If you’ve been reading bazaar for a while and check the bylines, then you definitely know that Craig Loomis is our regular reality-inspired short fiction contributor. His stories usually start by setting the scene and telling us where the narrator is or what’s happening. It’s usually something ordinary, like being at the beach or in the passenger seat of a car. His protagonists are almost never named, but we know who they are. We understand their place in the story. Then, he’ll start showing us why this scenario is special and will give the reader their own space to come to a conclusion or make their own interpretation.
Craig is Associate Professor of English at the American University in Kuwait. After speaking to him for a couple of minutes, you would probably guess he was an educator or should be one. He pauses to consider your questions but not for too long before he gives a well thought out answer that makes sense and is easy to digest. The conversation mirrored his writing, open and honest, but layered and meaningful.
Craig grew up in a small town called Placerville, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, near Sacramento, California, went to college in Arizona and realized that he really enjoyed reading. He stumbled into teaching by chasing what he really liked doing. His career has taken him all over the world to countries like Japan and Malaysia before ending up in Kuwait more than seventeen years ago where he’s been since then.
Traveling to and living in different countries has taught him that “ … people are people they say and do the same silly things. Part of my writing experience is that I make an attempt to capture the daily, the mundane, the everyday, and just put a new twist on it or bring it to people’s attention. So that if you go to Johnny Rockets, you can see the same thing that I see,” he explains.
His writing career started in the 60s when he became acquainted with James Baldwin’s writing and was inspired to take pen to paper. “I read [that] and a light bulb went on. And I said I can do this as well, or at least, I could try to do. And so the actual serious writing began, which I do every day,” he explains.
As a professor of English and an author, Craig is in an interesting position: he understands the mechanics and technicalities of writing, but he also understands the respect and time the creative process demands. “Now, I’m willing to wait longer for the story to come. [When I was younger] I would push the story to finish it. And it really wasn’t good. But I was done with it,” he says. Writing His first book titled “A Softer Violence: Tales of Orient” was published in 1995 while he was living in Malaysia. Later he published “The Salmiya Collection” which is a collection of short stories of life in this little corner of the world. His most recent book “ This is a Chair: A lyrical Tale of Life, Death and Other Curriculum Challenges’’ came out last October. He describes it as “a collage, a kind of mosaic of stories glued together that, I hope, make a complete novel”.
He picks up a copy and reads the commentary at the very beginning of the book. “If arranged correctly, sharp, smaller stories, slivers of images, portraits of people and fragments and places can be marbled and mixed in such a way as to create a larger more comprehensive narrative. This final mosaic will assume its own life,” he reads. This could be used to describe all of Craig’s writing. He breaks things down to their smallest unit, that everyone can understand and relate to, because he is speaking about basic human traits and behaviors that we have all experienced or might even be guilty of having or doing. Which is why we’re always happy to read his work, because it offers us a different perspective on things we’ve seen before but maybe never really noticed.
TRUTH OR DARE QUESTIONNAIRE
What is the most ridiculous question you’ve ever been asked?
Do you like to read?
What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Jumped on an airplane to Japan.
Where would you like to live?
Somewhere warm with a beach.
What is your dream retirement location?
Somewhere warm with a beach.
Do you miss anything from your childhood and if so, what is it?
Being young.
If you could change your name, to what would you change it?
Davy Crockett.
How would you describe your handshake, in one word?
Accommodating.
Who is your favorite historical figure?
Ernest Hemingway.
What in the world do you least desire?
Retirement.
What do you think is lacking in the world, which [if there were more of it] would make the world a better place?
Patience.
Finish this sentence: “Happiness is…” “coming to the realization that happiness should not be the endgame to life and living.”
You can find his new book on Amazon.com and read Craig’s short fiction on bazaar.town/author/craigloomis/.
