Michael Kimball’s new book is called Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (On a Postcard). It’s fresh out from Mud Luscious Press, and it is what it’s title says it is: the life stories of about 60 “people and animals and things.” Kimball (who recently had an excerpt from his last book, 2012’s Big Ray featured here in What Lit) lives in Baltimore, so many of the “biographies” are of local interest. He’ll be reading tomorrow at Atomic Books (here’s the Facebook event info). Recently, Kimball and I met up to play pool at Dougherty’s Pub, where we talked about his new book and about being alive. He won most of the pool games.
AR: What is this book?
MK: It’s a collection of very short biographies I wrote about people and animals and things.
AR: What’s it have to do with postcards?
MK: I wrote them on postcards. That’s how short they are.
AR: You interviewed the people?
MK: Yes.
AR: How?
MK: Sometimes it was on the phone and sometimes over email and sometimes in person.
AR: Were people forthcoming about their stuff?
MK: I was surprised at how willing people were to talk about intimate details and difficult things.
AR: You have a knack for framing the most interesting details about their lives.
MK: Or, at least what seems most interesting. It was incredibly difficult to encapsulate things this way.
AR: Life is difficult.
MK: . . .
AR: Yeah.
MK: Are there more ways to have pain than happiness? Or do we just recount painful things when trying to qualify our lives?
AR: But it’s not all sadness here.
MK: Come on.
AR: What are some of your favorite life stories in the book?
MK: The one about the bar of soap is good. It disappears in the end.
AR: Your cats–
MK: My cats.
AR: You dedicated the book to your cats?
MK: I do love my cats.
AR: And you wrote their life stories?
MK: Yes, the life story of my cat Moose is on the cover of the book.
AR: I like how, in the biography of El Duque (your cat), you say, “El Duque is sitting right next to me as I type this.”
MK: Sweet.
AR: That’s one of my favorite things about the book, how there’s all this crossover between the lives.
MK: What do you mean?
AR: Well, I guess your “authorial hand” is very clear. You write all these different lives with a similar tone. And it’s also similar to the way you wrote your other books. You’re a sensitive writer, and it’s very prevalent in this.
MK: How else do you write a book?
AR: So this book, it was published by “Mud Luscious.” What’s that?
MK: Mud Luscious is a small press based in Colorado. It’s run by a guy named J. A. Tyler. He does really cool books, all unique and all the same size as mine.
AR: Do you like publishing with small presses or big presses better?
MK: Well, big presses give you money, but small presses are more fun. Plus, I’ve been doing this a long time with all sorts of publishers and I like it all. I like writing and I like people who like writing.
AR: What are you writing now?
MK: Thanks for asking.
AR: Thanks for the interview.
MK: Thanks for the interview.
Full disclosure: Kimball and I are good buddies and I did the design for this book, and also my life story is included in the book.
