Jean Marc Ah-Sen
Boss Hog setlist signed by Jon Spencer.
What do you feel is your best piece of work?
I don't know that I have that relationship with my writing. I used to think that my level of embarrassment towards it went down as time went on, but I can't be sure that's not the result of total indifference to how it's received now. I am determined to wear down everyone's resistance towards it though; in that way, repudiation and dismissal seem to make the heart grow fonder.
What music have you been listening to lately?
There's a New York punk band I really like called Bi-polar. The Spits' VI, Gee Tee's Atomic EP, Demolition Doll Rods’ Into the Brave, Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime, Weezer's SZNZ: Spring, and Night Beats' Outlaw R&B are on rotation. My friend gave me Loop's A Gilded Eternity a few days ago which is great as well.
What’s in your fridge right now?
Mostly food I bought while feeling adventurous but will likely never consume. A gasoline-powered brand of soya sauce, a cumin spiced cheese, a pack of chia seeds I rescued from captivity in 2018.
Who is the last character you related to and why?
All the parishioners in Melville's film Leon Morin, Priest because everything I am after in publishing is unattainable and desperately out of reach, just like Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Have you ever failed at something you care about?
Email etiquette, social cues, exercise, time management, financial conservatism, friendship, filial piety, etc.
What is the last gift you received?
Michael Kelly at Undertow Productions sent me a copy of Naben Ruthnum's Helpmeet. I was very grateful to receive it.
Favourite photo you’ve taken?
I’m not good at taking photographs, but the photo I wish I had taken because I can't prove to anyone that I wasn't hallucinating when I witnessed it, was of Canadian late-night talk show host Mike Bullard standing by a highway off-ramp, squealing with delight as he watched two hired goons beat the living daylights out of someone.
Best season?
Awards season because mortification is good for the soul.
What is your least favourite household chore?
Cleaning the thing with the thingy.
Best outfit?
My 1995 Santa Claus Parade drum ensemble uniform, which was a cross between a child's pinafore, a foot guard's tunic, and a menstrual pad. Nothing has felt softer going over my skin.
Do you like to write in the morning or at night?
It's usually a combination. I think you have to be disciplined with regard to regularity and consistency in working, but also be receptive to the flow of ideas, which can't usually be regimented.
When did you first receive praise for your writing?
Hardly ever. My Goodreads reviews are hilariously personal. I seem to attract people far too invested in material they don't even seem to like. Maybe it's to be expected from a generation that never learned the nihilistic art of channel surfing…?
What was your first rejection?
There was a magazine run by people my age who published almost all of my peers that I never got into. That smarted for a long time. Rejection is just something you have to make peace with in publishing, but I don't think anything can prepare you for the range of rationales that get floated your way; too sexy, too sexless, too intellectual, too emotional, too literary, too prosaic, too Western Traditiony, too "ethnic," too weird, too conventional, etc. A friend of mine believes that you are never being told the real reason for a rejection. Maybe you'll have more luck after an entire generation of editors burns out, maybe when you learn to write better, maybe when your social media presence passes an acceptable threshold, maybe when someone forgets to look up your sales figures on BookScan…
Latest book you’ve read?
I'm reading André Forget's novel In the City of Pigs. It is exquisitely and unfashionably thought-provoking.
Anything you’d like to promote?
I had a short story taint a millennial anthology called After Realism (Véhicule Press) which happened to include friends and people that I respect. The monopoly on "weird" that this collection represents is flabbergasting and revivifying.
Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur, In the Beggarly Style of Imitation, and a participant in the collaborative omnibus novel Disintegration in Four Parts. His writing has appeared in Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, the Literary Review of Canada, and elsewhere. The National Post has hailed his work as "an inventive escape from the conventional."
