Q: Please tell us a bit about your background and how you started writing.
A: I was raised in the midwest by southern parents, in a house with thousands of books and only five television channels. Like so many writers, I started writing by reading and becoming captivated by prose and its ability to captivate me. When it was time to go to college, I wasn’t very good at anything besides writing, but more importantly writing was a comfort. I learned a lot about writing from my professors and classmates at the University of Michigan and LSU.
Q: What is your writing process? When you start a story do you usually know where it’s headed or are you along for the ride?
A: I have resisted any pressure to employ a strict writing routine of exactly X number of minutes or words per day. I don’t even write in the same room every day, or on the same piece of furniture, and I use a variety of writing tools. For me the key is to write every day, even just a little, so that I remain engaged with the work. I really think the process depends on the project. Sometimes I have a premise and I write to see where it takes me; other times I do some very deliberate planning beforehand. Recently my prewriting has consisted of cartoonish sketches of characters and locales.
Q: What do you feel is the common thread that runs through the short stories in Down at the End of the River? Is there a general message that you were trying to convey?
A: The only thread is the land I have embraced, where I have spent the past 27 years. The Soul Rebels brass band has a song called “504,” which is the New Orleans area code, and they sing, “There’s a feeling/you get living here/from the people/and the music you hear/speaking to you/and the message is clear: enjoy yourself.” It’s not just 504, but also 225 and 337 and 985 that have that spirit. That’s the message.
Q: You’ve also written a novel called Americanisation: Lessons in American Culture and Language. Could you tell us about a bit about it?
A: It’s a very different kind of book, although it has something in common with the more comical stories in Down at the End of the River. It’s a novel, but it poses as a textbook for non-native speakers of English. Michael Martone said it was hilarious, which made me very happy.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Believe it or not, I’m working on a novel in the form of a terms-of-use agreement whose premise is that aliens caused the BP oil spill. But I’m also working on a novella that turns Conrad’s Heart of Darkness on its head by telling the story of a rainforest native who pursues a rogue tribesman downriver to civilization. Also a picaresque novel in which a young man gets turned into a Ford F-150 (sort of). I have learned that I write best when I’m having fun.
Q: Where can we find out more about you and your writing online?
A: I love Facebook and am happy to interact with readers there. I am also on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and I have a website at http://anguswoodward.blogspot.com. And then there’s this fun story hosted by the good folks at Alimentum: http://www.alimentumjournal.com/woodward-sandwich-diaries.