Member Spotlight: Robert J. Begiebing

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? As a reader who has learned at least half of what I know and feel about the world from reading, I can’t imagine living a life in isolation from literature or with an open door only to the censorship and propaganda of momentary powers and media outlets. Reading in my view is a moral activity; hence, so is writing with all the integrity you can muster.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Researching the topic I’m writing about always stimulates me. Information breeds manuscript pages.

What is your favorite time to write? Mornings.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Write about what you believe in, are well informed about, would enjoy reading yourself.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The challenge to writers from censorship, the hyper-commercialism of industry consolidation, ideological correctness, literary fashionableness, and outright lies from the powers that be stimulate me to try to fight the good fight. It feels like confronting bullies. Why not take them all on as best you can with whatever courage you can muster. Feel better than whimpering in the corner sucking your thumb.

Robert J. Begiebing’s Awakening: Twenty-five Unfashionable Poems is out now with the Troy Book Makers.