Reagan M. Sova interview by David Alan Binder

July 19, 2022

Reagan M. Sova interview by David Alan Binder

Reagan M. Sova, like many American writers before him, heard the call and relocated across the pond. In Europe’s trilingual capital city, he has honed his craft to become a sharp-shooting Lone Ranger of the literary underground, quietly garnering accolades from legendary figures such as Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich, novelist Sam Lipsyte, and Larry “Ratso” Sloman, the New York Times bestselling author who traveled with Bob Dylan and sang a duet with Nick Cave. Sova’s latest, an 80,000-word mostly unpunctuated epic poem called Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light, also caught the attention of the writer and cultural historian Michael P. Daley, head honcho of the burgeoning First to Knock books and records.

History casts a long shadow in Sova’s spellbinding tale, around the world from the rambling, Woody Guthrie-inspired hobo America, to Europe at the outbreak of World War I, to one of the early kibbutzim near Jerusalem, all the way up to the present. Immortal masters of American letters likewise loom large in Sova’s odyssey, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, as does the influence of timeless wordsmiths of the bleak and beautiful, Cormac McCarthy and Frank Stanford chief among them. Like the latter two, Sova does not shy away from violence and death, but his characters trod the unforgiving landscapes with the spark of a mystery, the hope of solidarity, revelation, and peace.

Interview conducted over email.

What brought you to Belgium?

Work. Socialized health care. In the US, where our health care system is a shameful, deadly, privatized, rip-off scam of the highest order, I was staring down the barrel of bankruptcy or worse.

What is the most important thing that you have learned in your writing experience, so far?

I’ve learned I get cooking with the three c’s: confidence, consistency, and collaboration. To achieve each of those, I’ve learned it’s important to have honest and intelligent friends. I’m blessed to have a few, like my friend John Yohe, currently nestled in the mountains of Montana, a writer as deep and true as they come, always interested in reading and learning, frequently getting published, never has said no when I have asked for feedback on my work.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Before I begin to write, I typically spend upwards of 15 minutes hitting a large bell.

How did you hook up with First to Knock? Where are they based?

I learned of the existence of First to Knock through a wonderful mensch of a man named Mike Sack. He told me he was doing some work with them, and knowing what a luminous literary mind he is, I had to check them out. After getting a load of the FTK titles, the aesthetic of the site, the music of Fever Queen, reading of Daley’s work, I was sold, big time. I sent Daley a query and by the time the deal got put together, a couple more publishers, slightly bigger indies, had asked for the full manuscript. I told them thank you for your time, but you can put the pages down. I found where I’m supposed to be. FTK is based in Michigan City, Indiana, not too far from Chicago.

Do you have any tricks or tips to help others become better writers?

I would say don’t be afraid to put trust in spiritual things, dreams and signs. For example, there were a few moments when I was writing Wildcat when I just felt things and caught fire. Like when I was writing the tarot card scene, and the next day a tarot card blew into my garden. Or when I went to Venice, Italy where one of my favorite thinkers, David Graeber, had died the year before, and I laid tefillin with some fellas from a shul in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, beautiful ceremony with my wife and her aunt looking on, everybody just about misty-eyed. I went back to the place we were staying in the Friuli with some strange spirit winds at my back. Hen-pecked the last 10,000 words over a few days and finished the book.

How have you been promoting this book?

I struck out on a book tour across three continents, with readings in the US, Europe, and Israel. Eleven cities total where I played songs on guitar and read excerpts from the book. It was so meaningful, such a thrill to see people I hadn’t seen in so long, make a few new friends. In my hometown of Jackson, Michigan, after performing as part of an evening with some talented friends of mine, I was signing books for an hour and a half. I’ll never forget that. A real outpouring of generosity and interest in the book on pretty much every stop of this tour. Now, I’m just trying to score some reviews, and have copies for sale at my concerts.

Several real life people appear in the book, Eugene V. Debs, Big Bill Haywood, and Musidora for example, which caused me to wonder, are there any other real life people who inspired characters or events in Wildcat Dreams?

That’s a great question because there are quite a few. Probably the most noteworthy is the character of Frank, who was inspired by a New York jockey named Frank Hayes. Hayes died in the saddle on his way to winning a steeplechase in 1923, and his horse was even named Sweet Kiss. I actually can’t remember where I heard about him, but I was so struck by the sadness, beauty, and victory in his story that he inspired this character. There’s also Jumbo the circus elephant who died getting hit by a train. I did quite a bit of research for this book, reading about the circus, Romani people, Jewish history, the history of certain places, first-hand accounts from African American ex-slaves, the history of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union… Every once in a while something would jump out at me and find a fictionalized, dramatized place in my story.

A large part of Wildcat Dreams involves a quest to honor the dead. In writing the book, were you on a quest to honor the dead?

I was, in my own feeble way. It was in the midst of my reading Frank Stanford’s The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You that David Berman died. I knew then I wanted to write an epic poem that pays homage to them, my two biggest influences. As well as centering the story around a quest to honor a man named Frank, the phrase “the natural bridge” appears throughout Wildcat in what I hope are interesting ways. (The Natural Bridge is one of the most beloved albums by Berman’s band, Silver Jews.) With this book, I also meant to pay tribute to Walt Whitman, who has been a big influence on me and countless others.

Do you have a saying or mantra that you live by?

Oh I just try to stay open and ready, for a sign, a vision, or maybe just to ride out into the forest and break my mind upon the infinite.

Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light is available online (US, UK, UK/EU) and at some of the finest bookshops in the US and Europe.

Reagan M. Sova’s blog is here.