Under normal circumstances, writers talking about their process isn’t nearly as interesting as they think it is. Certainly not as interesting as when they talk about their books. Or about cake.
But when editing the following email interview with author Elwin Cotman about his new short story collection, Weird Black Girls (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), one line about how he writes single-handedly made me more excited for this book: “Whenever I write a new story, I’m trying to write something different from the story before.”
Photo Credit: Rohan DaCosta
To start, is there a common theme to the stories in Weird Black Girls?
Whenever I write a new story, I’m trying to write something different from the story before. That doesn’t make for a lot of thematic tissue between pieces. Even in the genesis of the pieces, there’s that dissonance: some were real gut-wrenching for me to write, and others were fun exercises that evolved into full-blown stories. Which stories were included was up to Scribner [the publisher of Weird Black Girls]. Not my call. I had a piece called “Twilight Of The Eudaemancers” they passed on. I had a story where Ja Rule throws another Fyre Festival then flees to Mars with a Prince hologram. Those didn’t get in.
There are definitely threads that emerged unexpectedly. The book feels very coming-of-age just based on the stories that were selected. Lots of stories about young people. There’s also tributes to black people who contributed positively to their communities, like Kevin Lillard and Doug Pona. And there was a really cool thing where I have this story “Triggered,” about a narcissistic relationship from the victim’s viewpoint, and another called “Things I Never Learned In Caitlin Clarke’s Intro To Acting Class” which is about that kind of relationship from the narcissist’s viewpoint. I didn’t even know “Things I Never Learned….” had that theme until I saw the stories laid out back-to-back in the collection.
And what genres are represented by the stories in Weird Black Girls?
Cosmic horror, psychological horror, picaresque, coming-of-age, coming-of-middle-age.
Are there any writers, or stories, that had a big influence on individual stories in Weird Black Girls?
In most of the stories, I’m using particular writers as my lodestone. Maybe I borrow a structure or tone from their work. Then I go do my own thing. The writer who got me into pastiche was Neil Gaiman, whose story “Chivalry” was my major inspiration on “Tournament Arc.” Both are “visitor from the past” stories.
“The Switchin’ Tree” is influenced by Thomas Ligotti; “Owen” has that Ray Carver slice-of-life going; “Triggered” has elements of Joyce Carol Oates; and the title story was very much influenced by Mary Gaitskill. “Reunion” is one I’m excited about because it came straight from my brain. I’m sure if I dug deep I could see the influence of this writer or that writer, but far as I can tell, that weirdness was all me.
What about non-literary influences; were any of the stories in Weird Black Girls influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
“Things I Never Learned in Caitlin Clarke’s Intro To Acting Class.” Like the protagonist in the story, I love the movie Dragonslayer. One of the best fantasy movies ever. It was also one of my earliest introductions to a genderqueer character in Valerian, played by Caitlin Clarke. (The actress, not to be confused with the basketball star.)
I’m also a fan of a particular story in Tama Janowitz’s Slaves Of New York called “Engagements.” It’s about this aloof young woman who gets pursued romantically by a man she not only doesn’t like, she is apathetic to his existence. But he keeps pushing harder and doing embarrassing things for her affection. It’s up in the air as to whether she strings him along because she likes the attention or because she’s a pushover. There’s this mid-20s rootlessness that the story captures perfectly. So I went into my story wanting to riff on that.
Around the same time, I find a YouTube video from a live reading of one of the stories, “Who’s On First,” and it’s Caitlin Clarke reading the female parts. Then I look her up and find out she was from Pittsburgh like I am. It felt like the universe was calling me to write a story combining Janowitz and Clarke, and, accordingly, it became a story about diva worship. “Engagements” is an anti-love story. I went into my story with a similarly self-possessed protagonist, but as soon as he developed feelings for his love interest, it became a love story. Then it looped back around to being kind of an anti-love story.
Weird Black Girls is your fourth collection of short stories after The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues, and Dance On Saturday. Is there anything that makes Weird different from those other collections?
The writing is certainly better. My first couple of books read like they were written by someone in his 20s. They’re good but the youth is there. These pieces in Weird Black Girls are more mature and more literary, I think. They’re more contemporary fantasy while my earlier books leaned more on historical settings and folklore.
Now, along with Weird Black Girls, you also have a novel coming out next year called The Age Of Ignorance? What is Ignorance about, and when and where is it set?
It’s about a pair of young, black, male friends who move to San Francisco in 2008. They look for work, try to hook up with girls, and look for housing in a brutally expensive market. It’s a buddy comedy.
And are there any connections between The Age Of Innocence and a story or stories in Weird Black Girls?
There’s a few stories that deal with people in their 20s. It feels like now that I’m forty, a lot of things I experienced in my youth are more interesting to me than before. Writing Weird Black Girls and Ignorance at the same time, I saw threads emerge about experiencing things for the first time, and the wonder surrounding that.
In a similar vein, is there a story in Weird Black Girls that, if some liked it, you’d say to them, “Oh, then you are really going to love my novel, The Age Of Innocence.”?
The title story.
Hollywood loves turning short stories into movies. Are there any stories in Weird Black Girls that you think would work particularly well as a movie?
All of them! My writing is pretty cinematic.
But if I had to pick one, “Tournament Arc.” It’s got some real pathos and fight scenes that would transfer well to the screen. The people who made Turbo Kid should direct it. Bring in whoever did fight choreography for John Wick. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a character for Aubrey Plaza, but we’ll figure something out.
Finally, is there anything else people need to know about Weird Black Girls?
If anyone liked my last collection Dance On Saturday, they’ll dig this one. Weird Black Girls features less orgies, I’m sad to say, but everything else is an expansion.
I think my first two might be out of print. However, a few months ago I did a reading at Medicine for Nightmares in the Bay, and someone bought a used copy of my first book, The Jack Daniels Sessions EP. They wanted an autograph only to find there was already an autograph made out to someone named Brad over a decade ago. Now the book has two autographs.
What I’m saying is, my first two books have a robust life on the secondary market.
