Meet Aaron John Curtis | Novelist & Poet

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aaron John Curtis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron John, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
Being multi-disciplined is important to creativity because it relieves pressure you put on your creative endeavors to pay the bills. Creativity should be about play, and painting or singing or perfecting a recipe or gardening are all great ways to remind you to bring that energy to your work. That said, I was playing so much I lost any sort of discipline, so none of my work went anywhere. I had to decide to be a writer. Once my spare time went towards that, my other creative outlets became a way to get unstuck from my chosen work. By choosing one creative endeavor, I was able to focus on it enough to improve to the point where others – agents and publishers – found my work worthwhile enough to help me share it with the world.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
This year Lena Waithe’s publishing house Hillman Grad put out my debut novel, OLD SCHOOL INDIAN. It’s about a Mohawk man living in Miami who gets diagnosed with a terminal illness and returns to his home reservation for a healing from his Great Uncle. I’m excited to bring my family’s stories to the world, and I’m most proud that for the audiobook (read by Blackfeet actor Jason Grasl) my publisher worked with language preservation experts on Akwesasne to get the Kanien’kéha pronunciation correct. It took nearly 20 years to get here. I’ve always had at least one full-time job and have been the primary caretaker for my family, so I had to add writing time to my schedule. I woke at 5am on weekdays to give myself 2 hours to write. I woke at 5am on Saturdays as well and wrote until at least 9. Then on Sundays, I’d sleep as long as I could. After a decade working this way, I wrote the short story which eventually became OLD SCHOOL INDIAN. The first novel I wrote, which I thankfully didn’t submit anywhere because it was so rough, taught me I had the ability to write a book-length work and the focus it took to get there. The second novel I didn’t put out included a false start with an agent which taught me the right working relationship won’t feel like work, and that you can’t force yourself to be ready. I met my current agent, Melissa Danaczko, at a Books & Books event. She ultimately helped me shape OLD SCHOOL INDIAN into the novel we shopped around. Erin Wicks, who edited the book for Hillman Grad / Zando, said it was the cleanest manuscript she’d ever worked on, but the editing phase still took nearly two years. All this to say I might not call it easy, but the process was fun and rewarding.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Start with breakfast in the Gables at the Bagel Emporium, then head downtown to browse the stacks of Miami’s oldest bookstore, Books & Books. Grab a late lunch in their courtyard and hang with Raoul the bartender until the evening event starts, then get your literary groove on. If you’re peckish afterwards, leave the bookstore and head to The Bar on Giralda for burgers and beer. If you want to keep the party going while avoiding tourists and tech bros, hit up Jada Coles for after hours drinks and live music. And that’s just one day! For seafood I’d have to take them to Scotty’s Landing, because Monty’s is for tourists and Joe’s Stone Crab is for suckers. For Cuban food, I’d take them to Versailles because even though it’s for tourists and suckers you have to eat there to get it and it’s just as delicious as La Carreta (maybe not as delicious as any El Palacio de los Jugos location, but you want the experience). I’d do the tasting menu at Ghee in Kendall – and include the wine pairing if I was feeling flush – just to prove our Indian food stacks up to New York City and San Francisco. We’d have to hit up Chef Creole in Little Haiti. We’d eat Ricky Bakery pastries every morning. Beyond food, the Perez Art Museum for contemporary work, Crandon Park to enjoy the beach in peace, and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden to enjoy some greenery. If we’re lucky, we can talk someone with a small vessel to boat in at Matheson Hammock and take us snorkeling (or just drifting) in Biscayne Bay. And okay fine, one wild night walking Ocean Drive on South Beach just to people watch – but we’re leaving early to beat the traffic.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My Uncle Alex Jacobs is a poet and an artist. I grew up with his work on my family’s walls, and I think that – both the artwork and the way he lived – helped me believe an artistic life might be possible. His artwork adorns the cover of my debut novel. I’m thankful to my publisher for working with him, and to my Uncle Alex for allowing me to use his work.

Website: https://aaronjohncurtis.com

Instagram: @mohawkmiami

Image Credits
Cacá Santoro, Manuel Aragon, Michelle Massanet, @onelitchick