SELF PORTRAIT: Kevin Brockmeier

Little Rock author Kevin Brockmeier
Little Rock author Kevin Brockmeier
  • DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH Dec. 6, 1972, Hialeah, Fla.
  • I'M A WRITER BECAUSE I've always loved books.
  • GROWING UP, I WANTED TO BECOME First a superhero, then a clown, then an inventor, then a lawyer, then an actor and finally a writer.
  • THE FIRST BOOK THAT MADE A MAJOR IMPACT ON ME WAS Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, by Daniel Pinkwater, which I read when I was 9.
  • IN HIGH SCHOOL, I WAS THE GUY WHO Carried a jar of Grey Poupon mustard in my glove compartment in the hope that one day somebody would pull up beside me in traffic and ask, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" (which, eventually, somebody did).
  • WHEN I'M NOT WRITING, YOU'RE MOST LIKELY TO FIND ME Reading.
  • THE TWO THING YOU'LL ALWAYS FIND IN MY KITCHEN ARE Ginger ale in my refrigerator, dust on my stovetop.
  • MY FAVORITE HANGOUTS ARE WordsWorth Books & Co. and Lorenzen and Co. Booksellers.
  • MY FAVORITE WORDS Are far too many to list, but one word that I've found interesting lately is "telltale." Also, I just discovered that there's an Indonesian word, "nekoneko," which has been defined as "one who has a creative idea that only makes things worse" (though this is apparently apocryphal).
  • IF I COULD HAVE ANYONE I WANTED TO DINNER, I WOULD INVITE Italo Calvino, Leo Tolstoy, Michel de Montaigne and Gabriel Garcia Marquez - along with someone who speaks Italian, Russian, French and Spanish to translate.
  • I CAN'T STAND For falling down.
  • MY MOST VALUED MATERIAL POSSESSIONS ARE The boxes of written correspondence I've received over the years from my friends.
  • THE BOOK I MOST WISH I HAD WRITTEN IS The Baron in the Trees, by Italo Calvino.
  • MY NEXT PROJECT IS A collection of short stories, as yet untitled.
  • ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP Neko-neko.

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