Search the Site

10 Questions for Mika Seifert


"SHNIP! That’s all it takes these days. Just a little shnip. And it’s painless, too. If, that is, you decide to take the Zonex they offer you at orientation (and why wouldn’t you?). And if you opt for the blindfold, so much the better. The sight of the ShadeBlade can still put the fear of God in some people."
from "Only Light, All the Time", Fall 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 3)

 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
This was one of those rare times when a story falls into your lap fully-formed. A friend told me about a girl she knew at the music school who had a terrible nightmare: her instrument (a double bass) suddenly started sounding quite horrible. She took it to a luthier’s shop, where it was opened up, revealing the body of a drowned woman inside. I wrote the story, and, after asking permission, published it under the title “The Bass”.

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
The only two writers whom I know to have had an influence on the actual style and direction of a story were Hemingway and Donald Barthelme. On the purpose of writing in general: George Gurdjieff and Sri Aurobindo.

What other professions have you worked in?
My main profession is in music, as concertmaster for a symphony orchestra.

What did you want to be when you were young?
When I was very young, I wanted to write Western novels like Karl May, who isn’t known in the English-speaking world but whose 19th century adventure novels have always been hugely popular in Germany.

What inspired you to write this piece?
The current decline of empathy and of being able to put oneself in someone else’s shoes even for a moment.

Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
Places have never really been an influence. When reading, I often find myself skipping lengthy descriptions of places and people’s clothing etc., so when writing I try to be as non-specific with locales and people as possible. Many stories I’ve simply placed in a town called Z, with different kinds of fruit for street names such as Mango Street or Lychee Lane. I’m happiest if a story seems like it takes place nowhere at all.

Who typically gets the first read of your work?
My long-time next-door neighbor in Cologne, Tony Palgrave, who I suspect may once have been an agent on Her Majesty’s clandestine service.

If you could work in another art form what would it be?
I would like to be able to paint like Remedios Varo.

What are you working on currently?
I recently wrote a short story, “Death at the Opera”, which I estimated would run to about 3,000 words. It turned into 15,000. So now I’m trying to expand that into a short novel.

What are you reading right now?
Handmaid’s Tale; Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita; Sean Carroll: From Eternity to Here

 

MIKA SEIFERT is a concert violinist and writer, whose short stories have been published in the Southern Review, Antioch Review, Image Journal, Chicago Review, and elsewhere.


Join the email list for our latest news