Q/A w/ Adriel Contreras

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading Class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with Adriel Contreras. Contreras discussed drawing, the inspiration he draws from his father, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Contreras reads with Jade Parks and Michaela Rempel at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 28 in O’Shaughnessy Performance Space.

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Adriel Contreras: What? I don’t know.

JM: How did you get into writing?

AC: Since an early age, I guess. I was always into cartooning and drawing. I used to check out books about animation. Naturally, once I got a little older, I kind of got more into the writing aspect of that. I’ve always been an artist so I’ve always drawn.

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

AC: Right now I’ve just been working on science fiction, because of the senior books. I grew up watching Star Wars, Starship Troopers, that kind of stuff. I’ve always been interested in science fiction. Comic books, too. So science fiction at the moment; I don’t know if I’m going to grow out of it at some point.

Adriel Contreras of the Senior Reading Class contemplates his writing style. Photo by Ash Haywood

JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

AC: Slow. (laughs) Messy. And Adventure.

JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

AC: I think it was a story about a boxer who fell in love with some ice cream lady and then killed himself after he died. I don’t know, it was a shitty story. I wrote it freshman year. I just thought the premise was too circumstantial, forced, and that’s what I don’t want. I want things to flow more evenly. Like when I hear Bailey [Schaumburg’s] poetry, it flows, that’s how I want my writing to be. [The story] was too choppy. This happened, then that happened. It was too stupid for me.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

AC: I’m not sure. I don’t have to separate both. My parents have always supported me. I usually look at them for inspiration. My father is actually who I looked at for Borders: Crossing The Line. Can I plug that?

JM: Of course.

AC: We have a theater show. I pulled on my father for that, pulled inspiration. I kinda look like him for that. I have the mustache he always had.

JM: This is kind of a weird version of Marry, Fuck, Kill, but just go with it. This is two fictional characters from Life in the Time of Cholera and the author himself. So, Marry, Fuck, Kill: Florentino Ariza, Fermina Daza and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

AC: I’d kill Florentino. He’s too beautiful. Everything he did was beautiful. He can’t be allowed to live. (laughs) I’d marry Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That guy’s a fucking genius. He’s also one of the writers I look up to the most. Naturally, I would fuck Fermina. She’s the only one left. That’s a funny way to end it.