Confession Album: Zack Graham
Hewes House's new series interviews Zack Graham: writer, filmmaker, and editor of Lampblack Lit
I’m excited to introduce our new column: Confession Album. A confession album is a Victorian parlor game that allowed you to get to know somebody quickly, and it was told to cut to the depths of one’s personality. Generally, we feel that writer interviews are a boring affair, so we decided to employ a confession album—Marcel Proust’s Questionnaire in particular—as the model for our new interview series. We highlight writers who are making moves in the literary space through selfmade methods. Please check out their work, take their practice as inspiration, and do something cool today.
On Writing, Walking, and Trees
ZACK GRAHAM is a writer from Chicago. He edits a magazine called Lampblack that publishes Black writers from around the world. The magazine’s submission window closes on April 15th. Please visit their submissions page to find out more.
Who are you and what’s your creative work?
Zack Graham, Writing and Filmmaking
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Waking up at 7:00 a.m. ET, reading in bed for 3 hours; putting on clothes, packing a bag of writing materials, reading materials, my wallet, my keys, a protein bar, a water bottle, and sunscreen; walking between the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges until I tire; writing and reading until I’m ready to keep walking; walking until I tire; writing and reading until I’m ready to keep walking; walking until I tire; writing and reading until I’m ready to keep walking; walking to the market, collecting my provisions for the day, walking home, cooking myself a meal, dining, reading and writing until I tire, collapsing on my couch, watching a beautiful film, retiring to bed, between 11:00 p.m. and midnight, and waking up the following day and doing it all over again.
What is your greatest fear?
I don’t know.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My desire to publish.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
When they don’t read books.
Which living person do you most admire?
Michael Jordan.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Reading a book for a very long time. I have been reading the collected short fictions of Machado De Assis for 12 years. I’ve been reading it as slowly as I can. I hope I never finish it. It is too wonderful to end.
What is your current state of mind?
Free.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Cleanliness.
On what occasion do you lie?
I have a habit of telling my friends I am 500-800 words ahead of where I actually am in a writing project.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Everything.
Which living person do you most despise?
Grayson Allen.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
A voracious appetite for reading.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
A voracious appetite for reading.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I use the word “realize” and its various conjugations far too much in my fiction.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Writing.
When and where were you happiest?
When I finished the 285,000-word science fiction epic I wrote between the ages of 12 and 18. I was overjoyed. The novel was horrible. I will never revisit it.
Which talent would you most like to have?
If by talent you mean superpower, I wouldn’t be opposed to having wings.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I don’t write enough.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I can’t answer that publicly, but I know the answer, and I am deeply, profoundly proud of my work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A tree. Trees have it right. They don’t suffer the indignity of speech.
Where would you most like to live?
Between New York, London, Vienna, and Cape Town.
What is your most treasured possession?
My books. Specifically, my grandfather’s library. He has hardback copy of Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon signed to him personally. I want to know the story behind that.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The depths of Missouri?
What is your favorite occupation?
Writing.
What is your most marked characteristic?
I’ve been told I brighten a room.
What do you most value in your friends?
Honesty.
Who are your favorite writers?
(In Alphabetical Order by First Name) Ben Lerner, Cormac McCarthy, David Foster Wallace, Derek Walcott, Dwayne Carter (Lil’ Wayne), J.G. Ballard, Jean Rhys, John Keene, Machado De Assis, Martin Amis, Norman Spinrad, Percival Everett, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Toni Morrison.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Machado De Assis.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Machado De Assis.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Machado De Assis.
What are your favorite names?
Asreal, Remington, Catch, Alana, Sam Dusk, Phineus McDonald, Thomas Smith, The Host, Larissa, Santiago, Myriam, The Cosmic Dream Serpent, Alastair. Clarissa, Kayla, Laquan, Darius Collingsworth. Sam, Book Boy, Travis, Sandman, Theresa, Matthieu, Ziggy, Jeff, Imran Vohra, Joey, Devon, Amanda, Sam, Alicia, [REDACTED], Eran, Elsa, celinelover1961@hotmail.com, Samuel, Madam K, Lewis, Maddie, Quentin, Bobby, Lorenzo, Priscilla, Gerard, The Disciple, Camilla, President Lopez, Mayor Cruz, The Leader of the Band, and, most of all, The Mighty God Sun Ra.
What is it that you most dislike?
I wish I wrote more.
What is your greatest regret?
Upon my death bed, I will have wished that I had written more.
How would you like to die?
Surrounded by my wife and children.
What is your motto?
I am a fan of the A.I.T.C. method of writing. (Ass In The Chair).
Zack is leading a reading group at the Center for Fiction that will survey J.G. Ballard's novels. “J.G. Ballard was one of the most visionary novelists of his generation. His stories defined not only the terrifying time in which he lived, but the far more horrifying world we’ve inherited.
Please sign up if you're able and interested. And please pass this note along to anyone you think might want to participate—friends, students, readers, writers, and anyone else who comes to mind.”
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