Confession Album: Ivan Genc

Hewes House interviews poet & Zona Motel graphic designer Ivan Genc

The Hewes House team met Ivan Genc at AWP 2026 in Baltimore, and we were all charmed. Poet, graphic designer, social media manager extraordinaire, Ivan has quickly become an important member of the online literary community.

– Josh Boardman

On Happiness and Love without Compromise

Ivan Genc is a poet from Petrinja, Croatia. He runs social media for Zona Motel, an online literary magazine. Subscribe to Zona Motel on Substack and follow them on Instagram.

Who are you and what’s your creative work?

Ivan Genc. Poetry and graphic design.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

The moments that make you feel like happiness can be eternal:

Developing a creative or spiritual habit that feels easy to do. Re-reading something you wrote and not wanting to change it. When work doesn’t feel like work. Not thinking in countdowns and deadlines. Spending a night laughing with your oldest friends. Swimming in the Adriatic sea. Adding someone’s city to your weather app. When kissing turns into an inevitability. Fantasy becoming reality even just for one moment. Happiness can’t be perfect because it can’t be forever, but sometimes you can’t help but feel like it can.

What is your greatest fear?

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.

Stranger: Indeed?

Cassilda: Indeed, it’s time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.

Stranger: I wear no mask.

Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda) No mask? No mask!

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Preoccupation with how I’m perceived. Not wanting to be perceived.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Arrogance. When someone thinks they know what’s best for other people.

Which living person do you most admire?

Bisan Owda. A Palestinian woman around my age who documents Israel’s genocide. I admire her resilience and the resilience of her people very much.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Growing up poor means every luxury item or experience is an extravagance you need to deliberate over for as long as possible before purchase even if you’re an adult with money. Every expensive tech item I own like a nice phone or a beefy computer feels excessive when I could always just write on a piece of paper. It takes time to understand you deserve some things. That being said, I like wearing nice perfume. Spritzing some expensive fragrant alcohol on my neck is great extravagance.

What is your current state of mind?

Jostling between hopelessness and desire.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Individualism. What a plight it is that people feel the need to put themselves first all the time. I think you should always give a shit about other people, even if a young person in the 21st century can only financially succeed in life by stealing, lying and killing. I think individualism is a great excuse for sociopaths to fuck us all over.

On what occasion do you lie?

I have a horrible habit of promising people we’ll get coffee soon. That’s the only lie I feel guilty about.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

In the era of looksmaxxing and mogging, I’m choosing to act radically by saying I don’t mind the way I look, and I’m satisfied with my appearance.

Which living person do you most despise?

Just one?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

“Yes,” “Sure,” “Of course,” “No problem.”

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Listen, I’m single, and love is strenuous and unprofitable. The greatest love is the first week of every situationship. Love without compromise. Spring has sprung, so I’m looking forward to a new one.

When and where were you happiest?

I have a few false but vivid childhood memories with my family in some grass plain or flower field, close to water, that feel happiest.

Which talent would you most like to have?

I would be happy with any talent to a higher degree. It seems liberating to be extremely good at one thing. I do a lot of things well, but I’m not exceptional. I would love to be a talented novelist, tennis player, carpenter, liar or lover. But I have to work hard, and I don’t mind working hard.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I performed at Zona Motel’s AWP offsite event in Baltimore and felt great. I felt confident. It was my first time in the States, I traveled alone, and figured out how to be a presentable person. Reading poetry in front of 150 people was not that big of a deal. Feeling really good about it was. I felt good because I was in a room surrounded by friends who also happen to be talented and creative human beings. Life is really simple in that regard. If you surround yourself with great people, you will also feel great. There is no greater achievement than that.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A ghost. Preferably the haunting kind.

Where would you most like to live?

In my own house or apartment.

What is your most treasured possession?

A box full of memories. It has some of my childhood pictures, postcards, journals I filled out, lanyards, badges, copies of movies and mixtapes I made for my friends, newspaper clippings and flyers my friends were featured on, recordings of plays I acted in, intimate mementos and other sentimental junk. I rarely open it. Nostalgia is like heroin to me. I’m trying to stay sober.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Being excited about the prospect of surrender and the relief it might bring.

What is your favorite occupation?

Wandering around aimlessly. Some of my best writing came to me while walking towards nothing in particular.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I’ve been told I’m a great listener.

What do you most value in your friends?

The showing up. I know that if I called them right now, they would be there for me.

Who are your favorite writers?

I’ve had considerable luck and found myself being friends with my favorite writers. You will find most of them on the Zona Motel masthead. If you’re following Hewes House, you probably know who they are. I don’t want to name names and forget anyone.

The ones you might not know are Croatian, and you should read them if you can, they are Dubravka Ugrešić, Ivo Brešan, Daša Drndić, Tin Ujević and Vedrana Rudan.

Who is your hero of fiction?

No one. Not a fan of heroics. Okay, fine. I’m just embarrassed to say James Holden from James S. A. Corey’s SF novel series The Expanse.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

I don’t dare!

Who are your heroes in real life?

David Lynch and Anthony Bourdain.

What are your favorite names?

As someone with an unimpressive and common name, at least for Croatia, I like it when someone cool has bland name. Or the jocky/preppy stereotypes, names like Brad, Chad, Chase, Parker, Zane, Angel, Britney, Tiffany, Taylor, Samantha etc. I also love it when something awful or mundane has a great name like Anemia, Enema, Pepto Bismol, Placenta, Veranda, Tequila.

What is it that you most dislike?

I have many enemies who are a much higher class than you and me. The world is run by cartoonishly evil people. Ten years ago, if you were to say that we are controlled by satan worshipping pedophiles and supremacists, you would have been called a paranoid conspiracist. It’s 2026 and we are well aware who’s up top. A genocide is being livestreamed to us. We’re all quiet. That’s what I most dislike. The silence. I don’t know why we’re not out on the streets with molotov cocktails in our hands. They got us by the balls with endless distractions. It drives me insane. I also dislike landlords.

What is your greatest regret?

I regret having a lack of focus when it comes to my academic path in life. I didn’t take enough risks to chase the dreams I had. I don’t regret who I’ve become, but if I had it all figured out when I was younger, maybe things would have been easier. Also, I’m never going to pretend that I don’t have any regrets. I’m not stupid enough to delude myself as much. I live to offset my regrets as much as I can.

How would you like to die?

I’m hoping spectacularly. It’s kind of incredible how much shit a person has to go through just to die.

What is your motto?

Nothing can save us forever, but a lot of things can save us today.

Liked this post? We’d love if you’d give it a ❤️.

To learn more about Hewes House, head to heweshouse.com.