Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

May 10

What do you feel is your best piece of work?

I always feel like the newest piece I’m working on is my best piece because I feel like anything that came before has led me here.

What music have you been listening to lately?

I’m really an album person and I feel like I go through phases where I listen to the same four or five albums on repeat and then have to remind myself to branch out. Right now, those albums are Fatima Al Qadiri’s Medieval Femme, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert by Little Simz, Burn Your Fire for No Witness by Angel Olsen, Arthur Russel’s World of Echo, and Mamman Sani’s La Musique Électronique du Niger. I’ve also been into a lot of 70s/80s Japanese electronic music for the past year.

Who is the last character you related to and why?

I recently listened to the audiobook version of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin about this transcriptionist that transcribes therapy sessions for this sex therapist. A lot of the book is the transcribed therapy sessions, Big Swiss’ of course, but also the therapy sessions of minor characters living in Hudson, New York. I didn’t always relate to the characters’ actions but I often related to the feelings behind the actions that were then dissected in therapy.

Have you ever failed at something you care about?

This is going to sound pretentious or something but I don’t know if I really believe in the concept of failing? This might make me sound like an optimist or something but I think the feeling of failing can stem from the feeling of rejection or not being “enough” etc. and I’ve felt that plenty but failing… hmmm, I don’t think so. I definitely have some working class mentality sometimes which is, when you experience rejection, you pick yourself up and there’s no time to waste, just try again. These days, I do try to let myself feel the sadness of rejection or not feeling like I’m enough a little bit more. Feels a bit ~healthier~ I suppose.

How much vitamin D do you take?

Once a day until I run out and forget to buy more (which usually takes me a week or so to acquire because I’m slow).

Last gift you received?

I got a flower from someone I didn’t know at the book launch for my first translation, Dandelion Daughter, by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay (La fille d’elle-même in french). The person was a friend of Gabrielle’s who brought her a bouquet and thought to bring me a flower too! I was really touched.

Favourite photo?

This is going to sound very Leo of me (I’m a Leo rising and a Leo moon) but one of my favourite pictures is a picture my partner Felix took of me in LA in my mint short sleeve jumpsuit against a turquoise wood background. Otherwise it’s the millions of sunset photos I take from my apartment that I never get bored of taking even though they all start to look the same. My neighbourhood, Parc Ex, has some of the best sunsets in Montreal, imo.

Best season?

Early summer and late summer for sure. Mid-summer is a bit hellish in Montreal.

What drives you?

I guess usually a mix of generosity, compassion, guilt, pride, stubbornness, creativity and fatigue.

Best outfit?

Mine include my mint jumpsuit or my burnt orange jumpsuit. Someone else’s is probably Haifa Wehbe’s red dress in her music video Agoul Ahwak where she’s dancing in the rain. It was definitely part of my gay awakening as a kid. Anything gold and opulent. Also so much of what lil Nas X wears. I love clothing so I could answer this question forever.

Do you like to write in the morning or at night?

I hate waking up early so it takes me forever to get going in the AM. Usually I like to write in the afternoon or at like 10pm.

What do you consider to be your first rejection?

I went to a French school and in grade 7, I won this class award for this presentation I gave about Martin Luther King — the theme we had to write about was “semer de l’amour” — it was all very liberal pre-teen interested in social justice in a very white school lol. In any case, I won first place in my class and when I went on to compete against other class winners from other schools, I got totally crushed. All the other kids were either theatre kids or had been coached. Before the competition started, I’d thought I was impressive for having memorised my text…

Where is the best place?

Being in the ocean or the sea.

What’s an example of a good ending?

One that’s surprising, doesn’t wrap things up tidily with a bow, but also doesn't just end abruptly where you can tell the author didn’t know how to end the book (or movie or play etc.)

Latest book you’ve read or favourite book ever?

I don’t play favourites so I don’t have a single favourite book but Koolaids by Rabih Alameddine is one of my favourites.

Anything you’d like to promote?

Well, I have two books out, knot body with Metatron Press, and The Good Arabs with Metonymy Press. My first translation came out this year, Dandelion Daughter by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay. And next year, Metonymy and my co-editor Samia Marshy and I are putting out a collection of queer and trans Arab/Arabophone writing called El Ghourabaa which is worth keeping an eye out for.

I guess the last thing I’d like to ~promo~ is that I’m on the Metonymy Press acquisitions committee alongside H Felix Chau Bradley and Kama La Mackerel and we’re looking for submissions of fiction or non-fiction from queer folks (we’re especially interested in work by racialized writers) and we’d love to hear from you.