Curtis Smith

BWG: You've had an extremely prolific writing career, from novels to essays to short stories, touching on many genres. Your writing is described as simplistic, complex, poetic, poignant, and compassionate. How do you describe your stories?

CJS: I’d like to think my work straddles the line between straight-forward and lyrical. I think every sentence and word has to carry its weight—and if it doesn't, it probably isn't needed.

BWG: You are published in novel length--An Unadorned Life (2003), Sound and Noise (2008), Truth or Something Like It (2010), and short story collections--Placing Ourselves Among the Living (2000), In the Jukebox Life (2004), The Species Crown (2007), Bad Monkey (2009), Witness (2010), Beasts and Men(2013). Do you find one length more challenging to write than the other, and why?

CJS: I think each possesses its rewards and challenges. Writing a 500-word story can be pretty difficult—and of course a novel can sink beneath its own weight. It all depends on what one’s frame of mind is like at the time. I always have a few projects going—a story cycle, an essay cycle, and a novel. I’ll spend a few months on one, then I’ll grow tired of that and go to another project. This helps keep things fresh—at least for me.

BWG: How has your writing evolved over this span of your published career?

CJS: I’d like to think it’s more concise now—more focused and nuanced. I trust my readers more these days—I’ll let more things remain unsaid and unexplained, and I’ll let my readers fill in what I’ve left out.

BWG: Who are some of your favorite writers? Have they influenced your writing style, and if so, how?

CJS:Where to start? Salter, McCarthy, Williams, Atwood, Vonnegut, Kundera, Gilchrist. I’m sure they’ve all influenced my style to some degree or another. Salter’s the one I return to, especially Light Years, which I feel is just about as beautiful on a sentence-to-sentence level as a book can be. There are many new, exciting writers out there now—Kyle Minor, Laura Van Den Berg, Robin Black, Elise Juska, Mary Miller, and others. I can find all sorts of things in their work that will stick with me—and perhaps be reflected in my latest piece.

BWG: Your ultra short stories are similar to poetry, as each word is necessary to create the work into complex imagery. Do you feel writing in a minimalist principle has improved your larger pieces?

CJS: Sure—I think the attention required to write a very short, short story has transferred to my longer work. I think writing, like any art, is a continual questioning of self and one’s perceptions. The sharper focus necessary for short fiction pieces helps this questioning process.

BWG: Your characters are described as memorable days after closing the cover. Where do you get your character inspiration?

CJS: I try hard to make my characters smart and sensitive. Many of my characters are trying to be good, but not all succeed. I’d say my biggest inspiration comes from imagining my reader and trying to offer them a person who’s complex and real.

BWG: What is the best advice given to you about writing?

CJS: Get black on white. I believe that’s generally attributed to Guy de Maupassant, correct? I just keep writing, no matter what. Something positive is bound to happen. Every written word helps the cause.

BWG: Since you are our 2015 Short Story Award judge, I'm sure our readers would like to know what you believe are the ingredients of an effective short story?

CJS: Language that shines, a hook that allows us insight into another’s world, and having something at stake.

BWG: When you’re not writing, what do you do for fun?

CJS: I like to hike. I run. In the summer, I bike and swim. My son is 11, and he likes to do all these things too, so I’m pretty lucky to have a partner.

BWG: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

CJS: I’d ask them to support the small literary presses that keep the scene alive. There’s a lot of good work out there.

A Conversation with Curtis Smith

Jerome W. McFadden

(September, 2012)

I met Curtis at the Write Stuff conference of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group last May. He was brought in as a substitute lecturer for one of the headliners who had to cancel at the last minute. As often happens with a “substitute,” he nearly stole the show with his boyish good looks, his self-deprecating humor, and his in-depth insights into the world of publishing.

His insights come from a solid writing career. So far he has published three novels, two short story collections, two flash fiction collections, and over 70 short stories and essays in prestigious literary journals and on-line magazines. His latest collection of short stories, Beasts and Men, is scheduled to hit the bookshelves in March, 2013, with this fourth novel, Lovepain, scheduled for release in 2015. His quality matches his quantity; his short stories and essays have been included in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, and The Best American Spiritual Writing. He has also had frequent nominations for the Pushcart Prize that honors the best in short fiction.

