In this article, we interview Taurenelle, WINNER of the October 2024 Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction with: I told you this was a poem.
Hi Taurenelle, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing backstory?
I primarily consider myself a fantasy author, albeit a humorous one. And, of course, I say this while having exclusively written sad, sappy, non-fantastical pieces in every flash fiction competition I’ve ever entered. However, I recently had a comedic short story that did reasonably well at a comp, but that wasn’t fantasy either, so maybe the lesson here is to not label yourself.
That being said, “writing” is one of my earliest memories. I put that in quotes because “writing” meant sitting on my grandmother’s stairs with my cousin, swapping stories we claimed to have written even though we barely knew the alphabet. To his credit, he was good at preparing his ideas beforehand, whereas I would just make something up on the spot to sound creative and cool.
But beyond that, I was the kid who submitted to the school writing competitions and preferred English class above all else (the writing part, that is, I was horrible at keeping up with the readings). I switched to screenwriting in high school and college and beyond, which is fun in its own right but, in my opinion, is nothing compared to writing literature. So, over the past year or so, I’ve been focused on finishing my ‘comedic fantasy’ novel and doing as many contests as time allows.
You WON the October 2024 Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction. What did you spend your prize money on?
I’d love to say the usual, ya know, cocaine and charity, but I’m afraid I’m a little too practical for that. I added the winnings to my ‘writing fund,’ which I use to cover the cost of various writing and world-building tools, as well as entry fees for competitions. But I promise, if I win Not Quite Write again, I’ll buy a ticket to Australia and get so drunk on Fosters with the judges that I’ll end up boxing a Kangaroo. That’s what happens down there? Right?
Your story was rather dark, so we feel compelled to ask… are you okay?
It’s funny. When I write, I am so focused on the language, the pacing, the rhythm, the way it sounds, and so on that I end up not having any emotional attachment to my characters. It wasn’t until about a month after I wrote the piece that I reread it with fresh eyes and thought, “Wow, that’s pretty fuckin’ sad.”
This happens to me a lot. I have a long-standing critique group with three other authors, and each week, I am surprised by how much they care about my characters. To me, these dramatis personae are simply a means to an end, literary devices that help me tell the story I want to tell. But to others, they are people with whom they connect, sometimes deeply.
For some reason, there needs to be a lot of distance between writing something and reading it for me to engage with the story on the same level as the audience. But now that I’m saying this out loud… maybe I’m not okay. Thanks, Ed and Amanda. Now my entire ‘writing fund’ is going to therapy.
Your story featured a direct reference to the poem, Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Is this a poem you were interested in before the competition, or did it evolve during the writing process?
Well, I’m a Classical Philologist (which is just a fancy way of saying I have degrees in Latin and Ancient Greek), and Dactylic Hexameter was the meter in which epics like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid were written. Some foolish writers (like me) have attempted to compose English verses in Dactylic Hexameter, but it is extremely difficult to do. Long story short, the ancients could use syllable length to form a (poetic) foot, but English speakers need to rely on emphasis, which is wildly inconsistent and produces a rather unnatural delivery. But Longfellow pulled it off in the 19th century, and no one has done it as well since.
I thought it would be fitting to have my ‘poem’ writing character appreciate Longfellow’s opus. Not only as a slight, indirect nod to Ὅμηρος and Vergilius, but because Evangeline has a similar tone to what I was writing. In truth, I think the parallels between my story and his were much more profound than I had consciously intended. I consider this, as another lover of the creative process once coined, “a happy little accident.”
On the podcast, Amanda suggested the line, ‘The year Longfellow published Evangeline’ was a reference to a specific make of gun, but you later let us know she got it wrong. What was it a reference to?
I’ll be honest, the arrogant author side of me wants the reader to interpret my story precisely as I intended. But—and this is what makes Not Quite Write so damn good— being able to hear people analyze your story on a podcast makes you realize that your work has taken on a life of its own. Especially when you write something as vague and subtext-heavy as I told you this was a poem. Everyone will take something different out of it, and that’s amazing.
So, yes, I referred to the year Evangeline was published to mean a four-digit combination, but Amanda’s research made her conclude that it referenced a particularly famous style of gun. And being that my piece coincidentally involved the weapon, Amanda’s conclusion made perfect sense.
But I admit, I was caught up in the excitement of winning and tweeted without thinking (the first person that’s ever happened to, surely), and in retrospect, I should have stayed quiet and let each person come to her own conclusion. But that was four months ago when I was young and stupid. And truth be told, Amanda’s idea was better than mine, and I wish I had thought of it first!
Ed and Amanda have both famously expressed their dislike of poetry in flash fiction competitions, only to be repeatedly proven wrong. Was your story, I told you this was a poem, a poem?
That’s a tricky one. I’d say 90% ‘No’ and 10% ‘Yes.’ The part of the piece that is visually styled like a poem doesn’t adhere to any metrical rules, and the rest is written in prose. Perhaps I can argue that this should be considered a freeform or experimental poem, but I doubt I’d convince anyone. It’s hard to define. And that’s what I like about it.
My goal was to make the reader a little uneasy. The lines are blurred. The character claims he isn’t writing a poem, but it looks like a poem. The prose is clearly prose, but the narrator uses poetic language. It’s elusive and ambiguous, which is probably the best way to describe my style as a flash fiction writer (and me as a person, I guess). Wow. Looks like my aforementioned hypothetical therapist and I have a lot to talk about.
Can you share any words of wisdom with our Not Quite Write Prize hopefuls?
Take the first idea you have and throw it out. Do the same for the following two ideas. Then, when all the obvious choices and lowest-hanging fruit are out of your mind, you’ll be free to tap into that deep, creative part of your psyche that makes you unique. You’re not writing for a mass audience here; you don’t need to be marketable. You need to be original, and be a risk-taker, and fly as close to the sun as you can. If you’re not using these competitions to find your voice, what the hell are you using them for?
Don’t be afraid to fail, either. I’ve done Not Quite Write three times: I didn’t make the longlist the first time, won the top prize the second time, then didn’t make the longlist again (and all three were bangers, so that’s on you Ed and Amanda). But seriously, be bold, be different, and above all else, challenge yourself to do something new.
About Taurenelle
Taurenelle is a Pushcart Prize-nominated author and poet based in New York City. Excerpts from his upcoming debut novel, Deep Lore, earned him a spot on the 2024 Granum Foundation Longlist, and his heartbreaking tale of a broken family, I told you this was a poem, won Grand Prize at the October 2024 Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction.
With a unique mixture of elegant prose, absurd humor, and deep world-building, he brings a fresh voice to the fantasy genre that attracts the casual reader and the analytical fantaphile alike (yes, he made that word up). A trained classicist, Taurenelle’s narrative voice embodies the Roman and Ancient Greek poets of old with a style that is simultaneously archaic and contemporary.
When he’s not writing, he can be found sitting on his front stoop, wearing a full suit, reading Sophocles, and drinking whiskey. Unless it’s cold outside, then he can be found sitting in a library, wearing a full suit, reading Sophocles, and hiding his whiskey from the librarians.
Feel free to sign up to his Newsletter to get sample chapters and updates of his upcoming novel.
You can connect with Taurenelle at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taurenelle/
Twitter: https://x.com/Taurenelle
OnlyFans: https://www.taurenelle.com
Okay, that last one isn’t a real OnlyFans account; it’s his writing website, but check it out anyway.