6 Questions for Kenneth Stevens

We caught up with Kenneth Stevens, author of Winter Tales, about writing and his plans for 2019. 


1. You’ve written poetry, short stories, and novels. How do you come at each form differently?

Writing happens to me: it's seldom planned. In fact the less planning I do, the more useful the result! I very rarely think to myself: 'I want to write a poem about this or that. Poems really do simply happen: I describe them as falling out of the pen. Often a first draft of a poem will be written on a scrap of paper through the night, or on the upper deck of a bus. I don't drive and often poems will happen on train journeys, when I'm in a kind of no man's land between waking and sleeping.

2. What did you learn about yourself as a writer when working on Winter Tales?

I think there's always a good deal of myself in all the stories I write. It's difficult to explain because the actual settings of stories and even the characters can be far removed from my experience. But the details of lives, the experiences: often there's a great deal of myself woven through. The best example of this is 'The Ice', the last story in the collection. The setting is totally imagined, but all the bullying sequences were either witnessed or experienced. It became a very healing story: in effect I was able to write bullying out of myself!

3. Whose writing do you look to for inspiration? 

I write at some length in my introduction to 'Winter Tales' about the inspiration of writers from around the world. I loved the short story as a child: I read some of the great Russian writers at a young age. I am full of love and fascination for what CS Lewis called 'northern-ness': I come back and back to stories that are set in winter worlds, that are somehow bound up with snow and ice. Winter for me is perhaps one of the great places for the imagination: yes, I think of winter as a place. I go back and back to winter and to winter writing for inspiration.

4. Which collection of short stories do you wish you’d written?

I think it would be a collection of stories with individual tales by different authors: there is not one single short story writer I admire above any other.

5. What do you look forward to most in 2019?

I'm very much looking forward to working on a new full-length novel as well as short stories. I have a wonderful studio overlooking a loch: it's a magical location. The one thing I need to write is absolute silence: I have to creep deep into myself to find words. Once I reach that deep place I write very fast indeed: often up to 1000 words an hour. I work only with pen and paper, and when writing a first draft I never score out a single word. What do I look forward to in greater terms? More than anything, the ending of such devastating wars in Syria and Yemen.

6. What advice would you give your younger self?

Have patience and listen to others who've walked in your shoes. Don't judge too hastily. Read.