First, big congratulations on your forthcoming story collection, which includes a vivid voice-driven Solstice story that literally packs a punch: ‘Bare Knuckle.’ What do you want readers to know about your new collection and its themes/vibe?
Thank you! The main thing I want readers to know is that (I hope!) the collection is a lot of fun to read. Most of the stories are realistic, but there are ghostly presences and strange twists of fate. I’m always on the lookout for the bizarre and I guess it’s here in spades. There are lots of references to music and African American history, too. And lots of birds. Yep. Don’t ask me why.
Your two powerhouse novels both tackle urgent issues of Social Justice and you are an activist as well as author. Jimmy Santiago Baca, author of A Place to Stand, said of your first novel Damnificados: “Should be read by every politician and rich bastard and then force-fed to them—literally, page by page.” Can you discuss this aspect of your work?
The stories that interest me most are stories of struggle, people battling against the odds: the Civil Rights movement; anti-apartheid in South Africa; the landless movement in Brazil. There are moments and individuals in history that just catch my imagination, for example the Indigenous leader Tupac Amaru telling his colonial executioners, “I will return, and I will be millions.” I guess my fiction always swings for the underdog because that’s who I identify with.
A related question: your books have been published by PM Press, which is unique and groundbreaking in its approach to publishing and to political action. Can you describe PM Press for Solstice readers—and for fellow writers?
PM Press works within a capitalist structure, but subverts capitalism wherever it can. So it’s a profit-share and it’s non-hierarchical; the founder makes the same salary as everyone else and can be seen manning the stand at book fairs and fetching merchandise from the warehouse.
Also, PM publishes books about global issues: the environment, human rights, struggles for justice all over the planet. The books are gorgeous and well edited, and the folks at PM are amazing; they’re in it for the long haul because they believe books can help heal the world. I feel privileged that my work has a home with them.
As your teaching colleague, I know you have a sterling reputation among students for going over manuscripts line by line with an eagle eye for every misplaced comma. Can you speak to this side to yourself; how did you become a guardian of grammar and how has that influenced your own clear and immaculate prose style?
Ha! Being described as a guardian of grammar makes me laugh! I couldn’t care less about grammar rules; if my students want to split an infinitive, that’s fine with me. It’s about clarity. Anything that disturbs the reading experience—misplaced commas, ambiguous phrasing, inaccurate metaphors—is a no-no for me. As a reader, I hate stopping to work out what the author is trying to express, because it means I’m distracted from the story.
There are actually only two important things I try to teach my students: tell the truth and tell it clearly. Everything else is icing.
Your most recent novel Nazaré was described this way by the awesome author Elizabeth Hand: “Like the wave that gives it its title, JJ Amaworo Wilson’s Nazaré is a high-water mark for fabulist fiction, an exceptional novel that showcases the superior gifts of a writer who only gets better with each new work.” Can you discuss your own sense of the genre ‘Fabulist Fiction’? What does that term mean to you and how did you come to be a ‘Fabulist’ storyteller?
“Fabulist” isn’t a label I’m overly familiar with, but it has its roots in “fable” so I assume it means I write fables. I’m happy with that. I love fables and fairy tales. Some of my earliest forays as a reader were with Hans Christian Andersen, Aladdin, and Greek mythology. Then in my twenties, when I lived in Colombia, I discovered the Latin American magical realists, particularly García Márquez, the fabulist’s fabulist. As you read him, you’re wondering, “Who gave him permission to write like this?” My mind was truly blown.
As a father and as a teacher, you have a close connection to the coming generation of authors and activists. What is your best advice to that new generation at this perilous time in our history?
Tell the truth. Read everything. Assess sources. Question assumptions. Make alliances. Be humble. Look behind the veil.
Is there any question you have never been asked before in an interview that you would like to ask yourself and answer now?
Yes. Q: Did your dreams come true? A: Most of them. I’m a father, a husband, and an author. I spend my days reading and writing. I love and I am loved. Whatever posterity has in store for me, I enjoyed my time here on this beautiful ball of fire and ice.
JJ Amaworo Wilson is a German-born Anglo-Nigerian-American writer. His work has been published in The Penguin Book of New Black Writing, African American Review, Justice Journal, The New York Journal of Books, and A Public Space, among many others. His 2016 novel, Damnificados, won four awards and was an Oprah Top Pick. Another novel, Nazaré, came out in 2021 and won the Foreword INDIES Book Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award. Amaworo Wilson has also written several books about language, two of which won prizes that saw him honored at Buckingham Palace in 2008 and 2011. He is the writer-in-residence at Western New Mexico University and teaches on the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing. He has a new story collection forthcoming, including a story first published in SOLSTICE: ‘Bare Knuckle.’ https://jjawilson.wordpress.com
Elizabeth Searle is the author of six books of fiction– most recently The Drama Room: A Collection in Three Acts– and the co-author of a Feature Film, I’ll Show You Mine (Duplass Brothers Productions). The film was released in select theaters and is widely available on home screens via AmazonPrime, Peacock and more. Elizabeth’s novel, We Got Him, was a finalist for the Midwest Book Award and her previous books include A Four-Sided Bed, nominated for an ALA Book Award, and My Body to You, Iowa Short Fiction Prize winner. Her books Celebrities in Disgrace and A Four-Sided Bed are the basis of short films, and her film scripts have won multiple awards. Her feature film and her theater work Tonya & Nancy: the Rock Opera have drawn national media attention.
