Making out in strange places: Nicolle Elizabeth flips the table on J. Bradley.

J. Bradley interviews people. Thought it’d be fun to flip the table over and ask him a few questions. Man was I wrong. This was no fun at all. Love, Nicolle

Nicolle Elizabeth: J. Bradley. J. Dilla. What’s poppin. You have about 888 awesome projects coming out. Chapbooks coming out from Deckfight and Artistically Declined Press. Let’s first talk about the chapbook which ran at PANK in 2009, because it is my favorite. Who is Esmeralda, and why is Canto 1 called Whereas He Wants To Tap That Ass?

J. Bradley: The beginning of Esmeralda is Derrick seeing her on the dance floor and working up the nerve/gall to hit on her. Esmeralda is a mix of a lot of people I’ve met/dated in my life, including a lot of myself. How much of me is in her, I’ll let you figure out.

NE: Do you feel that gendered writing exists at all? Do you often write from a female perspective?

JB: Sometimes I do. I think part of the reason why I do is because I was raised by a single mother and women tend to be a bit more interesting. I also don’t write anything involving fathers because of that. I don’t know if you can assign writing a gender. I think writing decides whose skin it wants to wear when it wants to wear it.

NE: You also have a novella coming out from Housefire which will run at the end of June online first and then later in 5 limited print-run installations. Talk about that. Not all poets can or choose to write longer works. Where is all this coming from?

JB: Housefire allowed me the privilege to write a 10,000 word novella. I picked the title of Bodies Made of Smoke. I don’t believe in writer’s block and that my imagination has no limits. Combined, this allows me to be prolific.

NE: I don’t believe in writer’s block either. Read something you loved. If it doesn’t help then you never loved it that deeply and you don’t know how to surrender yourself to literature. Moving on, let’s talk about the work coming out from Artistically Declined. What’s coming out from Artistically Declined, J. Bradley?

JB: That would be Our Hearts Are Ballads, which is part two of Patchwork Our Hearts Are Power Ballads, an e-chap the second half of poems I wrote while waiting to finally reunite with someone.

NE: Did you sing to them in metal hair when you were reunited?

JB: No, she wasn’t really into that. I have the falsetto to do it though.

NE: Walk backwards but keep facing me. It’s fine, we’re on a sidewalk. You came up in the Slam circuit first, can you talk about this a bit and what the difference transitioning into the indie literature world has been like?

JB: So far, I have nothing but really nice things to say about indie lit. Everyone I’ve met is talented, nice, and incredibly human at the same time. My slam background made me a really good performer and that also translates when I write fiction. I think indie lit has more drive and craft that slam could learn from while indie lit could learn how to be more accessible to people in a short window of time.

NE: I know you’re a Jeff McDaniel fan, who else are you reading and why? Do you read THE CLASSICS or COMMERCIAL WORKS or OBSCURE 2ND WAVE NYC POETS or what.

JB: Warren Ellis, xTx, Tim Jones-Yelvington, John Jodzio, Joseph Rippii, Adam Gallari, Ben Tanzer, Mary Hamilton, Lindsay Hunter, and whatever else I feel like at the time. I like short story/flash collections because I can pick them up and drop them as I please.

NE: Do you feel that the internet helps or hinders the publishing or quality writing?

JB: I think it’s a mixed bag. It depends on the strength of the editor and their vision. I work for PANK but I am also a tremendous fan of their monthly content and that’s a credit to the Roxane Gay and M. Bartley Siegel and their readers. They make my job fun as an interviews editor. All I want to do is produce quality writing that lasts for centuries.