Hound Dog, an interview with Eddie Black

It's been nearly a year since we last got the pleasure of talking to this poet. Here he is, back again, with a new book to sink our teeth into. Hound Dog, the latest poetry collection from the ridiculously talented Eddie Black.

I had a lovely time getting to know more about Eddie Black's writing process and about his newest release, Hound Dog. And here it is for you to read.

It's been about a year since we last did an interview, how are you? What's new?

A year has almost come and gone, eleven months since my first book. I have lived a lot of life since our last talk. Luckily, for only $14.99 you can read all about it. There's, my plug.

Your second contribution to the dirty realism genre, Hound Dog, just came out last Friday. I can't wait to get my hands on it. If you had to explain Hound Dog in one sentence to a reader how would you?

I think the best way to describe it in one sentence is to say that Hound Dog is three hundred pages of depravity mingling with a deep sense of personal freedom and a code of morality while I make my way through the U S of A.

What was the inspiration behind Hound Dog? Was there anything in particular that inspired the writing?

There were a few things but ultimately, the inspiration was to get a second book out there before an untimely death. To leave a little more behind.

As a writer and poet, do you go looking for inspiration to write or do you find yourself just writing until something clicks? What's the process?

I do not write until something clicks. I only write when there is something in me that needs to get out. Luckily, it's most of the day, every day.

Did you choose to traditionally publish or self-publish Hound Dog? Why?

A strange mix of the two. I met someone in the publishing world that is a huge supporter of me and we mix it up with a little of both of the worlds with whichever side benefits the situation more.

What part of Hound Dog did you enjoy writing the most? Do you have an excerpt for us?

There are two poems in here that I absolutely loved writing, as I did experiencing them before that. "glazed" which mixes my love for women and donuts and "the lions of Joshua tree" which involved the same amazing woman and the Mojave desert. I'll give a little excerpt from lions:

"Far past the edge

of the desert

where Joshua trees

stand like the ancient

guardians of some

long forgotten

frontier brazen with

a beautiful barrenness

where the only thing

that thrives

is the horticulture

of freedom

and a piercing sense

of inflection.

I sit shirtless

with the untouched

vastness in front of me.

Its sandy breath

clinging to my hair

and faded levis

and sticking between

my toes."

Do you think that writing during this pandemic and during political turmoil made the creative process easier, more difficult, or neither? Could you explain?

It didn't change my process very much, but the desert, the Midwest, and the South didn't change all the much themselves. I could still get ribbon. I could still get booze.

So, take us back a bit, what did the early Eddie Black writing days look like back in the beginning and how do you think those experiences led to the writing of Hound Dog?

Well, I've only been writing for under two years but it started from a deeply broken and emotional place and my first book, "Uncooked & Undignified" really got me through it. So I would say this current wave of my writings still deeply personal, but it's much sharper. There's much more of my vision on paper instead of my intestines. A good mixture.

Before we say goodbye today, what is one thing that you hope readers will take away from Hound Dog or from your writing in general?

That there is still a place for hard men, that hard men can also be soft and good, and art does not have to apologize.

Buy Hound Dog here.