Well, where to begin? My name is James WF Roberts, I am a 34
years old, Melbourne, Australia based poet and writer. I am currently doing my
Masters of Communication and Media Studies at Monash University. I have just
come back from a two week long media and the city, cultural economy study tour of
Shanghai, care of Jiatong and Monash University. Several years ago I completed
a double honours degree from La Trobe University, in Philosophy, Religious
Studies, Literature Art and Film. My
family background is an extremely creative one. My immediate family is involved in the Arts to some degree. My late father was a
multi-instrumentalist, organist and music teacher, he even is referenced on
Wikipedia as a ‘notable player of the Yamaha Electone organ’. He came like fifth
or something in 1977 in Japan in a major competition. My eldest sister is a
music teacher worked in piano bars and in ska band and led a choir, in Holland,
Tokyo and Hong Kong. My brother is a very gifted multi-instrumentalist too; my
other sister used to sing in choirs, play the organ, and taught music also.
And, my mother was a singer and actress before she met my father. So, I guess
being in Arts is in my blood. I have
worked as a freelance writer, journalist and editor on and off for years. I used
to host a late night community and digital radio show in Bendigo for almost ten
years.
What kind of writing do you do?
That is a really, really hard question. I
don’t think I have a particular style that can be easily labelled. The genre of writing I normally do is spoken word poetry. I am quite good in the erotic style, transgressive.
I guess I call myself transgressive, or post-structuralist, or meta-fiction
writer, maybe even a bit of a magical-realist. I think being a writer in the 21st
century is an interesting time to be a writer. I write a bit of everything
though, short stories, horror, speculative fiction, erotica. Academic essays, a
few articles here and there and the usual stuff, writers never admit we do to
make some bread….
When did writing become something you wanted to throw
yourself into?
That is always a hard
question. I guess I was always writing short stories and other ideas down for a
very long time. I don’t really know when I actually made the conscience
decision to be throw myself into writing as it were. I guess, when thinking
about it what made me throw myself into my writing as it were, was when I was
about 19 when I was in the Army. I was going through basic training at Kapooka
Base just outside Wagga Wagga and I was diagnosed with high functioning
Asperger’s Syndrome at the same time. I discovered I was better living in my
own head instead of doing other things. I don’t know it is always a hard thing,
I don’t know whether most people actually have those big reveal moments. I
think most people become writers by accident, after trying their hands at many
different things, it’s almost like by accident you write something good and
bang! You’re a writer now!
When did you feel confident enough in your writing to
unveil it to the public?
It was about 2003 or something like that I think, or
maybe even 2002 after I left the Army I was living in working in a tiny little
place in Northern Queensland, called Cooktown and I sort of got this job by
accident working for the Cooktown news and my first articles were published up
there. I don’t have copies of them. I used to do that self-indulgent,
embarrassing thing of destroying copies of old works and that usual thing, so I
don’t have any copies of them anymore. They were probably crap, judging by the
writer I am now, and the writer I was back then.
Why do you write?
After all, when you’re artist, your art is like Junk! It’s an addiction and you
have to mainline, nearly every day, otherwise it’s not worth it. A writer
writes. He doesn’t practice writing or rehearse writing. He just does it.
What inspired you to write your latest book?
Satyr
is based on an idea I have had for a very long time, a sex and relationship
memoir from the point of view of a modern man, using the modern sexual and mild
fetishistic ideas. Many of the things in the collection are based on my own
misadventures and experiences with sex, polyamoury, recreational drugs and
depression. It is essentially a book about a man trying to find himself through
sex, drugs and booze, after a really insidious and destructive, manipulative
relationship ends. What happens when have lost everything emotionally,
psychologically and spiritually—one
addiction gives way to another one. And,
also as an Autist, as an ‘aspie’ as we call ourselves I wanted to investigate,
develop and write about the sensuality of a person with a hyper-sensitivity to
things like touch, smell, taste and light. People don’t understand Asperger’s,
people think we are emotionally retarded—we are like robots. The real truth of
the matter is that we feel too much. We are too intense in our emotions so we
have to control our emotions as much as possible—but often that leads to not
being to turn it on at all, or worse, when you re-open the seal it overflows
like a flood.
What was the hardest thing about writing your latest
book?
Being honest about who I am, about my condition. Being frank about my
sexuality and my passions.
What was the
easiest thing about writing this book?
Same thing really. It’s always a double edged sword being open and frank
about things.
Who are some of your literary and poetic influences?
I
have a few. I studied William Blake, Allen Ginsberg and Plato and Nietzsche in
my under-grad days, so have always been obsessed with those writers. Edgar
Allen Poe is a major influence on my
poetic style, especially my murder and love poems. But my major contemporary influences are,
well Vanessa de Largie, is a great poet and writer and actress she is a blogger
for huffington post, she has been a major influence and source of encouragement
of mine over the last few years, she did a lot of proofing of this collection
for me. Other Australian poets like Steve Smart, Amanda Anastasi, Hamish Danks
Brown, Michael Reynolds, Omar Musa and so many others in the Melbourne and
Sydney poetry scenes. Other poets like Tishani Doshi and the American Catherine
Zickgraf have also been incredible sources of inspiration and poetic
determination over the last few years.
Do you have any current works in progress or ready for
publication?
Well, besides the Satyr collection just coming out, I am
working on a piece to perform at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, in a
collaborative event between designers and poets of Melbourne. I am working on
putting some performance pieces into a short film idea, work on my Masters. Also working on some poem ideas I started on my recent trip to Shanghai, and finishing part 4 of Tuesday Suicide, ‘Descent’.
What advice would you give aspiring writers and authors?
There’s a Tina Arena song I often think about when I get
asked this question, there’s a line in one of her songs, ‘if you wanna be a
poet then write’—that is the best advice I can give to any writer. Just write.
No matter how terrible, or lame or sappy or whatever you think it is. There is
no such thing as bad writing. There are things that are not delivered well. But
there is no such thing as a bad poem. I remember once at a writer’s festival in
Bendigo, there were so major poets talking about some their collaborations and
workshops they had done with people grieving over the loss of loved ones and
also a poetry collection done through a major radio station, about pets or
something….it was amazing how much the students from the local TAFE College
bagged out those activities as being lame or beneath them, even denigrating
poets working with prisoners doing hard time.
You don’t need to be an academic or university educated to be a poet,
most of the great poets of history weren’t.
They just wrote. Write about your own experiences. Write about your
relationships. Write about things that piss you off. Write about your fears and
write about the world around you, or the world you wish was around. It doesn’t
matter….just bloody WRITE!
Where can readers purchase your work? How can they get in touch with you?
I have several books on amazon and a spoken word
collection on band camp that should all be currently for purchase.
You can find my blog and website here:
My Facebook pages where you can find me:
https://www.facebook.com/Tuesday-Suicide-Confessions-206048932920031/
https://www.facebook.com/JamesWFRobertswords/
https://www.facebook.com/JamesWFRobertswords/
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