Interview with Author Austin Goodmanson

Austin Goodmanson's story "Under the Flathead" stuck with us throughout the submission window for this latest issue, compelling us to return to it and reread. Each time we did so, we found the voice more striking, the setting more unusual, and the weird, cosmic dread of the plot's movement more impactful. We hope you also enjoy this piece and our short interview with Austin below.

What makes you keep writing, even when it’s hard?

Mostly curiosity. Writing is how I find out what I think. When it gets difficult, it usually means I’ve reached the part I don’t understand yet.

Advice on creating that you’ve learned by trial and error.

Systems help. If I wait for inspiration, I sometimes won’t write at all. But if I build a structure and start working inside it, the work eventually reveals itself.

What’s your favorite underappreciated novel or short story (a work you never hear anyone else talking about)?

Heather Lewis’s Notice. I like the way she renders internal landscapes.

Do you have a favorite book on writing or creating that’s been a helpful resource?

Grant Morrison’s Supergods. Morrison approaches storytelling as a system of symbols and mythologies interacting over time. That perspective stuck with me.

One sentence soapbox:

Confusion is underrated.

What is your writing strategy? Do you write every day with a rigid schedule, or are you more flexible with your practice?

I write consistently, but not rigidly. Daily writing can help, but I try not to let writing turn into a productivity metric. I’m more interested in keeping the work alive than maintaining a streak.

When did you realize you were weird?

Probably in high school. My friends and I played the talent show, and when we walked past the football team afterward they held up crosses to ward us off. It wasn’t hostile. It was the first time I realized how far apart the wavelengths were. I think before then I genuinely thought I was cool.

Do you think about your reader?

I think a lot about attention. If I can hold a reader’s attention, the piece will usually tell them what it’s doing. I try not to restate things that are already implied.

Most triumphant thing you did as a teenager?

Started making things instead of just consuming them.

What is weird?

Weird is when something familiar shifts just enough that you suddenly notice the structure underneath it.

What was the inspiration for your story?

Usually my stories start with a single image or feeling, and I reverse engineer the rest from there. With this one it was a fever-dream image of a trailer on a tall mound overlooking a small town. Around that time I’d been thinking about how things sometimes keep developing past the point where they’re useful. Evolution does this occasionally. A trait keeps growing because the process continues. The mound started to feel like a version of that idea, the natural world pooling itself together in one place and straining upward in a last, desperate attempt to rise past its own boundaries.

What do you hope readers experience from your work?

I like when something people usually move through automatically suddenly becomes visible.

How do you combat loneliness?

Staying close to people who love me.

Thoughts about artichokes?

Extremely inefficient vegetables.

What’s the point of all this, really?

Trying to pay attention to what’s here while it’s still here.

Unpopular opinion, go:

Recognition feels better than discovery.

Austin Goodmanson lives in Florida. He writes about the strange systems people move through without noticing. His fiction has appeared in ergot., Heavy Feather Review, and Allegory eZine, among others. You can find him on Instagram @austin_goodmanson.