Featured Interview With Steven Prouse
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Gilbert, SC… a town so small that they only recently got a stop light within town limits. I currently live in West Columbia, SC with my two dogs. In between, I lived in Columbia, SC and Las Angeles, CA while pursuing my BA in Media Arts.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I wrote my first story when I was ten. It was a comic strip that I also drew full of superheroes and magic. I loved comic books from an early age, but my deeper dive into reading novels came in my early teens when I was assigned “Alas Babylon” in school. I was completely engulfed. Then I found an abandoned copy of The Shining and devoured it. This was also the time when I focussed on illustration and comic books. I loved the world building and, by my mid-teens, I was producing comic books to share with anyone who would read them.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
So many authors to list. Neil Gaiman. Stephen King. Chuck Palahniuk. Alan Moore. Brian K. Vaughn. Nnedi Okorafor. Octavia Butler. Tomi Adeyemi. Douglas Adams. When it comes to stories, I try to devour what I can by these authors.
Mostly, I read non-fiction. Jeff Sharlet, Andrew Seidel, Noam Chomsky, Nancy Eisenberg, Ibram Kendi, Christopher Hitchens,
Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Handlebars” (2022) tells the story of Quinn Constance, a boy raised in rural America in white poverty and domestic violence, as he almost super-naturally rises to a place of global influence. It explores jealousy, entitlement, and the perceptions that define villainy and heroism. Inspired during the 2016 Presidential campaign while listening to the Flobots song of the same name. I tried imagining Clinton and Trump riding a bicycle as children, and I couldn’t.
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