Contributor Confab: Justin Maxwell
"I’ll take that over a lexan plaque any day."
As a playwright, Justin Maxwell is best known for works like An Outopia for Pigeons and Your Lithopedion, sweeping stories in which the contours of everyday reality are twisted into surreal psychological and cultural landscapes - or maybe it’s the other way around? At any rate, the experimental playfulness of his work is so well-established that when he submitted his short personal essay “Of My Own Death,” he apologized to me in advance for the uncharacteristically “conservative” nature of his prose. When you read his haunting piece in our first issue, I think you’ll agree that it only proves he’s a master of multiple modes.
ss: Ghost, vampire, werewolf, or zombie? Why?
JM: Werewolf. They have the most dynamic experience of the four. The other three are stuck in a perpetual void of their supernatural doom. But the werewolf? It’s got things going on.
ss: What's the book everyone seeing this should read if they haven't already?
JM: Richard Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar. It’s one of three books that made me cry. It’s a post-apocalyptic story set so long after the apocalypse that nobody knows it happened.
ss: What has been one of your most satisfying/gratifying creative moments?
JW: I was at an awards ceremony, and when my nominated play didn’t win, the actress sitting next to me burst into tears and said “You write the best roles for women!” I’ll take that over a lexan plaque any day.
ss: Rock or hard place?
JW: Rock. Who doesn’t like a little geology sometimes?
See more of Justin’s work at justinmaxwellplaywright.com
Learn more about slips slips (including how to get a copy) at slipsslips.net
Submissions for slips slips #2: Dialogues are open until August 31. You should totally send us something!
"Who doesn’t like a little geology sometimes?"
Been saying this to myself for YEARS