Chris Lynch is a writer, editor, reviewer, critic, poet, teacher and photographer. He is a Clarion South survivor from 07. Clarions affect everyone differently – some get tattoos, dye their hair, leaves their partners, others give up writing altogether – Chris walked across Japan. He is writing a novel with Christopher Green and is undertaking an MPhil in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland. His short fiction has appeared in avenues such as Dreaming Again and The Devil in Brisbane and his poetry in Poe Little Thing presents In Space No One Can Hear You Scream, Islet, and Page Seventeen. He is also the boss of Tangled Bank Press.
1. The most valuable things Clarion South taught me about writing are …
Persistence is more important than talent. Or, talent is mostly just the ability to persist. Really.
Networking is an important part of being a writer. It’s such a horrible term, and no fun for an introvert. But if you listen to what people are doing and connect them to opportunities, opportunities start flowing back to you. And pretty soon, you’re no longer “networking”, you’re catching up.
Clarion South was fantastic. I learned lots of important things about the craft of writing, of course, but in many ways those two things were more valuable. It’s such a loss that it’s on indefinite hiatus.
2. Why the Tangled Bank?
Mostly because I forgot to ask why not. I wanted to sub to an anthology of speculative fiction about evolution, and couldn’t find one, and it didn’t seem right that there wasn’t a spec fic celebration of the 150th anniversary of Origin of Species. I think art and science should mix more than they do.
I enjoy editing and publishing, too–at least, some of the time! I was always making mix tapes growing up, and there’s something incredibly pleasurable about putting pieces in the right place, so that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Editing an anthology is the same task as editing a poem or a story, in that sense, only at a different level. I don’t know if I achieved that with The Tangled Bank, but I certainly learned a lot from the process.
3. If I didn’t write, I would …
(a) suddenly have loads of free time.
(b) explore the far reaches of the universe in a TARDIS.
(c) be committed to an asylum.
(d) all of the above
This is a hard one. Am I allowed to pass?
4. You get to go anywhere and anywhen – describe your day?
Hiking alone through the forests of Valles Marineris and finding ruins. Camping on the rim in the evening, writing a really good haiku, and posting it to my blog. Enjoying a cup of green tea, and the stars, and wondering what I’ll find tomorrow.
5. Donuts or danishes?
They’re gluten free, you say? Nom nom nom…
He lives in Hermit City.
