Joshua Grasso

Joshua Grasso

The Mistress of Tea, fiction, issue 55, June 2021.

Bio

Joshua Grasso is a professor of English at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. He has a PhD in 18th century British literature from Miami University and teaches courses in early British and World literature, science fiction and fantasy, and writing. His stories have recently appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Exterus, Speculative North, Leading Edge, and the anthology, Welcome to the Alpacalypse. Additionally, his indie fantasy novel, Let Sleeping Gods Lie, is available to download on Amazon.

Get to know Joshua...

Birthdate?

May 9, 1974

When did you start writing?

I started seriously writing in high school after I fell in love with literature and simply couldn't help myself--I had to copy, imitate, and parody my favorite authors. That was in 1993, and I've never looked back, though I have stopped writing occasionally out of incredible self-doubt and frustration. But inevitably, I'll pick up a book and start reading, only to ask myself, "why can't you do that?"

When and what and where did you first get published?

My first real (though non-paying) publication was a joint translation of a poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko with the poet (I studied Russian literature with him in college) in 2005. I was just excited to have my name in a famous poet's book, even if I did little more than go "hmm, that word doesn't sound idiomatic...what about this one? No? Okay, do whatever you want to." My first publication of my own work was my indie fantasy novel, The Count of the Living Death (2013), which was my first attempt to really put my writing into the world. It had been rejected by countless agents and publishers, and my confidence was totally shot. Self-publishing saved me, since it got my work in the hands of readers who both supported and critiqued my writing. It helped me write more and more books, and finally, short stories that I no longer had to publish myself.

Why do you write?

Since I'm a professor, writing is part of my job now, so I couldn't stop if I wanted to! However, I write fiction because it's like having a conversation with the most exciting, brilliant, confusing person you've ever met. You never want to stop talking to them, but you don't understand half of what they say. So each story is an attempt to transcribe that lost conversation so I can make sense of it afterwards. I never quite get it right, either, so I have to write another story, and another...

Why do you write Science Fiction and/or Fantasy?

I've always loved the possibilities of speculative fiction, since the future doesn't exist (we never get there--it's always "out there") so you can always reinvent it. Fantasy is the same way, since the past is also an illusion, or a distorted mirror that reflects the 'real world' right back at us, just not the way we intended. I love to take some artifact of the 'real' world, whether a photograph, a stray conversation, or even an e-mail, and try to transform it through a speculative lens. It always helps me get to the heart of what interests me about the artifact, since we can never see ourselves in the present: we have to look forward or backwards. That's why people say, "we'll laugh about this someday," or "wasn't that such a great moment?" Nothing makes sense in the 'now.'

Who is your favorite author? Your favorite story?

For my own fiction, my biggest influence is probably Anton Chekhov. I've read all of his stories so many times, and even attempted to read them in Russian (my Russian really isn't good enough!). Though not a speculative author, he thinks like one, in that his stories are 'real world' situations but just slightly outlandish, grotesque, or absurd. It makes you reflect on what is normal, or real, and where the line between fantasy and reality is truly drawn. A good example of this is my favorite Chekhov story, "The Black Monk." It really IS a work of speculative lit, as it's unclear whether the main character is going mad, or a "black monk" from another world is truly visiting him. His genius is being able to write in so many genres without seeming to inhabit any of them. That's a skill worth emulating!

What are you trying to say with your fiction?

I don't have an agenda and I avoid dogma like the plague. I get inspired by ideas and images, and I try to ground these ideas and images in a believable world that is clearly bound to our own. But I also try to make my stories ambiguous enough that many people can read them and take away different ideas and impressions. I don't want the monopoly on the 'right' way to read a story­-­that's in the eyes of the reader.

If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?

You don't have to be great to be good.

Do you blog?

Not anymore, though you can find my articles on literature and ideas at Medium.com under "Joshua Grasso."

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