Contributor Spotlight: Michael Stoneberg
Michael Stoneberg’s story “What If You’re Lonely” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 16, out now.
How long have you been writing?
Well, like many of us who grace your pages I imagine, I began penning fictions when I was young—say, 5-7—without thinking much about it. I just thought it was important to explore the family cat’s thoughts, feelings, and emotional states when we, his humans, left town for vacation that one time. I’ve been serious about it since high school, though I went through a bout of denial as an engineering major those first two years in college, and have been even serious-er ever since.
What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I came out to little ole Oxford, Ohio for grad school from the Pacific Northwest, and some people persist in asking me what the hell is wrong with me, am I an idiot, why leave paradise, etc. But I’ve been around these parts a while now, about 3 years, have hit a number of the cities, had pretty wonderful times, hung around a bunch of the better people, and have grown into a human I actually kind of like out here, so it holds a special place in my heart.
How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
Some decent if reductive advice is to write what you know, and so I’ve been writing people into Cincinnati—the nearest bigger city to Oxford—quite a bit since I’ve been here. I led a fairly sheltered and small-town life in Oregon, and so finally experiencing cities regularly out here— people-watching, dropping eaves, experiencing snow and heartbreak and city transit—has been fruitful fodder.
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?
Hmm, well, I don’t really know. I have nothing against regional writing—I think place as a significant part of art is worthwhile and necessary, and I admire people who explore the history and character of a place through their writing—but I don’t tend to function that way as a writer. Place is generally secondary to the mess of humanity for me. I don’t consider my writing to be a particular product of the Pacific Northwest, or the Midwest, or wherever else I may end up, although each of those places will clearly leave their mark. I guess it’s more about the wildness and absurdity of human connection/disconnection for me.
How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I’m on the Facebook, and I post things when I get the honor of being featured as a reader at a public event or a writer in a publication, but I’m not avid about self-promotion via social media. I probably should do more, but I’m not that good at it or as interested in it as a tool as maybe I should be. I’m more interested in social media as a fascinating cultural artifact and mode of human interaction that should maybe be explored through fiction more, as omnipresent and evolving as it is.
Favorite book?
At the risk of sounding like a total jackass: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I love a lot of books and authors, but that one still pricks my arm hairs and makes me smile and sob and gaze pensively into the middle-distance more than any other book ever has.
Favorite food?
I’m a sucker for veggie pizza actually; I’m not fancy. Vegetarian, sure, but not fancy. Also, cheese.
If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
I bet a beer with Lorrie Moore would be kind of amazing. I always feel like her characters and I get along swimmingly, and I’d like to think the same is true of their author. And there’s that line in Anagrams about “The Great White Whine”: “whiney white people getting together over white wine and whining.” So actually it would probably have to be over a glass or three of white.
Where can we find more information about you?
I’m hard to find on the Facebook, because I’m part of that generation that knows just enough about social media to be fascina-terrified of it. Or maybe that’s just me? But I also have a website thing: http://mikestoneberg.wix.com/michael-stoneberg
