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The Art of the Domestic Grotesque: An Interview with Caleb J. Ross in the newest issue of Surreal Grotesque

December 27, 2012

I'm honored to have been able to spout off a bit for the newest issue of Surreal Grotesque magazine. Here's a taste: Your work doesn’t really resemble a genre in any way, which is nice, although people try to pigeonhole certain writers as being Chuck Palahniuk-esque or in the vein of “urban noir”. If you had to describe your writing style of work to someone who has never read you before, how would you describe your writing? I use the term Domestic Grotesque a lot, which basically means family dynamic meets visceral irrationality. The best example I can think of—though this book came out after I coined the term Domestic Grotesque—is Matt Bell’s Cataclysm Baby. A lot of Brian Evenson’s work would also fit. I love the imagery I can get away with when I write the grotesque, and I love the inherent tension when dealing with a family and…

Interviewed at the Books and Booze podcast. I think I validate 50 Shades of Grey as culturally relevant…

August 4, 2012

A couple of nights ago I was invited to be the interviewee on an episode of the burgeoning and fun Books and Booze podcast. This, episode 4, has me chatting books with Renee Pickup and Dakota Taylor, sans books or booze in my hands, unfortunately. We talk a lot about my books, of course, but we get larger issues such as the implied cultural relevance of books that we (Renee, Dakota, and myself) don’t necessarily assume are good (ahem…50 Shades of Grey…) but must strike a unique chord if they are selling so well. We don’t always have to agree with cultural shifts, I suppose. But we’re all interested, it would seem, in the idea that mass consumption of a product must mean that product has some relevance beyond the aesthetic (but if now, doesn’t wide aesthetic appeal still say something about a culture). Anyway, it was tremendous fun. Thanks…

Interviewed at Slit Your Wrists Magazine, bar tabs, story origins, and suicide – yours, not mine

July 16, 2012

The amazing Laurance Kitts interviews me for his Slit Your Wrists Magazine website, a site that frequent visitors may recognize; my story "Sebaceous" appeared there back in April. Laurance knows how to ask questions without bowing to a person's ego, so you can read this Q&A without anticipating a pretentious me basking in the warmth of praise. I mean, sure, Laurance does feed me some softballs, but...those are easier to chew.

Solarcide interviews me, one of the most interesting interviews yet: The Digital Age of Domestic Grotesque

November 16, 2011

Nathan Pettigrew, one of the two minds behind the lit site Solarcide, asked me for an interview a few days ago. This guy knows how to ask questions, ones that not only evoke my own passion for the subject matter but also make it easy for me to answer in a way that is hopefully entertaining for readers. Head over to Solarcide now. Read the interview. Learn of my greatness. Here's a taste of Nathan's humbling intro: He’s one of literature’s most lethal rising stars and highly prolific with not one, but four new releases in 2011. His debut novel from earlier this year, Stranger Will (Otherworld Publications), established Caleb J. Ross as a true talent to be reckoned with. His writing can be described as stylistically beautiful while depicting some of the darkest and most disturbing worlds that fiction has to offer. Picking up on concurrent themes throughout his work pertaining…

Episode 005: INTERVIEW with Matt Bell

June 5, 2010

[display_podcast] In this interview episode of The Velvet Podcast, Caleb J Ross interviews Matt Bell, author of The Collectors (Caketrain Press), Wolf Parts and the forthcoming How They Were Found, both from Keyhole Press. Matt’s short fiction has been published and anthologized just about everywhere and is forthcoming to Ninth Letter, the ML Press chapbook series, and Kill Author. We talk about live-writing with an audience over at Everyday Genius, editing for The Collagist, teaching writing to fourth graders, and mucho more.

Ego stroked at the Cat O’Nine Tails: an interview

March 14, 2009

When a person takes interest in my work, I squeal. If you heard a hi-pitched shriek last night, I might be to blame. Craig Wallwork contacted me with a request to ask a few questions about my work and its ethic. Great conversation ensued, supported, I'm certain, not only by Craig's excellent provocative queries, but by the fictional Cat O'Nine Tails ambiance. You can learn: My thoughts on academia and creative writing The importance of online publishing TV/VCR Repair Computer Programming Bookkeeping The origin of my The Velvet username, ThirstyGerbil The best piece of writing advice I've ever received Or you can major in Business Management or Accounting Stick around after the interview and take in a few pieces of Craig's writing. You won't be disappointed. I recommend starting with The Crocodile, if only because any image of a kid pressing his ass against a floor to prevent shitting himself,…

those of a life remembered

March 12, 2007

The interview is a rare opportunity to experience the inner workings of a person. Unless that person likes to call himself a writer, then the interview is just old news to those who've read his stories. Fiction can be the ultimate autobiography, though a structured and controlled autobiography it is. Fiction is makeup.So what's a writer to do when he wants to wash away the mascara? He answers some questions in an attempt to categorize his life, similar to the desires of the protagonist in Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea: I wanted the moments of my life to follow and order themselves like those of a life remembered. And like this protagonist the writer understands that "You might as well try and catch time by the tail." Jason Kane and Justin Holt, both writers themselves, were kind enough to pretend I had interesting things to say, to pretend I had a some…