Linda Addison

Linda Addison has published over 200 poems and short stories, and is the author of three collections: Being Full of Light, Insubstantial; Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes; and Animated Objects. In 2001 she became the first African-American to win a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association (Superior Achievement in Poetry for Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes). She continues to explore genres in both poetry and prose today, with several works lined up for release in 2012.

HW: So much of writing, particularly in horror, is about establishing mood and atmosphere. What are the differences in establishing mood and atmosphere in poetry versus the same in prose?

LA: Prose and poetry have many things in common, the choice of words, descriptions, images. For me they both have beginning, middle and endings. I write both and have at times written a story and then created a poem for it.

Prose has more space to play with words for characters, dialogue, and setting. I can use several scenes to establish storyline, emotional attachment to characters, tension and then resolution.

In a poem each word is important in creating an image in the readers mind. For me that image does usually contain the foundation of a story. I like to cut words away in a poem until its essence sings through. The climax of a poem is revealed in the last stanza/words.

When you get an idea that you know you want to write about, do you know immediately "This is a poem" or "This is a story," or do you explore the idea both ways to see which method of expression works best?

I journal all the time, so I’m constantly writing down ideas, characters bits, words I overhear, emotional reactions to the world around me. When I start working on a new piece I usually have a feeling of whether an idea will unfold in the space of a story or the economy of a poem. There are times when I start writing a story and find it really wants to be a poem and vice-versa. It’s best not to fight what form a piece wants to take.

The best example of this is early in my career I had the fortune of talking to Frederick Pohl at a book fair and he told me every science fiction writer has to write a “Why the Dinosaurs Died” story. I wanted to be published in Asimov’s SF magazine and wrote my version of the story. It didn’t feel like it was ready for submission. The writer’s group I’m part of read it and said it was so short it should be a poem. I tried writing it as a poem and that felt right. I submitted it to Asimov’s SF magazine and received my first acceptance from them. I was beyond excited.

Do you have a preference between poems and prose? Does either come easier or more "naturally" than the other?

Poetry comes more naturally. I hear poetry in everything, like a subliminal song in the back of my mind all the time. Even when I write prose I work to add some song/poetry. There are some ideas that need the form of prose. It takes more work to create long fiction for me but I find it very satisfying to explore the story presented by characters.

On your website you mention your "quirky" house and that write surrounded by "strange and wondrous items." Could you tell us a little about the house, and the items in your writing space?

There is a coyote stick hanging over the doorway in the living room, a ram skull on the mantelpiece, Star Wars figures and lots of books. The walls are filled with art and pieces bought at horror and science fiction conventions and trips to other countries over the years: Crossbows, Day of the Dead dioramas, gargoyles, dragons, African and Mayan masks, American Indian stone hatchet, etc.

My writing office has a poster from Star Wars, framed art I have been given as gifts, bookcases with toy figures from Star Wars, Blade, Farscape. The left corner of my desk is a kind of alter and has an African-American wizard statue, surrounded by bits and pieces that represent my journey through life to this point (white feather from my yard, stones from the mountains of Sedona, a small statue of the Black Madonna from Montserrat Spain, mini Tarot deck, leaf from Peru, dragon statue and a Bram Stoker). I have a cork board over my desk that I change every few months depending on what project I’m working on.

Right now it has a wall hanging of the Goddess Green Tara given to me by Tibetan Buddhist Geshe Lama Ahbay Rinpoche during his visit to America last year, a print out of my favorite Rumi poetry, a self-portrait my son did in elementary school, a button with Martin Luther King and President Obama on it, three different dragon images, a cross and three metal bookmarks that say Dream, Faith, Believe.

When I write I usually play some music, burn a candle, meditate/pray and then let my fingers play on the keyboard.

Who are your influences in writing?

When I was in high school I loved reading Shakespeare out loud because of the sound of the words even though I didn’t always understand them. I read other authors for the same reason, the music in their writing: Ralph Ellison, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others.

I read everything I could get from the library of science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Robert Heinlein, Barry Malzberg, Frederick Pohl, etc.

After college I discovered a long list of genre writers, for example, Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler , Nancy Kress, Terry Bisson, John Varley through Asimov’s SF Magazine.

In horror, some of the authors I enjoy reading are Anne Rice, Stephen King, Peter Straub, L. A. Banks, Douglas Clegg, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Massie, Charlee Jacob, Jack Ketchum, and Thomas Piccirilli.

The list is too long to list here.

The horror and science fiction genres are dominated by white males, so you're bucking a couple of trends as an African-American woman writing in those genres. Has your race and gender proven to be any sort of barrier, or have you found that it really doesn't matter as long as you produce good work?

That domination was in full force when I started reading but I was so drawn to genre writing that I just read it all. When I started writing my future was multi-cultured, not just African-American, because I was curious about all the cultures that live on this planet.

When I finally got the courage to send my work out I realized that the editors had no idea that I was African-American and that I had to write well to get published. I collected a box full of rejections but I never thought it was because of race since the submission process is blind. I worked (and continue to work) at writing the best I can.

