We recently connected with Benjamin Brindise and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Benjamin, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Rotten Kid, published by Ghost City Press in 2017, was my first chapbook. It’s a hybrid book comprised of poetry, flash fiction, and short fiction. I have never been a writer who easily settled into one form. My freshman year, a professor hit us with the Neil Postman classic, “the medium is the metaphor”. That worked for me as a way of understanding different forms, and since, I’ve used whatever felt appropriate at the moment. Sometimes that ends up being a spoken word poem. Other times, the thing I’m trying to unearth will only come out of the ground in the form of flash fiction, the voice flowing and living on its own.

By 2017, I was an active member of my local spoken word poetry community, had qualified to and represented Buffalo, NY twice in the National Poetry Slam, and had a disparate collection of work that all seemed to feature an archetype. Whether poetry or fiction, the Rotten Kid continued to poke their head out of the lines. For me, the Rotten Kid archetype embodies the moments in our lives when we have felt small, broken, incomplete, and unable to heal or move forward. Like a child who is burdened with too much information, or tragedy that is beyond their understanding, these end up being some of our most vulnerable and human moments. By using that as a through-line, I was able to put together a book of pieces that made sense to me.

At the time, I wasn’t sure how I actually felt about the project. Maybe you never can when you’re still close to it. The goal in 2017 was to create a work that highlighted the moments we felt alienated and how that affects us in the present and the future. But also to identify that there’s a life after feeling that way if you manage to learn, understand, and grow.

In 2023, seven years after it was published, I presented the title poem at a few different venues. Some were middle and high schools, and others were at more traditional venues. Every time I did the poem, someone came up after and said something along the lines of “me, too.” Whether it was an elderly woman in a church basement outside Philadelphia who whispered ‘I was a Rotten Kid, too’, a seventh-grade student, or a couple at a poetry slam, a lot of different people seem to find something relatable in the work.

To me, that’s the goal. To create work that connects with people. Being able to share it now and have people still take something from it, to find something human in it, means a lot to me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Benjamin Brindise and I’m the author of Secret Anniversaries (Ghost City Press, 2019), Those Who Favor Fire, Those Who Pray to Fire (emp Books, 2018 – with Justin Karcher), Rotten Kid (Ghost City Press, 2017) and I Was a Lid (Amazon, 2013). My poetry and fiction has been published both online and in print in places such as The Marathon Literary Review, My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry Anthology, and the Buffalo Spree. I am also a playwright, having my one-act play Everything You’ve Ever Loved Will Rust produced twice in 2019 and 2022. Finally, I am the flash fiction editor for Variety Pack, an online literary magazine.

Writing was the only thing I ever wanted to be good at. Everyone finds magic in their worlds in different places. For some people, it’s the first time they see a painting that really speaks to them. For others, it’s the first meal they make where they deviate from the recipe and make it their own. For me, I found magic in books. Specifically in novels. There was something incredible about opening a book and finding someone else’s perception of the truth, trapped in the amber of the printed word.

But writing fiction is a solitary act and I am not a solitary person. I knew I also had strengths in oration. The first time I saw spoken word poetry performed live I fell in love with the form. The immediacy. The vulnerability. The removal of the veil between the writer and the audience. It required a different level of the writer’s tool box. Engaging with spoken word, traditional poetry, and the communities in which they were created led me further and further outside the writer’s room and out into the world.

Participating in the National Poetry Slam four times introduced me to writers and poets from all across the United States and Canada. Seeing their work opened my mind up to what was possible in the form and just how powerful it could be. Now, I host local community events including the Caffe Aroma Poetry Night Open Mic, guest speak or teach at universities and schools, and use spoken word to express topics that feel immediate.

As a fiction writer, I am currently working through the second draft of my second novel, Ketchum, and am actively seeking representation. As a playwright, I am in the process of completing my first full-length play set to be produced in Buffalo, NY in 2025. As a poet, I am preparing for a spring of in-school spoken word poetry programming where I will be leading in-class workshops and readings.

My work explores themes of loss, identity, and the human experience of moving forward. I am actively booking for in-person and online poetry and fiction workshops that focus on helping anyone find their voice and get started on the page.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

That we are developing a skill set the same way you are in a non-creative setting. Everything has a set of fundamentals and tools that are required to do it successfully. When you experience the work of an artist who has been at their craft for ten, or fifteen, or twenty years, you’re not only engaging with the work in that moment. You’re also engaging with all the work it took to get to the point where you had the ability to write that piece.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Fund and subsidize arts the same way we do a number of other things in the United States. Art has a positive impact on society and centering it leads to more thoughtful, curious, and inventive citizens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7709047.Benjamin_Brindise
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/benjaminbrindiseauthor
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benjaminbrindiseauthor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-brindise/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/benbrindise
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwK0_f8oOjM

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