I never anticipated how answering questions about The Conditions of Love would send me down paths I hadn’t explored before. Debbie Haupt’s thoughtful and provocative questions in the interview we did for The Reading Frenzy summoned responses that surprised even me. We talked about mentors, Jung, and the difference between poetry and fiction, among other things. Here’s an excerpt:

DH: The Conditions of Love is your debut novel yet you’ve written in other mediums like poetry and short stories.
Would you say that it was a natural progression for you to become a novelist, or was there a particular event or catalyst that led you down this road?
DK: Moving from poetry to fiction might be a natural progression but I’m not sure. For me it was more like moving from a hammock under the stars to a house with a kitchen and bath! By that I mean the inception of poetry seems to require a dreamlike solitude, an emphasis on contemplation but also a wide-focus, associative mind. Poetry is less time-bound than fiction and relies on the sensuous and metaphoric qualities of language and on image. To tell a story, I needed a different kind of language. I needed to work in time and place using the devices of fiction. But I wouldn’t trade the hammock for the house or visa versa.

No single event sent me from one genre to another. I’m still a polymorphous writer!