In fact two of my proudest early publications were in Asimov’s SF Magazine and Tomorrow magazine. The editors didn’t know I was African-American until years later when I met them at an event.

Over the years there are women and other cultures publishing in the genre field. I hope it makes it easier for young writers to see themselves published. I really pushed because I was stubborn and obsessed. Seeing the character Uhura in Star Trek on television was a major boost for me.

Everything changed in 2000 when Sheree Thomas’ Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora anthology was published by Warner Books. The book got a lot of attention and the fact that I was African-American was out in the open. It hasn’t been a negative thing for me in the genre writing community. I’ve been treated with respect by other writers, which is very heartening.

You are the first African-American recipient of the Bram Stoker Award. How important is it to have that particular distinction?

It was beyond amazing to receive the HWA Bram Stoker but I didn’t realize I was the first African-American until a friend mentioned it and I checked the list of previous recipients. I didn’t write my book to win the Bram Stoker and was humbled to find out I was the first African-American to receive it.

I remember being at the 1999 HWA Bram Stoker event in New York when Tananarive Due’s excellent book My Soul to Keep was nominated for a Bram Stoker. I was so excited to meet her and if she had won I would have been over the moon happy. She didn’t receive the Bram Stoker but her career has been a bright star for the African-American community and writing community in general.

I’m eager for another African-American to receive the Bram Stoker Award. There are some wonderful African-American authors out there. Tananarive Due’s African Immortals series is fantastic. We lost an amazing writer when L. A. Banks died last year; she left a legacy of more than 40 books. There’s quite a list of other African-American writers in horror, for example, Wrath James White, Nalo Hopkinson, Terrence Taylor, Brandon Massey, Maurice Broaddus, Jemiah Jefferson, Chesya Burke, Alaya Dawn Johnson and others.

Whether it was me or another African-American author, it’s important that someone represent that place (first, second and so on). When I grew up there were very few examples of African-American writers in the genre field. I kept writing because my imagination wouldn’t go anywhere else. Now there are many other African-American genre authors for young writers to relate to.

What draws you to horror and science fiction? Has it always been a fascination, or something you discovered as you grew older and began exploring books for yourself?

I’ve always blamed my mother ;-) she was a wonderful storyteller. The tales she made up were more in the fantasy range. She and I would stay up late watching scary movies on Saturday night. My imagination always included something in the science-fiction or horror realm. I think my mind is wired for weird stuff.

Tell us a little bit about your writing group, Circles in the Hair. How does participating in a writing group help your own work? How has it enabled you to help others in their work?

Our group has been meeting since 1990. We’ve worked very hard to keep the purpose of the group to help each other create the best writing we can. The basic approach is to give feedback that says what’s working and what’s not working, and try to give suggestions to help.

CITH (Circles in the Hair) has been major in helping me evolve my work. I’m years ahead of where I would have been if I had stayed in my room writing alone. Even though we work with mostly with fiction, there are a few members who are very strong in poetry and have helped me grow in that area also.

Because writing can be such a solitary job it’s not easy to know how to improve without some feedback. I learned as much about improving my work from the group’s feedback as I did from learning how to give useful feedback to others. When I hear critiques of others work I incorporate those same questions when I rewrite.

I became very comfortable writing really crappy first drafts to get the work out and then re-writing to shape it up. We used a piece written by Grace Ackerman called Critiquer's Checklist to help outline what to look for in a piece. The main points are story line, characters, setting, dialogue, details and mechanics. In the end she asks: was the story worth telling, was it told well, if not, why not?

Now when I write, even though I still turn my work into the group for feedback, I have a much stronger editor’s voice for rewrites.

The hardest part of having an effective writer’s group is keeping the balance of egos in check and agreeing to the only purpose being to make the writing better. Our group works because no one is taking the feedback personally and no one gives mean-spirited feedback.

If you were looking to introduce someone to the works of Linda Addison, where would you recommend they begin?

I would say my newest book, How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend published by Necon E-Books, available as eBook and print. It has a poem/story/poem/story pattern, includes science fiction, fantasy and horror and represents the different facets of my writing. Each of my prior three books are special for different reasons, but I like to think there’s something for everyone in my latest book.

What new projects do you have lined up that readers should be watching for?

I’m very excited about The Four Elements poetry book to be released in 2012 by Bad Moon Books. The book contains four sections with work from myself and three other Bram Stoker Award winners: Marge Simon (Earth), Rain Graves (Water), Charlee Jacob (Fire) and myself (Air).

I will have a flash fiction piece, “Heart Throb”, in the Slices of Flesh anthology published by Dark Moon Books that will launch at 2012 World Horror Conference. The net proceeds will go to charities to be determined by participating authors and Dark Moon Books. (Primary charity at this time is the Literary Project of America.)

“Dark Duet” is a collaborative book of poetry inspired by music created by Stephen M. Wilson and myself, which we are marketing. I’m very proud of this book. Stephen’s poetry often takes a physical shape on the page and he has inspired me to do the same.

I’m currently working on a science fiction novel, a form I haven’t played in much, so time will tell how that turns out. You can check my site (www.lindaaddisonpoet.com) for updates on all my work.

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