Pact Press sits down with Daniel A. Olivas, who offers thoughtful insight on the writing craft and on the duty of writers in a polarized age, with a inspiring message for emerging writers. Pact Press is very proud to be releasing Daniel A. Olivas’ poetry collection, Crossing the Border, in the fall of this year.

• Most writers have day jobs and frequently have difficulty finding writing time. How do you manage it?

First, I have a very patient spouse who understands my artistic compulsion to write.  Second, I am a compulsive writer.  Third, I derive great joy from creative writing.

• How long have you been writing and do you perceive your writing to have evolved in any particular way that you would like to share?

I’ve been writing since I learned how to spell out words.  My mother saved some of my very early little books that I wrote…simple stories with illustrations.  I wrote all through school but put aside creative writing when I went to law school and started my legal career.  But even as a lawyer, I wrote constantly: briefs, memos, letters.  I also wrote articles for our legal newspaper here in Los Angeles.  Then at the ripe old age of 39, I started to write fiction and poetry which started to get published.  Now, 19 years later and almost a dozen books to my name along with critical and scholarly recognition of my writing, I’m still in love with the creative process.  In terms of my evolution as a writer, I believe that my stories and poetry are deeper yet more economical.

• What appealed to you about being a part of the Pact Press Speak and Speak Again anthology?

With the election of Trump, we’ve entered into a very dangerous time in our history.  I feel as though I have a duty to be part of the literary resistance movement.  I will not sit back quietly.  I believe Speak and Speak Again is part of that movement.

• What do you think is the responsibility of the writer in today’s polarized environment?

As a writer of color, as a Chicano writer, I feel as though I have a duty to speak out in favor of diversity, civil rights, and justice especially during these perilous political times.  Also, I believe that when a person of color gets published, that—by itself—is a political act.  As I often tell students when I get a chance to speak in front of them: if we don’t write our own stories, someone else will, and they will get it wrong.

• What advice would you offer writers who are just embarking on their careers?

Work hard, read a lot, and don’t let anyone tell you that your voice is not important.

Connect with Daniel:

 TWITTER

 WEBSITE

Daniel’s published work may be ordered through your local bookstore, online, or through the publishers:

The King of Lighting Fixtures: Stories (University of Arizona Press, 2017)

Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press, 2017)

The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles (Tía Chucha Press, 2016)

Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews (San Diego State University Press, 2014)

The Book of Want: A Novel (University of Arizona Press, 2011)

Anywhere But L.A.: Stories (Bilingual Press, 2009)

Latinos in Lotusland (Bilingual Press, 2008)

Benjamin and the Word (Arte Público Press, 2005)

Devil Talk: Stories (Bilingual Press, 2004)

Assumption and Other Stories (Bilingual Press, 2003)