TLO Member Interview: Nemonymous (2)

TLO Member Interview: Nemonymous (2)
Conducted by Phillip Stecco

D. F. Lewis is the author of the story collections Weirdmonger and Only Connect (written in collaboration with his father Gordon Lewis). Since 2001, he has edited the Nemonymous anthologies. He has made countless numbers of his pieces available on the internet. Mr. Lewis resides in the United Kingdom.

(I have not looked back to the answers in my first interview here on TLO. As a believer in Proustian selves, that is probably a wise move on my part. The day the answers below were given was 28 October 2009. - DFL)


1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?

It was in Dagon magazine in the late eighties.


2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?

Well, I think I showed - from my detailed real-time review of his collection Teatro Grottesco last Christmas - what I see of value when untying Ligotti (plural of Ligottum – meaning ‘knot’). There can be no favourites, really, as I see his work as a ‘gestalt’: a great cosmic word-sculpture with dark shapes etched into it, the sculpture into which the shapes are etched being itself etched from the same darkness.


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

Well, over the last year, I have started my real-time reviewing and as well as my old favourites like Mark Samuels, Joel Lane and Thomas Ligotti, I have been inspired by work from (in no particular order): Gary Fry, Simon Strantzas, Reggie Oliver, Gary McMahon, Richard Gavin, Allyson Bird, John Travis, Terry Grimwood, Simon Bestwick, Matt Cardin, Paul Meloy, Tim Nickels, Mark Valentine and, only in the last few days, Quentin S Crisp. Plus others I hope I haven’t forgotten. It is a very rich pasture Weird Literature these days. I also love the Weird greats of old who we can all list.

Outside this field, I love Tamar Yellin, A.S. Byatt, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth Bowen ... but I could go on and on.


4) How do you manage to produce the Nemonymous anthologies without prematurely learning the identities of contributors?

In the early days, I would only read anonymous submissions and they needed to be by anonymous email. Only after sending the contract out did I later know who they were. These days, I give the choice to the author whether or not to remain anonymous to me at outset. Whichever the case, I only read email submissions.


5) You have not published your fiction within the print media for several years now. Do you have any plans for a return to traditional book and magazine appearances?

Well, I have had some fiction published in print magazines when solicited from me. But it is true that I have not submitted anything of my own back since 1999. I was recently toying with the idea of starting formal submission again from 2010. Fortunately, in the last few days, I have been very pleased to learn that Ex Occidente Press intends to publish a DFL Collection some time in 2010. My own working title for it is The Last Balcony.


6) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

I am primarily interested in Classical Music of all sorts, old and modern. In the pop world I have recently enjoyed Goldfrapp (who feature in my novella ‘Weirdtongue’) and I have always had a thing for Sixties Pop.


7) Do you have any favorite artists in the visual media?

Very many, and I have started threads on TLO about many painters etc. I can’t think of any particular favourites, although I’d mention Magritte.


8) What are some of your favorite movies?

There is only one really: Death in Venice.


9) Do you watch television?

Not much. I have an antipathy towards much screen entertainment because, for me, it has a fabricated aura when compared to music or text. I used to watch TWIN PEAKS, and have watched LOST, more recently FLASH FORWARD (Cf. the recent retrocausality of the Hadron Collider vis a vis CERN ZOO) – and I am an avid commentator on BIG BROTHER. I also enjoy FLOG IT with tea.


10) What foods do you enjoy eating?

Indian curries.


11) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?

Not since I stopped racing marbles.


12) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

Pub quizzes.


13) What makes you laugh?

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU.


14) Life?

I see myself waving from that last balcony – and nobody down below.


15) Death?

It permeates most literature, and, for me, literature is life.


16) Work?

I am retired.


17) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?

None of it was very interesting.


18) What is your earliest childhood memory?

Being potty-trained.


19) What is your fondest childhood memory?

Snuggling under the blanket to share my Grandmother’s afternoon nap while listening to LISTEN WITH MOTHER on the Home Service.


20) Who has been the most influential person in your life?

My wife.


21) Do you have a special plan for this world?

To see me leave it with dignity.