This week, Homer News is spotlighting Alaska author Rich Chiappone.
Richard Chiappone
Anchor Point, Alaska
Chiappone’s collection of short stories, “Water Of An Undetermined Depth,” was published in 2003. His short story, “Raccoon,” has been made into a short feature film and he is currently working with a New York film producer and director to create a feature-length screenplay. Chiappone’s fiction and nonfiction have been published in Playboy, Missouri Review, ZYZZYVA, Alaska Magazine and Gray’s Sporting Journal. He is an adjunct professor in creative writing at Kachemak Bay Campus, Kenai Peninsula College-University of Alaska Anchorage, and senior affiliate editor at Alaska Quarterly Review.
At Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Chiappone will guide a writing circle; is a panelist, “Extending Our Borders: Writers Cross the Genre Lines;” and is a presenter, “The Joy of Writing Sex.”
HN: What inspires and influences you as a writer?
Chiappone: Reading good writing. Period. I want to do what those people do.
HN: What tips do you have for wannabe writers?
Chiappone: What will make you feel like a writer? A Pulitzer Prize, or merely seeing your name in print under a letter to the editor? Focus on what you want to write, not who you think you will become. When your book is on the shelf, guess what ... you’re still going to be you.
HN: How do you schedule your writing time?
Chiappone: Schedule? Hah. I wish. I have no discipline at all. As a result, I have not produced much. I only write when I am unable to avoid it, and I can avoid writing like nobody in the world. My advice to new writers: Do not try this at home.
HN: How do you market your writing?
Chiappone: I write first and ask questions later. When I get to a certain point in a piece of writing, it starts to become clear to me where I should send it. For some reason, it is not always as clear to the editors of the places I am sure will want it.
HN: Where do you go for writing advice?
Chiappone: I read “The Art of Fiction” by John Gardner at least once a year, the essays on writing by Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor too. But you can’t beat “Bird by Bird” by Ann Lamott for the best advice on writing ever put between two covers. For flesh and blood encouragement, I talk to anyone who wants to talk about writing. My cats, of course, are a big help too.
The following two days are filled with panel discussions, presentations, reading and writing with Eugenides and a host of other presenters: Sherwin Bitsui, Jerah Chadwick, Rich Chiap-pone, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Marjorie Kowa-lski Cole, Gary Ferguson, Jill Fredston, John Haines, Kim Heacox, Judith Kitchen, Nancy Lord, Jo-An Mapson, Dawn Morao, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Ben Mikaelsen, Stan Sanvel Rubin, Rebeca Saletan, Katharine Sands, Eva Saulitis, Mimi Schwartz, Sherry Simpson and Aoise Stratford.
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