Several times a month we connect with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: David Ebenbach
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “We Were the People Who Moved” “To Whom It May Concern” “In the Chat Room of the Werewolf Pack ” & “Procedural Drama“
Issues: 5.2 & 6.3
Find Him:
David is a Philadelphia native, but these days you can find him in Washington, DC, where he lives with his family and works at Georgetown University. He teaches creative writing and literature at the Center for Jewish Civilization and promoting student-centered teaching at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship.
Find out more about David on his website.
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
I’m excited to say that I’ve had four books published since those publications, including two collections of poetry—We Were the People Who Moved (2015) and Some Unimaginable Animal (2019)—but I think the biggest accomplishment is just coming back to the page again and again. Books are great—it’s an unbelievable privilege to get to share my work with other folks—but the foundation is the writing. So I think that’s the most important accomplishment any writer can point to. #amwriting
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
I’m finishing edits on a novel due out in 2021 (Tachyon Publications). It’s called How to Mars and it’s a sci-fi novel about an ill-advised one-way mission to Mars; the small group of Marsonauts, who went in order to escape life, unexpectedly have to get ready for the first pregnancy on another planet.
Who is your favorite author?
Such a cruel question! Just one? Well, fine—I guess my favorite author is (and I’m sorry to say that this author has a really long name): Toni Morrison Jane Kenyon Yehuda Amichai Basho Salman Rushdie Rainer Maria Rilke George Saunders Stephen Dunn Virginia Woolf. Long name or not (Toni Morrison for short?), that’s a great author!
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
Again, kind of cruel—but this time I’ll really honor the request. In the world of poetry I’ll go with Jane Kenyon’s Otherwise.
What inspires you to write?
One of the main things is my hunger to show the power and importance and even magic of ordinary moments and things.
What are you reading right now?
Five books (I always read a lot of things at once):
Hanif Abdurraqib, A Fortune for Your Disaster. (poetry)
Jim Gaffigan, Food: A Love Story. (non-fiction)
Layla Saad, Me and White Supremacy. (non-fiction)
Jeff Vandermeer, The Time Traveler’s Almanac. (fiction)
Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities. (non-fiction)
What is your favorite sweet? We would love for you to share a recipe or link to place that serves it. Pictures are great, too!
Heritage India, a restaurant in DC, makes a bread pudding that is a religious experience.
Thank you, David, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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[…] SWEET LIT interviews their past contributor Ebenbach. […]