Virgil Suarez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1962. He is the author of over 15 books of poetry and prose. His work was included in Midnight Mind Number Three.
Name some writers who have affected you and how they have affected you.
I can think of two right away. Edgar Poe in poetry because he taught me that sound and form are as important as language in poetry. Also, Poe gave me a great sense of story-telling in his poems, which I like and continue to admire.
In fiction it was Nathaneal West’s MISS LONELYHEARTS and DAY OF THE LOCUST. Those two books are worth more than 2/3rds of all American Literature for me. They are both masterpieces of language and story. DAY OF THE LOCUST clicked with me because I grew up in Los Angeles and read the book while still living there. It made a deep impression on me how people lose themselves in a harsh and alienating environment, which is how so many exiles perish.
Do you read more poetry or Fiction?
Too many novels and not enough lifetimes, but there isn’t enough poetry for me. I have a gargantuan appetite for it. I live my life through poetry. I am addicted to it. I get headaches and dizzy spells if I’m not near poetry. Without it I will perish, so yes, poetry is everything to me. American fiction is limiting, maligned, too competition-oriented.
When did you first realize that you wanted to write creatively?
At the age of 12 or so. When I found myself outside of my country, forced with my parents into exile. I wrote to remember, and to put things into order. The life on an exile is chaos. The best thing an exiled writer does is become a philosopher of the absurd, as Camus would put it.
How do your experiences impact your writing?
I write about my life, and my life informs my writing. Yes. I write to explore, but also to keep the record straight. Which is why I write so many narrative poems. I like to tell stories.
What was the last book you finished? Did you like it?
GUIDE TO THE BLUE TONGUE, a new book of poems out from the University of Illinois Press. I like it because in it I am making a few departures. I think it is a book that takes risks, and the risks, at least for me, pay off.
How often, and where do you write?
I write all the time, everywhere. I write 12 hours a day, Monday through Sunday. It used to be I could stop during the weekends, but I am writing all the time now. I have this great urgency. Tomorrow I might die, and if I do then I want to die writing. The word brought me in to this life and I want the word to take me out.
Do you have any big writing projects planned for the future?
Many. I have a new collection of poems in the works, a novel, and a new book of stories and essays coming out in September titled INFINITE REFUGE.
It’s always brewing, my writing that is . . . .
(Note: This “Seven Questions” was originally published during the first run of MidnightMind.com in 2003.)
