VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a reading?
BROOKS: The strangest thing that ever happened to me at reading was when I was invited to read at an arts center in central Pennsylvania. That should have been enough of a warning. I read about a page into my story when they cut the mic. The reading series host, a fat old woman in floral print dress, who had seemed pleasant enough at the time, rushed on stage, grabbed the papers from my hand, frenzily skimmed over the pages and declared, "Filth! Filth! Filth!" All in front of the audience, who sat in total silence. Needless to say, they did not reimburse me for my travel expenses. I was younger then and didn't realize you really do need know your audience and you can't wantonly throw around the word "cunt-door".
VOTM: What's something you've done for seven years?
BROOKS: I've been living in Brooklyn for the past seven years, which means that one thing that I do is hate on people with ironic moustaches. It's not all people with moustaches, just the ironic ones. Now you might ask, "How does he know which moustaches are ironic and which ones are in earnest?" All I can say is that after seven years I've developed a fine-tuned and nuanced system of deduction with which I can, with a usually high rate of success, infer if one's moustache was an organic development or a total contrivance. Does this make me a judgmental asshole? Of course it does! That's why I've lived in Brooklyn for the past seven years.
JASON NAPOLI BROOKS's writing, including excerpts of his novel Shelter, has appeared in Ninth Letter, H.O.W., Pindeldyboz, Tema Celeste, El Pais, and America Street II. His fiction has also been part of collaborative author/artist exhibitions at galleries in Berlin, Madrid, and New York, where he most recently has been collaborating with artist Gio Black Peter. Brooks currently writes the spy serial Cock of the Walk.
