Who is Aneka Brunssen?
ANEKA BRUNSSEN is a writer, poet and graduate student from Bremen, Germany, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Cultural Studies. Aneka has written several non-fiction essays, in both German and English, as well as a few short stories, articles, reviews and poetry collections. Her personal blog SELFISH SIMILE is a collection of several non-fiction articles and essays covering a vast range of subjects while her poetry blog SPACE TRASH POETRY is dedicated to her poetry.
Here's the real answer. I had no idea who Aneka was until about a week ago. After we became social media friends, I found out she works really hard promoting the art and writing of others. I always say, if you want your work read, promote others also and here I was very impressed by Aneka. Two days ago she queried artists, poets, writers for interviews and quickly and graciously I was granted one HERE in The Paradox Review, a new and cool little joint she runs with Matthew Wagner..
That's how you make a splash. Thank you Aneka and Matt
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Here's the re-print
Please tell us a little bit about your most recent work.
My thirteenth book is my first book of poetry since 2013 and is broken into Eight Acts, with the first being about the history of privilege by the United States in regards to doing whatever the hell it wants, all the way back in time and all the way up to our current President.
What was your motivation for writing it?
I wanted to make a point--to do so in poetry instead of the frequent rantings and ravings people find and do on social media.
Are you currently working on any side projects?
I'm working with Paul Ahern on a screenplay for my novel "The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan" and I'm also celebrating 2ooth month anniversary of my literary series. Side projects? Are there ever such things?
What motivated you to become a writer?
I just wanted to write whatever I wanted. I hate being told what to do, say or write.
Do you have any unique writing rituals?
Not really. I used to, but now it's more writing when I have the time to write and attempt to do it daily.
Do you feel close to your characters? If yes, how so?
When The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan's first draft was finished I actually missed the characters. That surprised me. It was almost as if people I spoke to daily moved away. When I wrote Grand Slams: A Coming of Eggs Story, the characters were strongly based on the people I knew at the time; the restaurant actually existed. Saying goodbye to them was different and easier than the Bill Sloan characters.
Do you find it difficult to maintain a career as a writer?
I find it difficult to have a career as a writer period. If I relied on this to make a living---good luck. I have another job which pays the bills.
Tell us about your day job.
It's a state job working with disabled individuals. I've been at that longer than I've been a published author.
When it comes to poetry, where do you find your inspiration?
Through sights, sounds and feelings. I was never a political poet as I find it kind of boring, but when I forced myself to produce poems this winter and early spring, what came out of me was based on what was going on. I had strong feelings about that--the inequality, the power structure and just the overall wrong doings; especially how things were being portrayed to trick and fool people.
What would you like to tell your readers?
Read. Write. Purchase. Don't just "like"--We don't need the that-a-boy/girl. To my readers--Thank you for reading. I love and appreciate that.
