Q/A w/ Drake Blais

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 Drake Blais. Blais discussed the voices in her head, darkness, and circumvented the rules of a bloody edition of MFK.

Drake Blais looks forward to graduating from SFUAD’s Creative Writing and Literature Department this May.

Blais will be part of the first Senior Reading, “What Happens After,” with Veronica Menne and Schuyler Hall Gilmore at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 7.

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Drake Blais: Do what?

JM: How did you get into writing?

DB: I’ve always had these voices talking in my head. It seemed like a way to get rid of them.

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

DB: Fiction, because the possibilities are endless. You can do almost anything.

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

DB: Dark.

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

DB: Probably whatever I wrote in elementary school. There’s nothing specific, because I can’t remember it. There was a character that kept killing himself, but I don’t think that counts.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

DB: I don’t have work right now and I live with my parents, so…it all works out.

JM: So, to end these, I always play a game of Mary, Fuck, Kill. Have you ever played before?

DB: No, and I already see a problem with one of the questions. There’s no one I would fuck. (laughs)

JM: That’s fine, it’s just a stupid game. I try to tailor each three names to the people I’m interviewing. Knowing your preoccupation with murder and serial killer fiction, I decided on three serial killers. Marry, Fuck, Kill: Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer.

DB: Hmm. Killer clown, cannibal and guy who went crazy. (laughs) Can I just say kill them all? Kill them all. Or send them to prison, if I wanted to be nice.