JJ Amaworo Wilson
ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?
JJ Amaworo Wilson: All writers begin as readers, me included. The early joys of reading or being told a good story must have somehow led me to thinking, "I'd like to tell good stories, too." That, and a love of language. For me, those sources of inspiration haven't changed.
ORP: What does success as a writer or artist mean to you?
JAW: Engage the reader. Surprise myself with a word or image or twist. Leave a trace of gold dust for when I'm gone.
ORP: Who do you consider to be your creative ancestors and contemporaries for your art and/or writing? How does your creative work converse with theirs?
JAW: Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, Samuel Beckett, Naguib Mahfouz, Zora Neale Hurston, Chinua Achebe . . . ah there are so many. I don't know that my work converses with theirs, but everything I know about writing, I learned from them: clarity of language; creating complex, ambiguous characters; and the sheer absurdity of human affairs.
ORP: How does writing/art influence your worldview, and how does your worldview shape your writing/art?
JAW: I don't think the two things—one's writing and one's worldview—can be separated. I write of love and compassion and the struggles for justice because those are the things that interest me about humanity.
