Poetry - Linda Addison

[Diane]

Meet Linda Addison, the first African-American recipient of the Bram Stoker Award - author of Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (Space & Time Books), her third collection which has earned her a second Bram Stoker Award.
Linda is the only author with fiction in three landmark anthologies that celebrate African-Americans speculative writers: the award-winning anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect), Dark Dreams (Kensington), and Dark Thirst (Pocket Book).

This collection includes original pieces and reprints from such sources as African Voices, Strange Horizons, and Fantastic Stories.
www.lindaaddisonpoet.com

When did you begin writing?
The first time I held a book in elementary school I knew I wanted to make stories. My earliest memory of actually writing a finished piece was a fantasy in junior high school. It was a kind of urban Alice in Wonderland story about a girl and her pet dog getting lost in an alternate world. I used to write the book blurbs for books I wanted to write in high school. My first publication was poetry in my high school paper. I was always day dreaming in school, imagining what it would be like ‘if’….
What drew you to this particular genre?
Honestly I didn’t pick speculative genre as much as that’s how my imagination always ran. When I was in elementary school I loved reading fables with animals that talked, anything with fantasy elements. Once I discovered science-fiction and fantasy I was hooked.

Why do you think speculative fiction is important?
Speculative fiction is important because it is the open field where imagination can unfold without boundaries. What ever we can imagine, can be written. We can fly, change shape/sex/anything in our imagination.

What are the key elements or literary devices you use in your fiction (Ex. vampire, space or time travel, first contact, Armageddon, etc.)?
It depends on the fiction I’m working on. I’ve written fiction that uses space, vampires, magic. The one thing common is that my work tends to be character-based. I like to explore what a character wants and the price they are willing to pay to get it.
The current novel I’m writing is science-fiction that takes place in space on a multi-generational space ship. It was inspired by reading about the Yanomami tribes that were discovered as one of the last indigenous groups on Earth some years ago.

What are your plans for future books?
I’m working on the first science-fiction novel in a series based on my story, “Twice, at Once, Separated”, from Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect). The story and novels explore the far future through the eyes of twin girls, separated at birth, living in extremely different environments.
I have plans for a vampire novel based on my story from Dark Thirst (Pocket Books) that involves a female vampire from Africa and a Chinese vampire hunter. I also have ideas for a novel about the magical twins in my two stories in Dark Dreams I & II.


Favorite author, book and/ movie:
There are so many important influences in my life it’s not easy to pick just one. I grew up reading Shakespeare, Poe, Richard Wright, Asimov, Bradbury, Pohl, Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes. After college I discovered Octavia Butler, Nancy Kress, Terry Bisson, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley.
Favorite book: again a long list; the one that sings to me Wild Seed by Octavia Butler.
Favorite movie: At least once a year I watch all the Star Wars movie in order. I also love the Serenity movie (from the Firefly series).

What do readers need to know about you and your works?
I go where my imagination takes me, I only hope to write well enough to take readers with me on the adventure.