Featured Interview With Walker Zupp
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Bermuda, where I studied until I was 16 years old. Then I went to Marlborough College for 2 years in the United Kingdom, where I stayed for university. I got my PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter, and now I live in Cornwall, and am looking for a job.
Bermuda was “southern”, edgy, and privileged growing up. England afterwards was tough, but I found my niche first at boarding school writing poetry, and then at university writing plays and novels.
I would love to have a dog or cat, but my partner is allergic to most animals, so that one’s out! We have several plants though: Greg, McNeil, Rebecca, and Gustaf, the aloe vera. We have spent a lot of time at the Flicka Donkey Sanctuary in Mabe, Cornwall. We also like scratching other people’s dogs.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I was growing up, I always thought books were for smart people, so I stayed away. But I remember reading Flush by Carl Hiaasen, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Those were books where I learned about sex, and other things.
I started writing poetry seriously at boarding school, and had some success when I reached university. I published poems in Australia, and other places. I wrote two practice novels during my undergraduate years, and then I wrote my first serious novel for my MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University. I managed to sign a contract to publish the novel before I got my degree. One of the good things about being published is that people begin to trust you more, so I kept writing novels and getting them published. There is not much money involved, but having spoken with authors who are much more successful than I am, money seems to be the thing lacking in the publishing world. Not that I write for financial reward.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love to read Doctor Who novelisations, and I had learned more about storytelling from books b Terrance Dicks and Ian Marter than I have from anything else. I also read Plato, D.H. Lawrence, Philip K. Dick, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Emily Dickinson, James Baldwin, and lots of non-fiction too, like Joel Kotkin’s The Coming Age of Neo-Feudalism, Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, and Doug Stokes’ Against Decolonisation.
I don’t read in any particular genre, and I actually think that thinking about “genre” prevents the writer from producing their best work.
I have never understood inspiration, and look upon writing as something that I do. I don’t seem to need much inspiration to start writing – all I know is that if I don’t write, I get ill.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, Fibber, which will be released by Montag Press on 1st February 2024, is about a poet who is charged with publishing in an illegal magazine, and sentenced to become a bureaucrat in a huge stone head posing as a refugee camp, when it is actually something much bleaker. It’s based on The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov, which is a Soviet-era satirical novel about collectivisation, and my editor, Charlie Franco, helped me to really get the book into shape. I hope that you all enjoy it!
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Walker Zupp’s Website