chris vola, writer of an okcupid profile, longboard surfer, recorder of music his neighbors hate, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the fourteenth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you chris vola.
1. Tell us about yourself?
1. Filled out a dating profile, I think I wrote “hungry, impulsive, optimistic”. Lies. I just ate two KFC Double Downs that I’d been slobbering about for days and I’m pretty sure they’re going to give me cancer but I’ll sit around and play Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse on NES and won’t sweat out the nitrates. I’ve been longboarding close to traffic and recording music my neighbors really hate. 26/M/NYC/Single.
2. Have you read any good books lately?
2. If by good you mean made me want to throw it against the wall because of how good, then Michael Kimball’s “Us”. It’s rare that a novel elicits such a range of emotional carnage. Love and death as kaleidoscope. You can see me gush about it for 850 more words in the latest issue of Word Riot. I’ve also enjoyed the first two installments of Mud Luscious Press’ Nephew series: Darby Larson’s “The Iguana Complex” and Andrew Borgstrom’s “Meat Is All”. I’m amazed at how these 40-page books pack so much into such small canvases and how bravely and effortlessly these writers bitchslap the reader’s perception of form and narrative. Haven’t read any fantasy since Lord of the Rings, but I’m looking forward to starting the first Game of Thrones book. Hopefully my obsession with the HBO series carries over.
3. Why did you leave your last job?
3. I got my MFA right after undergrad and was a full-time student for seven years so anytime I left a job it was school-related. I’ve loved the majority of the work I’ve had – tennis instructor, public works employee, golf course maintenance man à la Bill Murray in Caddyshack, beekeeper’s assistant – except for this one summer I did data entry for this medical job search website and they wouldn’t let you go on Facebook or use an iPod. But I did get to type “otolaryngologist” a lot, which was cathartic. I’ve been doing the freelance and working at bars for a while, don’t see that changing much.
4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
4. Writing-wise, by spending tracts of time holed up in my basement apartment, frightened and unable to press the glowing box in my lap, which means lots of failure, but the good kind. I’ve been trying to sell my novel, Monkeytown, for a while and burying it for six months after a bunch of rejections was the best thing. After disengaging and starting again I could give it the facelift and nose job it deserved and again submit to the cycle of vague hope and vicious defeat. After taking those six months to write (and mostly not write) weird little flashes and only scrape enough of them for a chapbook, I learned that fictionally I find myself more satisfied struggling through bigger projects. For general curiosity, cracked out Wikipedia sessions and ancient aliens searches on YouTube seem to always suffice.
5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?
5. Fun is abject joy without the gnaw of there being anything else. Feeling the sky collapse into my pores at a DMB concert 10 years ago. South Park episode 53 at 4am after a shift. Seeing my 95-year-old grandparents holding hands like gawky middle schoolers. Right now, the most fun is whatever makes it so I can take that first sip of Budweiser at the end of the day without the gnaw of could-have-done-more. I’ve been working on Apocalypse Piñata, a forthcoming e-magazine and quarterly print publication, with some friends. Literature and culture is big, way too big; this is going to be our small take on it. Where that take will take us is to be discovered. We’ll be doing a chapbook contest later this year and hope to move into publishing full-length books in 2012. The URL should be up soon. Until then, updates and submission information has been tweeted at @A_P_Mag. We launch on October 15 and this will be the most fun.