Not bad for a full time writer, right? Wrong. Curtis holds down a demanding full-time job as a Special Education teacher at a high school in central Pennsylvania. His writing is done on the side–in mornings, evenings, and weekends. He balances all of this with a commitment to fitness (running, hiking, and biking) plus a strong marriage to his wife Michelle and raising his nine-year-old son Evan. And he occasionally pops around to talk at writing conferences and promote his books at signings and to reading groups.

He laughed when I made a crack about “does all that keep you busy?” but became serious when about his daily writing schedule and the discipline necessary to make it happen. He underlined that over the past 20 years his writing process has become streamlined. “I can get more done in an hour than I used to do in two or three hours. I treat writing kind of like exercise–I make the time to do it.” This includes getting up early to get in an hour or so in the morning, and them claim an hour or so at night.

One advantage of being a teacher, even in a demanding field such as Special Education, is getting the summer off. “I generate a lot of work then. That helps.”

A lot of writers focus on one genre such as thrillers, mysteries, or literary fiction, where they make their name and are immediately recognized. Curtis takes a different approach. “I enjoy writing different things. I always try to have a few things that I am working on, like a cycle of stories or essays.” He says he also always has a novel in drawer that he goes back and forth on when he has the urge. “This may sound scattered, but it’s really not,” he says. “This allows me to work on whatever project that is calling me.”

And the mystery stories and spiritual essays? “They’re just luck offshoots at my attempts at literary writing.”

Curtis says this strong urge to write came from growing up with close friends who were really into music and later hanging out with visual artists in college. “I am terribly untalented in both areas but I was fascinated and envious of their creativity. Then I started writing in my twenties and was fortunate to find an art form that suited my strengths.”

With all of this experience, I was curious if Curtis would advise a beginning writer to focus their short stories on the limited-universe-but-high-prestige of the printed literary journals or large-universe-and-quick-feedback of the on-line writing magazines? “There are pros and cons for each,'" he said. "It is great to have a story published in a nice journal but a website can provide a much wider potential audience.” Curtis follows that with advising new writers to go on-line to research which journals appeal to them. Most print journals now have some online content. “I think there are a number of really fine on-line journals, some that rival most print journals.”

In effect, with the exception of his more recent on-line stories, nearly all of Curtis’s work has appeared in the mainstream literary journals and small literary presses. I asked him if he made any effort to approach the major publishers. He replied that he is content to work with the small lit press. “They've provided me with a lot of artistic freedom that I might not have with a larger press.” He said he has worked with some agents but not for the past ten years or so. And those books again landed with a nice lit press. “With that said, I wouldn't mind having a book with a major publisher but I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.”

I had to ask if all the attention he has received from The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, and The Best American Spiritual Writing, and the nominations for the Pushcart Prize had any affect on his writing. He replied that he didn’t think so. “They were nice mentions and they provided great motivation, but I think I kept on writing the same material one way or the other.”

Curtis runs a very simple website at www.curtisjsmith.com that cover his books, reviews on his stories and novels, some excerpts and news where he may be speaking next. I asked him if he made a major effort to promote himself and his writing in the social media, which got a laugh from him. “I do Facebook but I only post news of my publications. But I do like to check out what other people are doing. I’ll follow their links and check out their work. And if I like it, I’ll try to drop the person a line. I also try to buy the books of folks whose work I’ve enjoyed. The element of connection and awareness is pretty cool.” We both shared a common reaction to one of the famous social sites. “I’m on LinkedIn, but I’ll be honest—I don’t know what I’m doing on there,” he said. I’m on it, too, and I don’t know why either.

We had a short conversation on the fact that no one in this era is going to make a living writing short stories or publishing novels at a small literary press. Curtis said the advances for his novel were about $1,000 each time. Money is obviously not the motivation for his prolific output. “I think anyone who truly wants to write for the art of it will do it whether or not they get paid.” Then he adds with a smile, “I’m not saying a paycheck isn't nice, but it’s not the root motivator.”

Curtis is the first to admit that writing this hard over the past 20 years required the full support of his wife and family. “It’s extremely important. I couldn't do it without them.”

Curtis’ books can be purchased on Amazon.com, March Street Press, Sunnyoutside Books, Casperian Books, and Press 53. For more information, visit his website at http://www.curtisjsmith.com.