The latest in the interview series is writer, editor, publisher and professor, Walter Cummins. Mr. Cummins' credits are extensive, including being an editor in varying degrees for six literary publications, authoring over 100 published stories and writing numerous books along with starting a publishing company. Walt and I talked about the industry, his career and the craft of writing. Be sure to read all three parts of the interview, starting with below.
Michael Aloisi- Tell us about your new book of short stories, The End of the Circle.
Walter Cummins- The fourteen stories in the collection all take place in European cities and landscapes; that is, after the first half of the transitional opening story, “Oxfords,” which begins around an American university town. Midway the protagonist travels to the UK Oxford, and from then on, it’s all Europe.
The focus on stories set in Europe was a deliberate choice to contrast with my previous collection. That one, Local Music, brought together stories that were local in the sense of being domestic in their small town American settings. Most take place in even more limited areas--houses, apartments, rooms. Both the habitats and the characters’ lives are constrained.
The physical spaces in The End of the Circle are vast--the whole of cities like London, Paris, Olso, Leiden, Venice; the landscapes of the Alps, Ireland, Norway, the English countryside, even a train that crosses several borders. But, ironically, the main characters are just as constrained in their lives as those in Local Music.
I suppose a follow up question would be why I write about such people. Let me paraphrase Thoreau: The mass of men (and women) lead lives of psychic confinement. My stories put them in situations that make them confront that confinement and realize desperation, quiet or otherwise.
MA- Your new book along with some of your other work like, The Literary Traveler all have a strong theme of location and traveling. You are obviously a man who loves to see the world. What is it about the world that inspires your writing?
WC- In the early decades of my life I felt a sense of that confinement without being able to articulate it. But I knew that I was missing so much even though I didn’t know what that much was. Then, in my thirties, I went to England for six months on my first sabbatical leave and haven’t stopped. Every time my wife and I go to a place, we fantasize living there. Writing stories and travel pieces is one way of doing that, exploring alternative lives. In the stories, the protagonists suffer great angst, but I have the pleasure of re-imagining the settings and trying to find words to describe them. But beyond architecture and geography and vistas and history, it’s the recognition of possibilities, what the world has to offer, what my characters want so much to find.
MA- Speaking of The Literary Traveler, you co-wrote that with Thomas E. Kennedy. You collaborate with him often. How did this friendship and working relationship begin?
WC-My first contact with Tom came in the late 1980s when he submitted an excellent story to The Literary Review, which I was editing. We gave it a prize, and he and I kept in touch. Not too many years later, he became an advisory editor and guest-edited for several special issues. We co-edited at least one and found that we worked well together, expanding our collaborations to sites like Web Del Sol, books co-written or co-edited, and most recently a publishing imprint called Serving House Books. Beyond that, we share writings in progress and give each other advice.
MA- When working with Mr. Kennedy, what is the process like?
WC- It ranges from conceiving projects to line editing, and much email back and forth. His creative imagination is always on. I can suggest a vague idea, and he writes back with a fleshed-out development. Two or three messages later we have a plan of action. For example, we came up with the idea for an essay collection called The Book of Worst Meals, each writing prototype essays, then inviting writers we know to tell about their worst dining experiences. We read their submissions, discussed our reactions, and in some cases made editing suggestions. That’s what we’ve done for other projects over the years.
MA- The two of you recently started another venture, Serving House Books, a non-profit company. What is the goal of the company and what can we expect to see from it in the future?
WC- I was in an editorial vacuum after twenty years of The Literary Review. When a friend told me about CreateSpace, an affiliate of Amazon.com that does print-on-demand books and makes them available on Amazon and through major distributors, Tom and I saw an opportunity to be part of a new direction in publishing, but primarily to provide an outlet for good writing--fiction, poetry, and essays--at a time when the opportunities for literary works are becoming more limited. We invite the authors we publish, and almost all have strong records of previous publication, awards, and grants. A few are relatively new writers we believe deserve greater recognition. We began SHB last fall and now have eight books out, expecting to be up to fifteen during the summer.
Be sure to read Part Two of this Three Part article.
For more on Walt, visit his website: Walt Cummins
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