Meet the shortlist: Luke Carman
An Elegant Young Man is one of the six books included on our inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award shortlist. Here we ask author Luke Carman five quick questions.
If you were opening your own bookshop, what are three titles that would always be kept on your shelves?
My bookstore would stock only three books: The Swan Book by Alexis Wright, The Tribe by Mohammed Ahmad, and my own. I don’t care how quickly we’d go out of business, it’s the principle of the matter: The Tribe and The Swan Book are works of art and ought to be championed by every decent Australian. If there was any justice in this mad province of our inchoate civilisation, Alexis Wright would have won the Miles Franklin. My fingers are crossed for Mohammed next year.
I include my book on the list because, as the saying goes, if you can’t love yourself, who can you love?
What’s the strangest piece of advice you’ve ever been given as a writer? (And did it work?)
One grey Liverpool afternoon, my neighbour called me over to the fence between our yards and said, ‘Bro, I figured you out: you wanna be a writer’. I asked how he’d divined such a thing, and he waved my question away, saying ‘Don’t worry about it bro - you should write a book.’
‘Really?’ I asked, suddenly blushing.
He said, ‘Yeah bro, you can call it: How To Be Gay.’ Then he walked off, scratching himself.
The bastard was joking, obviously, but he had a point. I tried to take his advice, but the booksellers insisted that a novel called How to Be Gay wouldn’t do. We went with An Elegant Young Man instead. Likely a change for the best.
Do you remember the first book that made you want to be a writer?
It was an illustrated audiobook about Jason and his Argonauts. I was mesmerised by Greek myth as a child. I can still see the Golden Fleece slung over the forked branch of a tree – the Black Sea blowing white against the curved coast of the sacred grove. I remember always feeling sorry for Jason at that point in the story, thinking, ‘that’s the gold fleece? Looks like shit.’
Do you listen to music while you write? Why or why not?
If you’re trying to translate some emotion to the page, music helps you fake it. Also helps drown out The Big Bang Theory Mum’s always watching in the lounge room.
If An Elegant Young Man were made into a film, who would you like to see in the starring role?
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
