Drinks with JD Clapp
Cabernet
This one is extra-long because this writer had such a good time and didn’t want to cut anything. If you haven’t yet checked out JD’s story, you can here:
Otherwise, I invite you to pour yourself whatever your pleasure and enjoy the conversation below.
Why did you submit to Wrong Turn Lit?
–For a couple of reasons. One, I’m fairly new to creative writing. I’m an academic by profession, so I know where to submit pieces for academic writing, peer-reviewed journals and such. But for the creative work, I figured some of the things I wanted to write about wouldn’t fly in traditional literary journals. I also received a nice rejection for a previous piece I submitted to Wrong Turn Lit, which encouraged me to try another.
Do you think Bukowski would be published today?
–I think he would’ve struggled. Probably by you and similar journals. But, as he did in his own time, I believe it would’ve taken a while for him to break in a big way.
What about Bukowski drew you to make the journey you do in this piece?
–Like I say in the piece, I’m an alcohol researcher by trade. I specialize in how people drink in real life, the social meanings behind drinking, or drinking in context. Bukowski captured a lot of that in a way that is consistent with what the science tells us. He was brutally honest, too. Not that writers that came before him weren’t, but the fact that he came after writers like Hemingway and Carver was probably another advantage for him to write the way he did.
The ending is excellent, even the “disclaimer,” which normally would be the first cut for me when editing a piece, works really well. How do you know when you’ve found the right place to stop?
–On the fiction side, it’s a little harder. Getting to an ending takes a little more work. For example, one of the first pieces I sold, the guy really liked the story but the ending had to change. So that took a little more something.
But with nonfiction, it was easier. For this piece, obviously, I know how the night went. And I’ve had enough people ask me over the years about what I do, that I have a good sense of when to stop, as a drinker or a storyteller. There’s a trick to knowing enough to be dangerous and not get yourself into trouble.
Writers and drinkers are often synonymous. Why do you think that is?
–That is true. You see the same kind of thing with musicians, too. Part of it comes from the creative process, which often includes a lot of angst or trauma. Out of that, an artist builds his art. But the mythos behind the association probably also contributes to it as well.
Where should one start with Bukowski?
–The poetry is all good. There are lots of good readers as well. For example, On Drinking includes everything the guy wrote about drinking including poems, fiction, letters even. There are others on similar themes, too, like writing.
Do you have a favorite of Buk’s poems?
–”The Drunk Tank Judge.”
Why?
–For one, it’s funny. And two, you can totally see him standing there in front of a DUI judge saying these things. Again, it rings very true to what I’ve seen.
Ok last question: where should one start with drinking?
–I would say, most of us start at home or a park or somewhere. But if you’re interested in exploring the culture or a community, you can’t do better than your neighborhood bar.
Not a corporate bar–like Applebee’s or TGI Fridays–but somewhere local. They are still out there, though fewer and far in between. The culture is still there. And it’s fascinating.
I’ve always thought a neighborhood bar serves as a microcosm of society. It’s also a great equalizer. And we need more places that bring people together in the way a bar is specially equipped to do.
JD Clapp is based in San Diego, CA. His work has appeared in 101 Words, Micro Fiction Mondays Magazine, Free Flash Fiction, Wrong Turn Lit, Scribes MICRO, Café Lit, and Sporting Classics Magazine among several others.
His most recent story, “One Last Dinner in Positano,” was posted on Cafe Lit this week.