An Interview with Tom Stuckey
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Alden Nagel is the founder and editor of Nut Hole Publishing, and also a writer. You can find him on Instagram: @alden_nagel_. His debut novella FAG SYMPHONY is out now, via Nut Hole Publishing. He has an upcoming novella entitled Salination Mountains, and a (paired) novel entitled The Desalinated Exosphere.
Tom Stuckey is a poet from Devon in the UK and has been published in Punk Noir, Bristol Noir and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. His newest books is a collection of short stories and poems entitled The Sun Marches Upon Us All is available now in full for you to download.
Alden Nagel: If you were ever going to ask someone to do an interview, how would you do it?
Tom Stuckey: I used to be an emergency nurse in a former life and worked triage. I am good at assessing a person quickly, by observing, like in my writing. If I were going to interview a person I would simply buy them a coffee and sit with them and let them talk; it all comes out in the end.
Alden Nagel: Why do you believe that poetry can also be inherently punk, as a matter of stylistic fact?
Tom Stuckey: Because out of the window there is not just beauty and “good”, although there are people who want rid of what they consider “bad and ugly” instead of facing it in themselves. I believe the truth is to accept that there is beauty in the “bad” also. You can be chained to the wall by gold, as well you can by iron. To allude to the previous question also, I have interviewed a killer who has had brightest blue eyes I have ever seen.
Alden Nagel: Do you believe in charisma being inherent to brutalism, as a style?
Tom Stuckey: Yes. Personally I believe in Jung’s theory of man that we all have a shadow self, and that if you ignore that part too long you get sick, give it to much, sick. Also that its man’s evolutionary responsibility to handle one’s own sickness. I believe some people adapt charisma as a way of coping, and some people brutalism. I’d rather be trapped in a room with an obvious psychopath than one who is charming before the lights go out.
Alden Nagel: How would you tell others about your book The Sun Marches Upon Us All, if you were asked?
Tom Stuckey: The literary world is microcosm and I’m not surprised on how hard it is to break into it, there are gatekeepers here, just like there is in the financial or political world. And the gatekeepers aren’t always the best writers, or judge of writers. I also recognise, that I am not the best at everything that comes after the initial writing of the words.
I sit and connect to something real and write, the rest is up to a power greater than me. I would say though it feels real, and maybe some people might connect to it. Otherwise I'll just wait on the battle field alone, and watch.
Alden Nagel: Who are some of your favorite writers?
Tom Stuckey: I am drawn to the writers who guide me out of the dark, and the ones who I relate to in regard to my truth. They are:
Frederick Nietzsche, Leo Tolstoy, Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, and also Charles Bukowski.
Alden Nagel: What are some of your favorite movies?
Tom Stuckey: Off the top of my head a few are:
Big Lebowski, Lethal Weapon, Diehard, No Fucks Given, Into The Wild, Nightmare On Elm Street, Predator, Robocop, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Blade Runner, The Shining, The Burbs, Beetlejuice, Point Break, Hook, and also Twin Peaks.
But, there are many many more.
Alden Nagel: Do you believe in karma?
Tom Stuckey: I do. Every morning I wake up to fear and anger and go off to work or war, and it’s my job to find peace, love and acceptance with it all. It is said that a dog wagging its tail, has a greater consciousness than a man in hate.
Alden Nagel: How do you view your past, as it pertains to your present life?
Tom Stuckey: No matter how painful or pleasant it is, it’s also irrelevant, if it’s not in the present moment. It is the best guide I have, for now, and I choose to cherish the woundedness within.
Alden Nagel: What have you learned from being in pubs, versus publishing?
Tom Stuckey: There are always a few cunts who want to control things; they want to talk the loudest, turn the music on to their tune, act the big shot in front of their friends, take by force from the weak - but got anyone of them alone and you’ll soon see how scared and cowardly they are. Groupism is for rats and politicians.
Alden Nagel: What kind of music are you listening to lately?
Tom Stuckey: I am listening more and more to classical music, new and old. At the top of my liked list at the moment is a piece by The Choirs of Pembroke College called “all things are quite silent”. I can quite as easily listen to the stone roses though. I also really connected to a piece you recently used on an Instagram post, called Empire Systems by Rafael Anton Irisarri.
Alden Nagel: What news events are you paying attention to the most right now?
Tom Stuckey: I consider news the same as porn: fake, soulless and intoxicating. That being said it is difficult to get away from, and part of who we all are as a collective. I feel compassion for all those who are affected by war on the whole and all of us who are led by unconscious people into horror. I also have a strange fascination with how billionaires and political sociopaths act at large, but then I turn it all off and look out into space and realize they are nothing, and I can only change within myself.
Alden Nagel: Have you ever been found guilty in any court of law of the crime of grand theft auto?
Tom Stuckey: No, haha. I have been and seen some real shady stuff in my time, but have always really been there as an observer, mostly.
Alden Nagel: How do you talk about your past lives to those who know you best?
Tom Stuckey: Venerably, and with every fiber of my being, the best I can. I have met some amazing people and groups of people since getting sober. Some people who are living in the shadows, away from the hate/fame of the world, they will never be known or seen, but they are there. There is healing going on, thankfully.
Alden Nagel: Do you believe in reincarnation?
Tom Stuckey: Yes insomuch as, what we do not resolve or accept in this life, will be there waiting in the next.
 | A guest post by
|