THE BLACK EDITIONS INTERVIEW: Niklas Stephenson
Niklas Stephenson is trying to understand things through his writing. He has published a few chapbooks of poetry with Analog Submission Press & Between Shadows Press and self published a novel" Bloodbursts" available on the parasitic Amazon.
Niklas was picked to feature as one of the poets to feature in The Black Editions series of chapbooks. His collection is called Weltschmerz and we explore the new collection, the writing life and Niklas recommends some of his favourite works of literature.
The Writing Life
In retrospect, I can't really place a certain time in my life as the beginning of the writing life. I have always been writing in one form or another. A big part of that is because I was born with a massive hearing impairment, which also led to problems in my speech development. I have always been unsure and insecure in verbal communication, so I have always been writing express myself. That hangs on to this day. I am glad this Q&A is in written form, if it were an interview I would not have done it.
I guess I could be considered more of a poet than a writer, here I can place a time when I began enjoying poetry. That enjoyment unfortunately did not last long. To my shame I have to admit that I don't read a lot of poetry and don't really know much about it.
In school we read Edgar Allen Poe and I was absolutely fascinated and decided from that day on that I would write poetry. I have done that over the years, with breaks in between. The breaks came because I felt ridiculous, I did not really have any worthwhile themes for my writing and I was a kid. In regards to writing poetry I was always insecure. I wanted to write like Poe, so there was a lot of rhyming structure and subject matter that was not in relation to myself or anything going on in the world.
Later on in life I connected to the punk and hardcore subculture, which was a turning point in my life and in my writing. I cut many ties in my life and underwent a complete turnaround in regards to my personal idea of what life should be about. Punk taught me most things I know and cherish today, above all the importance of individuality and being proud of it, no matter what. I grew up to the sounds and lyrics of The Doors, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, etc. which was great for my development, but punk and hardcore more or less sent me flying into my own life and began developing my writing.
Through life experience and many lows with drugs, alcohol, weird relationships, precarious ways of living, I also finally had a theme for my writing. My past. Memory. The School of Life, so to say. I broke from the rhyming, traditional poetry, but I didn't write much, besides political poetry.
At the time I was reading Bukowski and other “Meat School Poets” and I thought it was great, but nothing that could be emulated. I have a problem with that. I read a lot of the Beat Poets as well, but none really gave me anything, it was a world that isn't in any way relatable to mine.
Around the time I released my novel “Bloodbursts” Marc Brüseke from Analog Submission Press contacted me and offered a book swap. Through him I met so many other fascinating poets like Tohm Bakelas, and read other poets like Donohue, Robinson, Appleby, etc. I knew then that this niche that I thought didn't exist or exist anymore was still alive and well on a very small scale.
Here I am today with poetry that is authentic and honest to me, finally with the courage to write about things I experienced in my life and getting published in the small press scene by other punk influenced poets and publishers; and that is where I will stay.
On Weltschmerz
The major themes of my poetry are always memory, experience, relationship and societal criticisms and I believe that these all come together in this collection. My writing is always spontaneous, I don't have several hundred poems on my laptop or in my notebooks. I don't even edit. I hate that. There is always an emotion of the current time of writing in my books, I believe it gives a raw view of my mind reflecting on the past and maybe, sometimes, looking towards a future.
Favourite Authors/Poets:
It would be hard to just name a few, but I'll narrow it down to the following.
Dostoevsky, Camus, Wantling, Nietzsche, Hunter S. Thompson, Fauser
Recommended Reading:
White Nights & Other Stories, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Stranger, Albert Camus
In the Enemy Camp, William Wantling
Steppenwolf, HermannHesse
COLLECTION NOW SOLD OUT
