We recently connected with Jason Haaf and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the strongest or most meaningful projects I worked on was my book, “Harsh Cravings.” “Harsh Cravings” is a diary-style queer memoir that I wrote over three months during the summer and fall months of 2020. I believe that queer literature can often be overshadowed or watered down, especially if and when it hits the mainstream. I wanted to tell stories and thoughts about my own life, unfiltered, that another queer person may relate to.

There was so much going on in America at that time, a social uprising, a pandemic, a contentious election, that I wanted to have these events put in print, written from a real-time point- of-view. I worked with a wonderful publisher, Polari Press, a queer-based publishing house located in London, whose goal is to give a platform to otherwise unheard queer voices. It is a project that I hope can be looked at in the future as a truthful account of what it was to be queer and questioning the world around you during such a turbulent time.

Jason, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a nonfiction writer and editor. My stories are usually told in diary-style vignette form. I also do collage, homoerotic-themed artwork, taking vintage gay erotica and pairing it with my original words. I believe in raw, unfiltered perspectives and blending mediums, words, and images from the past and present to create a new narrative. Whether it is a full-length novel or handmade zine, I believe that self-expression should be both personal and unedited.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think that most creatives do not feel that there is a choice in being a creative. Whether a creative is physically making something at the moment or not, they are still a creative. And the way of the world, especially how capitalism works, individuality is not always the most widely accepted because it is not the norm, and the norm is what most likely pays the bills. So, the creative can become split. They have to wear an everyday suit or costume to pay their rent or to live in the city of their choice, and then they strip that costume off and are their more authentic creative self. What I would want people to know is that, for many creatives, there’s a shelf-life. How long could they practice being more than one person?

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There’s a freedom in art. It will exist solely from the creator or artist, and it does not need approval to exist.

Contact Info:

• Website: jasonhaaf.com
• Instagram: @haafwit