Interviewed by Jasmine Ferrufino Editor in Chief at Chaotic Merge
Jasmine Ferrufino: What would you love your audience to know about you that you might not express in your writing that often?
Shome Dasgupta: Oh! I’m not quite sure—I’m afraid there’s not too much about me to know other than I love to read and write. I used to be somewhat athletic way back when—I love sports, particularly basketball, and I think I still hold a few records from my high school days such as free throw percentage, assists, and also, likely, most turnovers! I don’t follow the sport all too much, but I love playing street cricket—when I lived in Manchester, UK, I certainly fell in love with the game.
JF: There are many new/ arising creatives out there , but I wonder how your specific process works and if you have any advice for them?
SD: I generally don’t feel like I’m in a place to offer advice because I still think I have so much to learn about the creative process, especially for writing, and it manifests itself so differently for everyone. Creativity seems so fickle. It can be never-ending, I guess, because maybe creativity is infinite within our own minds and in its limitations. Perhaps, I can offer to say that I like to explore all ideas, thoughts, experiences, and see where they take me even if it feels like there’s little movement. Sometimes the causes and effects are so strange and intangible, I never know how it affects whatever it is I’m trying to do until I realize it upon reflection. I also try to soak up as many mediums of creativity as possible—which is pretty much everything!
JF: Do you have a certain setup before writing? (Example: Do you wake up at 5am ? Do you have to make coffee before? Do you write random line until you finally get going?)
SD: Coffee—coffee—coffee, always. For me especially, iced mochas—I’m a sucker for them. It’s either iced mochas or black coffee. I don’t really have a certain routine these days; however, if I’m in the middle of writing a story, a poem, or a CNF piece, I usually try to write, or give time to it, every day while I’m working on it—for however little or large amount of time. I tend to do this when I know I can be a bit regular about it though I’m fine with not visiting a draft every day—I’m also being a bit hypocritical because I started a manuscript about 5 months ago, but I haven’t looked at it since then. Currently, I love writing at night, but this definitely changes.
JF: If you had one sentence/fact to describe you and your life what would it be?
SD: Always—I’m thankful and grateful for this opportunity at life.
JF: What made you want to write A Sound of Dew and how do you think it has evolved to the version it is?
SD: Thank you again for taking in “A Sound Of Dew.” The idea came to me during a summer, when I was in a pretty obsessive mode of routine—this includes going to get my coffee in the morning. I feel like I became acquaintances with everything around me—mailboxes, trees, squirrels, turtles, litter, the way of the sun. So when there’s a slight change, it’s almost magnified—such as the dead squirrel, and it made me so sad. So I just wanted to kind of combine that experience with the chaos and confusion in my own mind in an effort to try to make sense of it all. Then, there’s the turtle, too. Thanks again for giving this piece a chance!
Who is Shome Dasgupta?
Shome Dasgupta is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner Of The 2010 OW Press Contest), The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), Mute (Tolsun Books), Spectacles (Word West Press), and a poetry collection, Iron Oxide (Assure Press). His fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Hobart, New Orleans Review, Puerto Del Sol, Necessary Fiction, New World Writing, Parentheses Journal, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. He is currently the series editor of the Wigleaf Top 50. He lives in Lafayette, LA and can be found at www.shomedome.com and @laughingyeti.