by Rumjhum Biswas

A man of many interests and prodigious energy, Benjamin C Krause finds time to edit three journals, and now is on the verge of launching new minimalist magazines in other languages, beginning with one in Bengali!

An Indophille, Benjamin wants to run as many minimalist magazines in as many Indian langauges as possible. That’s the latest news since I interviewed him. Honestly, I wish I had that kind of drive.

Rumjhum Biswas: You have a passion for minimalist poetry and prose. Why?

Benjamin C Krause:Passion has nothing to do with it. I’m a perfectionist, and it’s easier to get 5 words exactly right and in the right order than 5,000. Similarly, when editing, it’s easier to make sure 20 words are exactly right and in the right order than 2,000.

RB: Who or what were your early influences in writing prose and poetry that need to be pared down to a handful of words and less?

BCK: Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and my Craft of Short Story professor, Susan Perabo, all helped teach me about “the chopping block,” but as far as flash fiction and especially writing of 20 words or fewer go, it was territory I explored largely without a guide, except for Hemingway’s 6-word short story, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

RB:Any favourite writers who you like to emulate or consider a guru?

BCK:I’ve gone beyond emulating favorite writers. I like to emulate writers I find in the dark corners of literary magazines that no one reads, or maybe take two or three such writers and combine their styles. Or even more likely, I’ll emulate Glenn Beck, or the College Board SAT tests, or a car commercial. Always subversively, of course.

I once considered John Berryman my guru, but to mix metaphors by borrowing a Japanese term, I’ve become a ronin, a samurai without a master… somewhere along the way, I lost him, and instead of committing ritual suicide, I now wander in disgrace, doing whatever work I can find.

RB: Twenty20 Journal was inspired by, to quote you,” a variant of cricket which is faster and harder hitting.” Is there a story here? Longer than twenty words, please.

BCK: There’s no story; the variant is 20/20 cricket, which is the shortest form of cricket in international competition, shorter than both one-day and test cricket. Because they only play 20 overs, outs mean less, so they are more likely to take risks by hitting the ball harder, which will either lead to more outs on a bad day or more fours and sixes on a good day. I guess there is a related story: when I was in Bangalore in 2009, I was watching an IPL match and saw Gilchrist hit six sixes in one over. It was the first time I’d ever seen that, and this from a guy who hadn’t played professional cricket in a year. He will surely go down as one of the greatest batters ever to play the game.

RB: What do you look for in a twenty and under word poem or story?

BCK: First: that every word is necessary, the best word to use, and is in the right place. Then: that it says substantially more in 20 words than any average writer can express in 5,000.

RB: Do you have any words of advice for writers of minimalist poetry and fiction?

BCK: Cut the fat. Eliminate unnecessary words, phrases, and images. Reduce when possible, reuse only when necessary, and never recycle. Choose the best words and put them in the right order: when it comes to short versions, this applies to prose just as much as poetry. Make sure everything from your words to your punctuation to your paragraph breaks has a purpose. And when you’re writing extremely short prose, don’t be afraid to use dialog. Some of the best 20-word-and-under prose I’ve seen has used dialog, but sadly, most submissions to twenty20 Journal still neglect it.

RB: You have two other journals – Liebamour and Muscle and Blood Literary Journal.  What inspired you to come up with three different journals?

BCK: I’m a man of many interests. I like longer forms just as much as I like shorter forms, and I like the experimental just as much as I like solid fundamentals. I can’t limit myself to one style in editing, but I recognize a journal has to have a focus. So I have three for different interests. If I had the time, I’d have more.

RB:How do you manage to run three? Is there a special formula? :)

BCK: I used to have a group of friends with whom I’d go to the bar and get drunk and talk about how we could never find time to write or accomplish any of the things we wanted to get done. Once I stopped going to the bar with them, I suddenly found myself with a lot more free time. I keep in touch with them, but I’ve mostly found that periods of near-solitude with the occasional break to get out and see the world and find inspiration for writing are necessary to the life of a disciplined writer. It gets stressful at times. Right now I’m spread pretty thin, and I barely find time to write. Other times, though, I find plenty of time to write. It all depends what’s going on with the magazines at any given time

RB: Please tell us a bit more about them, more than what the About page reveals.

BCK: About the journals? I’d love to tell you more about them, but if I were willing to do that, it’d already be on the About page. I like to see my About pages as prompts: you read them, and see what you can come up with. I have no set criteria for selection beyond whether they read the guidelines, whether they seem to have at least read the About page, and whether they’re good. I could write a book on my criteria for “good,” and it’d probably be rambling nonsense. If it moves me, it moves me.

RB: As a writer and editor what are your future goals?

BCK: My immediate goal as an editor/publisher is to get Diamond Point Press’s catalog onto the Kindle, which will hopefully help ensure Diamond Point Press’s financial viability into the next year and perhaps beyond. My goal as a writer is to be read widely, by any means necessary. I don’t mind taking non-traditional routes, and that’s my plan: social networking, online journals, exposure through the press, chapbooks, and anything else my mind comes up with. But I’ve got the more conservative approach as a back-up; I’m being published in a very highly-regarded print journal this Summer, and hope for more such publications to come.

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Rumjhum Biswas is a writer based in Chennai, India. She blogs at Writers and Writerisms.