By Nastacia Voisin
Brian Doyle, award-winning author, essayist and editor of the Portland Magazine, has been paid in wine, pennies and coupons for his writing. His lyrical writing and ensnaring essays have won him devoted fans and vexed critics. He’s a writer that delights in goofing with form, but has a knack for nailing the heart of stories.
Last Thursday, before he entertained the UP community at a Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series lecture, The Beacon sat down with Doyle for a meandering Q&A:
Tell me about your irreverent use of grammar and punctuation? As long as you’re clear, you can do what you want. Writing is like carpentry or basketball, once you know the rules and put in your 10,000 hours of practice, then you don’t have to think about it. You can just play. So I want to be playful. That’s part of it.
And I want to connect. I want to write how people talk. And people talk in a riverine, sinuous, twisted, braided, entertaining ways. People talk like rivers. Who talks in little prim subject-verb-object sentences? Who talks like that? So why should I write like that?
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be? Probably a musician, I guess. I adore music, but I have no musical skills. I think it’s the greatest art. Music is so naked, it’s so direct. There’s no processing. When you read a piece of mine, you’ve got to read it. When you look at a painting, you have to glare at it. Dance you have to watch, film you have to watch. Music just crawls right into your ear and goes right down to your heart. Music is so evocative.
I’ve found that many artists are engaged in a kind of conversation with themselves, and that they try various ways of telling that story. Is that the case with you? I have obsessions - I have serial obsessions. A kid asked me once, “What’s the point of your work?” And I suppose I’m fascinated by grace under duress. How people handle their loads. That just fascinates me. I’m riveted by grace and courage that doesn’t make any sense. I’m fascinated by stuff that doesn’t make any sense.
Favorite place in Portland to drink? I love local pubs. I love McMenamins pubs. They’re friendly, shaggy - there’s always a dog or a baby. No attitude, no ego, no snark. They’re pubs, and there’s a difference between pub and a bar. The corner pub is a great thing. Pubs are about talking; bars are about drinking.
You have a number of different roles and personas at UP. But who do you see yourself as on campus? I’m the village idiot. But a lot of what I do here…there’s this great word in Gaelic - “seanchaí” – the storycatcher. That’s my job here.
Writers are known to be odd people, with habits that help them write. What are things that you do that help you write? I sit down and write. I just type. I always try to carry two pens. Pay attention, take notes, and as soon as you can, put your ass in your chair and write. The sheer mechanics are part of the process. Once I start, then off I go.
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
