Nick Flynn interviewed by Christian StiefenhoferMunich, Germany, Spring 2005
1. Before
Another Bullshit Night...
you've published two books thatalso contained very personal matters, but in the form of poems.Nf-Just to clarify, another bullshit night is my fourth book inAmerica. My first book of poems, some ether, deals with my ownhistory, but the second book, blind huber, is a series of poemsbased around the 17
th
c French/swiss beekeeper francois huber. Theother book is non-fiction and deals with the years I spent teachingpoetry to young people in nyc public schools. So far, only half mybooks have dealt with “very personal matters,” just so I don’tsound completely self-centered.-What was the reason to tell the story about your father a) as proseand b) as a memoir and not a novel?Nf-a) well, a lot of the work I’ve been drawn to lately (anne carson,carol maso, james joyce) feels more like hybrid forms of writing,where the line between prose and poetry is blurred. This is a formthat interests me, especially for this book, where a moreconventional narrative wouldn’t feel true to the experience, whichwas more fragmented, with meaning gleaned in more associativethan rational ways.b. as for memoir vs novel, abn actually feels somewhere in themiddle as well, for it deals primarily with memory, and memory is,I believe, a form of fiction. That said, I‘ve tried to stick as close tothe “truth” as I was able.-Wouldn't it been easier to protect yourself as an author behindfictional characters?
Nf- no one ever told me that the job of being a writer was to protect
oneself. Also, after working with the homeless for many years, Ithought it would be somewhat obscene to create a character of ahomeless person, to appear to appropriate someone else’s story,when the story was in fact my own, my father’s.
2. How long did it take to write the book? Could you tell mesomething about the experience of "researching" one's own family'spast and your own past?
Nf-I spent the first two years, before I knew it would become a book,interviewing my father on videotape. This was how I first got toknow him, about five years after he got off the streets. I would takethe tapes home and transcribe my father’s stories, absorb the cadenceof his voice, and then I began what would become the book. It took me seven years after that to finish. The research felt very much likethe research for any project-tracking down witnesses, findingdocuments, piecing together fragments.
3. -I can imagine it had to be rather painful to start such a project,how did you cope with that, what mechanisms as an author did youestablish to get through the process of writing this book?Nf-well, each of my books has presented their own challenges, notthe least of which has been the complicated emotions that areunearthed. I’ve learned that without these emotions the writingisn’t as surprising, doesn’t have the same tension. That said, Imarshaled all of my resources to get through the rough parts,primarily the network of friends I’ve been blessed with who keepme centered.
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Your book is quite unsentimental in its tone. What helped you tobe able to find a distance to what you write?Nf-during the years of writing I spent some time in Vietnam, sometime in Tanzania, and to be in places where the people have truly
suffered and where they are suffering still can be very humbling,and can drive whatever self-pity one carries away. Self-pity waspresent in many drafts of the book, believe me, but withperspective I realized it just wasn’t true.4. In your book you describe your father's efforts in writing, or betterin being an author. Where do your own roots in writing lie? Didyou write all your life or started when you were a teenager? Canyou describe your own attitude toward writing, in contrast/inrelation to your father's?
Nf-for some reason I’ve been attracted to writing all my life, I don’tknow why this is.As far as I can tell, my father is primarily a storyteller, in that hefunctions best in a roomful of people, getting that immediateresponse. It seems that a writer must learn to spend massive amountsof time in solitude, and the payoff, if it comes at all, comes muchlater.
5. You write about your father in a very honest, often unfavorablemanner. Did you sometimes have to weigh your description to notlet his impression get too unsympathetic and protect him, or wastruthfulness your main force while writing this?
Nf- my attempt throughout was to portray the compassion I havecome to feel toward my father and his life, but, hopefully, it is acompassion that does not try to pretty up the reality of his life, butrather acknowledges the struggle.
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