Featured Interview With Greg Kuznetsov
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in the Moss Cow of Russia, but I was mostly raised in Canada. I’m hardly Russian-mostly Canadian, don’t feel attached to either very much but I do sync with the idea of the American dream. Many people adopt their cultures as a part of their identity, but I’ve always felt like something else. I think we’re all something else, like stars, faking our cultures and acting as if they actually define us. My name is such a lie. I know that’s not me, it’s a mask for the world. I don’t know what my actual name is, though. Not many of us do. Right now, I like in Toronto, in Little Portugal, with my wife.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’m not really fascinated with books. I’m fascinated with ideas in any form. When I was younger I enjoyed books in that form the most, but now I feel they are an outdated expression of ideas. The visual art and especially video is much more important and impactful. The key to transcending the giant ocean of the familiar old in literature these days is to go crazy with it, be entirely different, experiment a lot. I see a bright future in ebooks-I noticed recently some new features where you could add audio experiences while someone is reading your ebook. I see a lot of potential in that sort of stuff. I started writing when I could pick up a pen. I initially drew a lot of comics, then became familiar with books. I still think reading is a wonderful habit. Last year I read over 100 books as a challenge, and my imagination improved tremendously as a result.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like those strange obscure books that almost no soul has read or heard about the most. Those little gems. Like H.C. Barkley’s rat catching book, which is more about his life experiences than rat catching. And Tony Weeks-Pearson’s Dodo, written in a way I’ve never read before. I love Turkish and Mongolian realms, of course Rumi-he touches my soul. And Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, the one where the trees and colours were characters. I’m most inspired by very soulful writers, whose words you can tell have a genuine passion in them. Ralph Waldo Emerson is my favourite author of all time. You can just feel in your core that he writes every word from his heart. Paulo Coelho is another one of my favourites. He has such a soul connected to the spiritual world. He has such an understanding of things that he frames so elegantly. I also love Jack London, the way he described nature at a time when nobody else really did, and the way he characterized dogs so many times. Not many people know this, but he actually wrote a whole lot of books besides ones about dogs and the gold rush. The Star Rover, for example, was actually about reincarnation, I believe, something of an early ancestor to Cloud Atlas.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is Jupiter’s Black Diamond and Other Stories, a short story collection. It’s really strange and abstract at many times, you’ve got talking animals and space jellyfish and magic stones. I was sort of inspired by this old Russian children’s show called Yeralash which basically revolved around random interesting things happening like a magician summoning bread out of thin air on a bench. Of course I was also inspired by metaphysical concepts like the soul, human’s connection to nature, and other worlds between worlds. This book is something that, in every conceivable way I could, is different from any kind of writing or story style you’ll see out there. My philosophy with writing and art is total uniqueness, self reliance. When I read something and I can feel, and I always feel this inner sense that the author is writing to appeal to the outside world rather than following their inner self, it feels very wrong. It’s very obvious, and it feels wrong. So with JBD, it’s something that in almost every sense you won’t read anywhere else in that realm of feeling.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Greg Kuznetsov’s Website
