writing the next poem. Third, write every day. Do not
wait for inspiration or the momentous event. Write about the familiar. In other words, write
about what you know. Don’t wait for time to write. It hardly ever comes. Make time for writ-
ing. Steal it, if you have to. Mostly, keep in mind that all good writiing is rewriting.

10. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?

Write about what you know is the best advice about writing I have ever heard. Even so, I
have, at rare moments, ventured off into unknown territory to write about Geronimo and
famous people I’ve never met. The most influential moment to affect my writing came one

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autumn afternoon in the only poetry writing course I ever took at Ohio State. I had written
a poem called “Song of Emily Dickinson” which won the university’s annual writing award.
That afternoon, the professor read my poem to the class and commented about the line,
“Doubt is what she sang as she descended the stairs.” Then he raved about the music of the
line. Until that moment, it was just one of the random lines from the poem, but I then took
a closer look at the line and learned almost everything I needed to know about sound in a
poetic line. Of course, I generalize, but that line became a touchstone for teaching me how
to put music in my poems.

11. H ow many books you read annually and what are you
reading now? What is your favorite literary genre?

I read about twelve books a year that aren’t poetry. I really enjoy mysteries, but when I have
time to read, I prefer to write. I do read every book of poetry that I get my hands on. I believe
that some of the best writing today is coming from people who write mysteries. This is not
to say that we don’t have some brilliant writers of general fiction, too.

12. W hat do you deem the most relevant about your writing? What
is the most important to be remembered by readers?

I would like readers to see my effort to make something beautiful from words. I would be
happy, if readers discover one of my books someday in a dusty attic, read it, and find that the
book helped them get through a difficult life. Reading helped me survive a tough childhood.
I can’t imagine a world without books. At my age, however, I am trying fast to get it all said,
all the stories, all the attempts to engender a little bit of beauty, and I profusely thank all of
the writers who have shared with me their reach for beauty.

13. W hat is your opinion about the publishing industry today and
about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?

It is much harder to get published today then it was thirty years ago when I finally went pub-
lic with my work. Their are many more people writing, and that makes it tough to strike up a
relationship with an individual publisher. It still happens, but I think it is rare. The movement
from physical books to online publication is more than a trend. It is a transition period now,
but the end result will surely be that the majority of poems will only be accessible online.
That change gives publishers an opportunity to publish more material more often and gives
writers more chances to be published. Most publishers are overworked and deserve all the
credit they can get. I don’t, of course, know if the physical book will disappear altogether.
I hope not. I’ve grown used to seeing my poems published online, but my nostalgia wants
to hold the physical book, also. I didn’t think I would ever replace record albums, CDs, and
DVDs with streamed content, but now I do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Change is
inevitable. As a friend once told me, life is not about change. Life IS change.

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Photos by Henry Coleman
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RYAN SWIFTE

Author of CARELESS

1. T ell us a bit about yourself – something that we will
not find in the official author’s bio?

I collect small unattractive animals, yeast cultures, and crocuses.
I did the first flight tests for Boeing’s 2707.
I’m the only person in Colorado who knows how to use a slide rule.
I’m the only person in Colorado who knows all the words to the state song (“I love you,

Colorado, you’re the greatest state of all-l-l, I love you in the Winter, Summer, Spring and in
the F-F-F-Fall...”)

My Chinese mother-in-law’s response the first time she met me: “He’s not quite white, is
he?” (他不是很白)

I’ve been married four times. I don’t have any children–as far as I know.
I never wear plaid.

2.  Do you remember what was your first story
(article, essay, or poem) about and when did you write it?

My first recorded bit of writing dates back to 2nd grade, where I was forced (emphasis on
forced) to come up with a poem. Desperate, I turned to my mother and sister for assistance,
and the result:

The pterodactyl’s name was Sam
Because he liked to eat roast leg of lamb
A very sad fact
Strange but true
The only food around was Blue Goon
So Sam continue on his quest
In spite of hunger, want and thirst... (fragment lost)

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...was a smash. Too bad I didn’t write it. (Well, I think I contributed the part about Sam
liking lamb. That was about it.)

3. What is the title of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Careless”. One possible tagline: “Careless is about how careless we are when searching for
true love. And how careless we are when we finally find it.”

Accounts of May/December unions are typically written from the (young) woman’s per-
spective. Careless looks at the experience from the man’s point of view. The novel is based,
in part, on the author’s experience; on that of a dozen interviewees (men and women); and
from my research on the love lives of such celebrities as Gene Kelly, Kate Winslett, Jerry
Seinfeld, Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, and Will and Ariel Durant.

