10 QUESTIONS for A. Molotkov

- By Amal Zaman

Yesterday, blue rain fell on me. I found my hair on the pillow:
     lovely beige clumps,
dry like distance.
I remember your hands running through it. I'm on read-only
     access. . .
—from "The Persistence of Music," published in Winter 2016 "Words and Music" (Vol. 57, Issue 4)
 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you’ve written

My first piece was a Julio Cortázar kind of short story in which the protagonist (over)identifies with a Formula 1 race car driver and suffers the consequences of a crash. I hadn't read Cortázar yet.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?

I always struggle with the question of influences, as it seems that one comes to literature with an already existing set of buttons one wants to push/have pushed as a writer/reader. Later, one discovers other writers who operate within the same realm of concerns, as in the Cortázar example. This found affinity is most encouraging.

I lived my first twenty-two years in Russia, but have always been a fan of American literature. Hemingway’s emotional and textual clarity is a reliable reference point—and I continue to be impressed by contemporary American novelists such as Nicole Krauss, Adam Johnson, Hanya Yanagihara, and many more. In American poetry, too, an immense amount of fascinating work is being done, despite a somewhat underprivileged position poetry occupies in this culture. These are among the reasons that keep me optimistic about this country after twenty-seven years as an immigrant, despite the darkness that threatens to encompass us as of this November. 

It’s always essential to stay open to other voices. I read many books in translation and am shocked when friends confess that they don't trust translated books. Milan Kundera, Yasmina Khadra, Svetlana Alexievich and Karl Ove Knausgaard are among the writers who have appeared most often on my desk in the recent years, along with classics such as Kafka, Remarque and Dostoevsky.
 

What other professions have you worked in?

For the past twenty years, I’ve made a living as a software engineer. Since my arrival in the United States in 1990, I’ve worked as a dishwasher, random laborer, deli worker/manager, and filing clerk.
 

What did you want to be when you were young?

A writer/film director.
 

What inspired you to write this piece?
I enjoy experimenting on the boundaries between literary formats. Taking a literary text beyond the point of author’s comfort may be essential to its vitality. A sci-fi poem targeting crucial existential and societal concerns seemed like a good challenge.
 

Is there a city or place, real or imagined, which influences your writing?

Not at all. Despite being a fiction writer, I’m not good at imagining things. When I read, I’m not interested in visualizing the settings or the characters’ faces—psychological quirks and human interactions are the only sphere I’m genuinely interested in. Thus, visual features demand extra effort of me as a writer. To imagine a whole city would be a nightmare.
 

Is there any specific music that aids you through the writing or editing process?

I have a vast selection of music that is continually playing in my room. For a first draft, it helps having lyrics in English floating through space. They provide unpredictable associations and help diversify the text. For editing, my preference is African or Middle Eastern music, as I love the rhythms and the vocals, yet the lyrics happily elude me.
 

Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?

I tend to wait until everyone else has gone to sleep. If I must, I will write under any circumstances. I even wrote a few short stories during the worst time of my life, my two-year stint in the Soviet Army in the late ’80s. Kenyon Review Online kindly published my essay about these experiences.


What are you working on currently?

Airlie Press has just released my poetry collection, The Catalog of Broken Things. I’ve been doing some readings and other promotion while trying to find homes for my other poetry and fiction manuscripts, and to finish the first draft of my novel A Slight Curve dealing with chemistry, secrets and East Germany.


What are you reading right now

W. S. Merwin’s exceptional new poetry collection, the second book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, poetry by Margaret Atwood, and the latest issue of Tampa Review.

Born in Russia, A. Molotkov moved to the U.S. in 1990 and switched to writing in English in 1993. His poetry collection, The Catalog of Broken Things, was released by Airlie Press in 2016. Published by Kenyon, Iowa, Cincinnati, Tampa, Raleigh and Cider Press Reviews, Pif, Ruminate, 2 Rive, and many more, Molotkov is a winner of New Millennium Writings and Koeppel fiction contests, two poetry chapbook contests, and a 2015 Oregon Literary Fellowship. He co-edits The Inflectionist Review. Visit him at amolotkov.com.