AUTHOR PROFILE
John P. Kristofco is professor of English and the former dean of Wayne College in Orrville. His poetry, short stories, and essays have appeared in over a hundred different publications, including: Folio, Rattle, The Bryant Literary Review, The Cimarron Review, Poem, Grasslimb, Iodine, Small Pond, The Aurorean, Ibbetson Street, Blue Unicorn, Blueline, Sheepshead Review, and Slanr. He has published three collections of poetry, A Box of Stones, Apparitions, and The Fire in Our Eyes and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times.
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Why do you write?
I write (and teach writing) because it is a large and essential part of who and what I am, and it is one of the most fundamentally ‘human’ behaviors I know. I started concocting stories when I was quite young and began writing them in grade school. In the sixth grade, I gave my favorite teacher a collection of ‘poems’ called “Early Dawn.” I still have a folder of pieces I wrote in high school (which I take out and read every six months or so, something I think all writers should do---to remember where you once were). I also write because I enjoy it and find it, like all true compulsions, both fiendishly frustrating and addictively rewarding. When I was a kid I wanted to be a baseball player and a writer. I am happy that half that deal worked out.
What other creative activities are you involved in?
I take a lot of what I believe to be ‘artistic’ photographs, mainly nature shots, landscapes, and studies of everyday objects. I also play guitar and have written a handful of songs, and I am about to get back to the drawing and painting I first took up a long time ago.
Who is your favorite author and why?
Tennyson, for his sense of sound and rhythm; Dickinson, for seeing the profound in the ordinary; Shakespeare, for the scope and power of his world/his language; Richard Wilbur, for his intelligence; and William Stafford, for the power of his soul.
Kingsley Amis, for his wit; Fitzgerald, for his sentences; Hemingway, for his simplicity; Alice Munro, for her realism; and Tim O’Brien, for his detail.
Kingsley Amis, for his wit; Fitzgerald, for his sentences; Hemingway, for his simplicity; Alice Munro, for her realism; and Tim O’Brien, for his detail.
Tell us about the mechanics of how you write.
My ideas come from my reading and reflecting on experience. Periodically, I set time aside to note subjects, images, ideas, people, and events that bring life to a boil. I then select those things on which I will write and literally set myself a month/six week schedule.
For each poem, I spend about an hour in an initial brainstorming/free-writing session which includes everything from individual phrases and metaphors to early versions of lines. That is followed by a ‘culling session’ during which time I ‘harvest’ whatever I feel is worth keeping. I then begin to write lines from that culled material. This is where the poem begins to take shape. I will then begin to draft and review/revise until I feel I have a full draft of the piece. That is the first time I actually type it. I will continue to revise and edit the new poem until I have the sense that it has its own legs and can walk.
The process is much the same for stories, though after the brainstorming, I begin to flesh out the characters so that I begin to know who they are. I will also then do an outline of the plot, not to be absolutely adhered to, but to provide a roadmap for the narrative. I then begin to write the story (on legal pad) until I think it is ready to be typed into a first full draft. That first draft, like the first full draft of a poem, is then edited and revised until I feel satisfied and think that it can go out on its own.
For each poem, I spend about an hour in an initial brainstorming/free-writing session which includes everything from individual phrases and metaphors to early versions of lines. That is followed by a ‘culling session’ during which time I ‘harvest’ whatever I feel is worth keeping. I then begin to write lines from that culled material. This is where the poem begins to take shape. I will then begin to draft and review/revise until I feel I have a full draft of the piece. That is the first time I actually type it. I will continue to revise and edit the new poem until I have the sense that it has its own legs and can walk.
The process is much the same for stories, though after the brainstorming, I begin to flesh out the characters so that I begin to know who they are. I will also then do an outline of the plot, not to be absolutely adhered to, but to provide a roadmap for the narrative. I then begin to write the story (on legal pad) until I think it is ready to be typed into a first full draft. That first draft, like the first full draft of a poem, is then edited and revised until I feel satisfied and think that it can go out on its own.
Finally, what do you think about Carp, the fish, not our website?
I guess I’ve always liked ‘carp,’ at least insofar as the goldfish is a member of the family (I believe), and who doesn’t like goldfish? Besides, since the word is nearly a phonetic and graphic twin of the imperative form of the Latin verb ‘carpo,’ (‘carpe,’ as in “carpe diem”), I feel almost compelled (by the late Robin Williams, at least) to fancy it.