Dagoberto Gilb. (Photo by Cristal García.)Dagoberto Gilb’s books include “Woodcuts of Women,” a book of stories, and “The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna,” a novel. His new novel, “The Flowers,” will be published by Grove Press in January.
What are you working on?
The novel I am now on will be an epic in poetic prose, a bestseller, and deep, although it will maintain a romantic and accessible biculturalism. Unless this is already what I have achieved with the novel “The Flowers” my publisher is releasing soon. (Yes, I am making a small joke/chistecito in the first sentence – you know, like saying I’ve decided to write my very greatest book next. The second sentence, however, is absolutely true, probably.) I am also putting the final words to a piece on corn and los mexicanos in Iowa. I was asked to write it for an anthology, and I really love my life when I am asked to write exactly what I want to write.
How much time – if any – do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?
Is e-mail the Web? Too much of that, though I think of e-mail as a form of belles-lettres (though I also would say the tacos down at La Moreliana are gourmet good). But the other browser work is both distraction and blessing – so wonderful to be able to have information I am desperate for at my fingertips at 3 a.m., so sad to not lose myself in a library. Like owning a computer, I can’t imagine being without Internet access, am completely addicted. I sincerely fear that its young, flashy beauty is damaging both the home-cluttering, inky newspaper and the dim, old old library. I love them both like I do ancient, timeless art.
Whose books are generally shelved next to yours in bookstores? How does it feel to be sitting between them?
So many foreign-named greats! Allow me to place my hand on my chin and squint: Acosta, Anaya, Baldwin, Beckett, Borges, Calvino, Camus, Cisneros, Dostoyevsky, Dante, Fante, Fitzgerald, Garcia Marquez to my left, while on the right, uhhh, Hamsun, Hinojosa, Hughes, Kafka, Ionesco, McMurtry, Rulfo, Saramago, Silko, Traven, Váldez, Wright – I’m sure I’ve forgotten a couple. (Full disclosure: I like Google to link me to cool names, which ought to boost sales, right?)
On the backlist of my publishing house, Grove Press, I am between Genet and Ginsberg. This pleases me very much, though I confess I keep my elbows out so there’s no misunderstanding. (This last sentence too is hetereosexual teasing. Because – speaking of the Internet and e-mail – people say that jokes are often misunderstood therein. It is hard for me to be serious about these large questions.) (Except when I am being deep.) (See what I’m saying?)
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