4. H ow long did it take you to write your latest work and
how fast do you write (how many words daily)?

I started the book–and wrote the first 3 chapters–in 1988. Then I shoved it in a desk drawer,
where I occasionally visited it. I finally took it out of the drawer and started writing in earnest
about 5 years ago. I’ve written all sorts of short stories but never a book. So I treated each
chapter as a short story. If you flip through Careless, you’ll notice that chapters are only 4 or
5 pages long. That’s my inner short story editor at work.

I write slowly and carefully, like I’m building a wall, brick by brick. If I can generate a single
page of usable copy in a day, I’m a happy camper.

5. Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I usually wear chiffon when I’m writing–it’s classy yet comfortable at the same time.

I usually write late at night, when it’s quiet. When I encounter a knot in my prose, an obsta-
cle, I take a chocolate break or I play some piano, and that seems to put me back in the groove.

6.  Is writing the only form of artistic expression that you utilize, or
is there more to your creativity than just writing?

Mostly writing. I’m a so-so painter, a terrible potter (my mother is a professional), a barely
adequate photographer (my sister, cousin, and best friend are all award-winning shutter-
bugs); and a danger when I’m using an acetylene torch in my metal casting class.

7. Authors and books that have influenced your writings?
So many writers, so little time. A few of the highlights: Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, E.B.
White, James Thurber, Frank Sullivan (humor and “casuals”); Harlan Ellison, Arthur C. Clarke,
Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury (SF); Saul Steinberg, Richard Stine, William Steig (New Yorker
cover artists and illustrators); history (too many to list. A few faves: Joseph Ellis, David Mc-
Cullough, Gore Vidal, Jack Rakove).

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Transformative books: Herzog (Saul Bellow), Lolita (Nabokov), Lincoln (Vidal), The Ugly
American (Eugene Burdick), The Elements of Style (EBW), Pluck and Luck (Benchley), Let Your
Mind Alone! (Thurber), Words and Women (Miller/Swift), Act 1 (Moss Hart), I Could Never
Be So Lucky Again (Jimmy Doolittle), How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (Lenny Bruce).

8.  What are you working on right now? Anything new
cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

Oh god–don’t call authors “wordsmiths”! It sounds like we’re pounding an anvil all day. Most
of the people I know who proudly claim to be wordsmiths are lousy writers.

New and cooking? A sequel to Careless–naturally dubbed Reckless. (Is there a Hopeless
in the future?) A science fiction novel about an interstellar diplomat. And...maybe a TV pilot
set in Hollywood in 1948.

9.  Did you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think – who reads and who should read your books?

I do. Not that readers are perched on my shoulder. But I do think about their sensibilities vs,
mine. If I’m reaching them. If my prose is crystal clear. If I’m having the desired impact.

As far as Careless is concerned, I suspect that men in their 50s and older, and women in
their twenties, will be the likely audiences for the book.

10. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?
William Strunk put it best:

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a para-
graph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnec-
essary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all
his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that
every word tell.”

11. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?
Write what you know, sound like yourself (in short, develop your own voice), and never borrow,
always steal. Adds James Michener: “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”

12. H ow many books do you read annually and what are you
reading now? What is your favorite literary genre?

Hmm. I’m usually reading three books at once–history, politics, science, and Hollywood
memoirs and biographies. The latter are a guilty pleasure. For example, I’m reading The
Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson; The Last
Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War; and Breasts: A Natural and
Unnatural History.

Favorite literary genre: memoir.

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13.  What do you deem the most relevant about your writing? What

is the most important to be remembered by readers?
In other words, why should anyone read my book? Good question! I try to recreate a time
and place and put the reader is this realm. To see, to smell, to be awash in it, to capture how
it feels to the characters in the book.

One of the toughest scenes to write was the first time Nathaniel and Sarah kiss. How do
you capture all the variables, the feelings, the physicality of it? And how do you grapple with
the meaning of love?

That’s what Careless attempts to do. Careless is a novel about the nature and nurture of
true love.
14.  What is your opinion about the publishing industry today and

about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?
A big question. Having worked for newspapers, magazines, book publishers and digital me-
dia, I’ve discovered the answer: content is king. If you’ve got good content–whether it’s
sports reporting or do-it-yourself auto repair advice–you’ll get readers. The publications
world needs to be reminded of this every five years or so. It’s not about platforms. OK–may-
be it is. If your book or investigative feature is going to appear in a print magazine and on
your smartphone, you very definitely need to know what the platform (e.g., the iPhone, the
printing press) can do. But having done that, it still boils down to compelling reporting, razor
sharp writing, accurate editing, and superior production values.

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