BENT COUNTRY
relax, it's sheldon lee compton
Saturday, March 9, 2024
I Asked Leah Hampton Some Chaos Questions
Leah Hampton, the chimera herself, "sat down" for a Chaos Questions interview with me at Hobart. She is also the self-espoused Hobo Hampton, it turns out.
Productivity
The reason I've written and had published nine books in twelve years is because I write for recreation, for fun. It's what I do instead of going to the movies or having dinner out, or so forth. I don't mean it's my hobby; I'm saying it's the most fun thing I do, so I do it a lot.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
I talked to Benjamin Drevlow at Hobart
The Drevlow "sat down" for a chaotic interview with me at Hobart.
I so dig how Ben can extoll on any subject so colorfully. He's fun just to talk to, let alone interview. Give him room to run and he'll sprint til the cows come home.
I'd love if you'd go read it!
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Some Writers Have Shakespeare, I Have My Uncle
I posted a poem at Poverty House yesterday by my uncle G.C. I started reading that poem, "Big Shoal, Coal Town on the Big Sandy (1918-1949)," when I was eleven years old. I've been reading it for thirty-six years. And I've yet to write anything nearly so beautiful and true. Nothing so honest and tender. But it has always been my measuring stick. Always will be.
If I've had any success as a writer it's because I had my uncle as an example throughout my childhood of someone who sat down and wrote words as a routine, as a career. I stood in his writing room as a kid and felt a religiosity I couldn't understand but felt deeply --- the quiet space, the bookshelves full and covering all the walls from ceiling to floor, the simple desk that sat in the middle of the room, the 1978 IBM Selectric 1 that squatted bulky on the desk in perfect mystery. I knew what he created with that typewriter, that whatever magic that happened in that room came from my uncle through that machine.
The result can be found in my body of work. What can I say?
Some writers have Shakespeare, I have always had my uncle.
Saturday, January 27, 2024
My interview with Ben Loory is published today at Hobart
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SLC: Tomorrow you show up for work and the whole damn place, the entire building, is gone. There's a note in the place you used to park that reads, "They know." Walk me through the rest of your day.
BL: I think my day probably ends right there? My brain's not built to withstand shit like that. One time I ran out of peanut butter and had to go to the hospital.
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It's okay to go read it so go ahead and do that please and thank you.
I Asked Leah Hampton Some Chaos Questions
Leah Hampton, the chimera herself, "sat down" for a Chaos Questions interview with me at Hobart . She is also the self-espoused Ho...
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