Contributor Spotlight: Charles McLeod
Charles McLeod’s story “Nycticorax Nycticorax” appears in Midwestern Gothic 1.
How long have you been writing?
My first published story appeared in The Iowa Review in early 2006. I wrote my first short story about seven years prior to that.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I got my B.A. in the Midwest, and currently teach Creative Writing at Western Illinois University. I’m also Midwest Editor for the online literary magazine Joyland.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
The Midwest is the only place I’ve herded bulls with a pickup truck. Somehow, this is the correct answer to this question.
Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
Perhaps because a push has never been needed? Every year, it seems, there are wonderful collections about the Midwest that captivate the reading public—two recent examples I would cite are Donald Ray Pollock’s Knockemstiff and Bonnie Jo Campbell’s American Salvage. Michael Martone’s fantastic Double-wide should also be mentioned, and there are many, many more. Additionally, I’m unsure if there’s any single entity that’s shaped contemporary American prose writing more than the Iowa Writers Workshop.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I think it’s free, easy and wise to do. That being said, I‘m not on the Twitter.
Favorite book?
Impossible, but five books that I love dearly are The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald, State of Grace by Joy Williams, Demonology by Rick Moody, Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson and Marilynne Robinson’s collection of essays, The Death of Adam.
Favorite food?
A few of my favorite things to eat are the pad thai at Jai Thai, in Seattle, the pumpkin ice cream at Max’s, in DC, and a Special Double Burger at The Smokehouse, in Berkeley. My new favorite sushi place is Virago, in Nashville. Yes, Nashville.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Also impossible, but nominees would include Orwell, Borges and Dickinson.
Where can we find more information about you?
My first novel, American Weather, is forthcoming in June from Random House UK/Harvill Secker. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Weather-Charles-McLeod/dp/1846553334
