Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 72: Meg Tuite)

Meg Tuite

MEG TUITE is author of five story collections and five chapbooks, including White Van (Unlikely Books, 2022). She won the Twin Antlers Poetry award for her poetry collection, Bare Bulbs Swinging, and is included in Best of Small Press 2021. She teaches writing retreats and online classes hosted by Bending Genres, and is also the fiction editor of Bending Genres and associate editor at Narrative Magazine

My current favorite thing to read is: anything by Garielle Lutz, Flann O’Brien, Clarice Lispector, Bruno Schulz, Janet Frame, and Djuna Barnes.

My current favorite thing to watch is: Ozark! LOVE LOVE LOVE Ruth! She kicks ass! Darlene is a close second!

My current favorite thing to listen to is: anything by Dominique Christina and Pages Matam.

 My current state of mind is: losing my being whoever that was. Took six infusions of Ketamine to unwire the script. Going to start working therapist/oral ketamine after a few more infusions!

My current chemical romance involves: …Ketamine took me under, bodiless, and I ran through fields of Van Gogh paintings holding hands with my mom who died a long time ago, Flannery O’Connor and Jean Rhys showed up, Rilke and Artaud! It was landscaped with Llamas and Alpacas! The Dalai Lama showed up at one point, colors became fabrics became patterns became kaleidoscopes of landscape.

My current words of wisdom: “Every night my grandmother limps out of a liquor store with the submissive stoop of the genuflected and the promise of a liturgy to come in a bottle. A radiant, old face with the slight tremor of the merciful, holding a brown paper bag reverently out in front of her with both hands as a priest holds his chalice. And what would be the difference? She has been living, breathing, and sucking down the blood of Christ in a lifetime of unparalleled singularity that the clergy can only read about and shamelessly attempt to enact, mouthing their long-winded, incredulous interpretations of the Bible, done up like showgirls in their mawkish vestments.”

My current mode of transportation involves: Ketamine!

My current favorite fast food items include: IPAs and Girl Scout cookies.

My current workout routine consists of: getting out of a bed.

My current regrettable decision involves: getting out of bed.

My current hopes and dreams are: to have an animal sanctuary here. We have 12 acres and I could spend all day hanging with dogs, cats, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep…

My current hobbies include: hanging with my dogs and cats. Going on a few trips soon. Denver, New Orleans, Chicago. Going to workshop with SmokeLong Quarterly this summer and work on a novel that one cat has puked on, so only one blurb so far. Waiting for the other three to make a decision.

 

Meg Tuite is online at megtuite.com.

Brian Alan Ellis runs House of Vlad Press, and is the author of several books, including Sad Laughter (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018) and Hobbies You Enjoy (serialized daily on Instagram: @hobbiesyouenjoy). His writing has appeared at Juked, Hobart, Fanzine, Monkeybicycle, Electric Literature, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, X-R-A-Y, Heavy Feather Review, and Yes Poetry, among other places. He lives in Florida.

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