Q+A with Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball, the author behind The Curfew, recently visited the KQED studios to record an episode of The Writers’ Block, which will be released later this week. Until then, get to know him a little better with this Q+A, in which he talks about his past incarnation and his costume from Halloween 1982.

The Curfew is partly about revolution and taking down the government. If you were to lead a resistance effort, what would it look like?

Jesse Ball: I would never lead anything, least of all a resistance effort.

What’s the one place on earth you feel most at home?

JB: In baba yaga’s hut.

Having been a photographer in India, participated in a residency in a Scottish castle, and spent time in Iceland, it seems as though you’ve lived many different lives. If you had to imagine your past incarnation, where would you have been and what would you have been doing?

JB: An eighteenth century Russian serf. Or the bumblebee that is watching him.

What’s the first book that made you fall in love with language and why?

JB: My parents gave me a dictionary when I was very small and I read it cover to cover.

You’ve said that film is one of the greatest luxuries of our time and one you couldn’t live without. If you could live inside one movie, which would it be?

JB: Les Enfantes Du Paradis

What kind of kid were you and what did you want to be when you grew up?

JB: Wild, bashful, secretive. When I was four, I wanted to be a garbageman. Also, I was a carpenter for Halloween that year (1982).

You’re on stage at a karaoke bar. What are you singing?

JB: Summer Wine (duet) — Lee Hazelwood.

If you could invite 3 people (dead/alive/fictional) to your dinner party, who would they be and why?

JB: Bachelard. Darger. Elizabeth Cotten.

Look for Jesse Ball’s episode of The Writers’ Block next Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at kqed.org/writersblock. And be sure not to miss each episode as it becomes available by subscribing to The Writers’ Block podcast!