THE NEXT BIG THING INTERVIEW

I was tagged by Susan Gevirtz for a The Next Big Thing interview, I think I'm supposed to post this on March 14th or something? I'm going to post this right now though, cause I don't really understand the point of forward dating it if we're not aggregating and organizing on one website, and as far as I can tell, we're not. What follows is an interview with myself about my new book.

John Sakkis

What is the working title of the book?

The Islands

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Drinking warm Retsina on Paros. Google Alerts. Family history, real or imagined. THE LYRIC. The poetry of Michael Palmer, Benjamin Hollander, Jean Genet. Breakups, subcultures, friendships. “Autobiography” as bibliography. Music, the kind you listen to, Prosody, the kind you feel. The Bay Area, always the Bay Area. Oceans, bridges, nightmares/ dreams.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Animated feature in the style of Los Bros Hernandez. I imagine myself looking something like Doyle Blackburn, though as a dark brunette. “Loosely adapted” would be fine if it meant a crossover story with Luba.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A book about Greece.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The first draft took about a year, and then revision, revise, revised, vision.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See question #2

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I like to think the book is storytelling, like a good Deep House set, or a walk around Lake Merritt, or a night of deep REM sleep with a hint of astral lucidity mixed in for good measure. I’m trying to get your head to bump with prosody, I think that’s fun.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Nightboat Books will be publishing The Islands.

Your tagged writers for next Wednesday are:

Chris Martin, Julian Poirier, Michael Cross, Brent Cunningham, Stephen Motika, Logan Ryan Smith.