This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/23/kevin-powers-interview-yellow-birds

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Kevin Powers: 'I've always had a certain level of comfort with the dark part of the human experience' Kevin Powers: 'I've always had a certain level of comfort with the dark part of the human experience'
(3 months later)
From Richmond in Virginia, Kevin Powers joined the US army when he was 17 and served as a machine-gunner in Iraq in 2004-05. He is now 32, and his stunning debut novel, The Yellow Birds, a fictional account of a soldier attempting to deal with the horrors of war in Iraq, won the 2012 Guardian first book award.From Richmond in Virginia, Kevin Powers joined the US army when he was 17 and served as a machine-gunner in Iraq in 2004-05. He is now 32, and his stunning debut novel, The Yellow Birds, a fictional account of a soldier attempting to deal with the horrors of war in Iraq, won the 2012 Guardian first book award.
A stated aim of The Yellow Birds was to answer the question: "What was it like over there?" Is that ever possible?
I was interested in trying to describe this state between apprehension and comprehension. That is one of the primary characteristics of the experience of being at war: it's so intense and you don't have time to process. So I was just trying to give somebody who would read the book, I don't know, a 10% example of what that might be like.		A stated aim of The Yellow Birds was to answer the question: "What was it like over there?" Is that ever possible?
I was interested in trying to describe this state between apprehension and comprehension. That is one of the primary characteristics of the experience of being at war: it's so intense and you don't have time to process. So I was just trying to give somebody who would read the book, I don't know, a 10% example of what that might be like.
The narrator of The Yellow Birds, Private Bartle, appeared in a poem you wrote before the novel. What made you decide to tell the story in prose form?
This idea of this particular soldier with these particular concerns had occurred to me before I realised I wanted to write a novel. In fact it was seeing that these same thematic elements, these same questions kept appearing – essentially I was writing different versions of the same poem over and over again. I just needed a larger canvas.		The narrator of The Yellow Birds, Private Bartle, appeared in a poem you wrote before the novel. What made you decide to tell the story in prose form?
This idea of this particular soldier with these particular concerns had occurred to me before I realised I wanted to write a novel. In fact it was seeing that these same thematic elements, these same questions kept appearing – essentially I was writing different versions of the same poem over and over again. I just needed a larger canvas.
What do you like about poetry?
I think the immediacy of it. The best poems bypass the rational part of the brain, they get at something more fundamental: they can be intellectually satisfying, of course, but they seem to operate on a different pathway or something like that. So I wanted to try to bring those same kinds of features into the writing of this particular story, hoping that it would contribute somehow to the larger effect.		What do you like about poetry?
I think the immediacy of it. The best poems bypass the rational part of the brain, they get at something more fundamental: they can be intellectually satisfying, of course, but they seem to operate on a different pathway or something like that. So I wanted to try to bring those same kinds of features into the writing of this particular story, hoping that it would contribute somehow to the larger effect.
Was the book a slow one to write?
I suppose it was written at a variable speed. I had a sense pretty early on that I didn't want it to be too long because you're asking the reader to participate in this pretty awful experience. I didn't want to drag it out any longer than I had to.		Was the book a slow one to write?
I suppose it was written at a variable speed. I had a sense pretty early on that I didn't want it to be too long because you're asking the reader to participate in this pretty awful experience. I didn't want to drag it out any longer than I had to.
Have you always been a writer?
I remember thinking that I started after I discovered Dylan Thomas when I was 12 or 13. I was so excited by the poems that I started writing my own. But not long ago my stepfather was cleaning out our garage and found this seven-page novel – "novel" – that I wrote when I was eight years old. It was a western and it was extraordinarily violent. It was written for an elementary school contest and I'm amazed my parents didn't immediately seek professional help for me. It's dark and bloody.		Have you always been a writer?
I remember thinking that I started after I discovered Dylan Thomas when I was 12 or 13. I was so excited by the poems that I started writing my own. But not long ago my stepfather was cleaning out our garage and found this seven-page novel – "novel" – that I wrote when I was eight years old. It was a western and it was extraordinarily violent. It was written for an elementary school contest and I'm amazed my parents didn't immediately seek professional help for me. It's dark and bloody.
If you weren't published, would you still write?
Absolutely. If this is the last book I ever publish, I can't imagine not writing. In fact it seems so fundamental to who I am that I almost don't feel compelled to do it. It just happens: I'll suddenly just find myself in a chair writing something without really thinking how I got there.		If you weren't published, would you still write?
Absolutely. If this is the last book I ever publish, I can't imagine not writing. In fact it seems so fundamental to who I am that I almost don't feel compelled to do it. It just happens: I'll suddenly just find myself in a chair writing something without really thinking how I got there.
Is there a second book in the works?
Yeah, it will be about the murder of former plantation owner, set just after the American civil war has ended, and the consequences of this murder and how it affects this community that he has lorded over. So the setting is drastically different, the story will be different, but there are some connections thematically.		Is there a second book in the works?
Yeah, it will be about the murder of former plantation owner, set just after the American civil war has ended, and the consequences of this murder and how it affects this community that he has lorded over. So the setting is drastically different, the story will be different, but there are some connections thematically.
Is it hard spending time mentally in these disturbing places?
From that violent, twisted novel I wrote when I was a kid, I've always had a certain level of comfort with the dark part of the human experience. It hasn't had an attraction, but it has certainly had a fascination. I wonder why people are the way they are. I wonder how do we justify the things that we do, because it always seems like we are doing terrible things. But the stories that we tell ourselves are always about our goodness and our idealism and that contradiction has been interesting to me throughout my whole life. I probably won't ever be a person who is writing romantic comedies.		Is it hard spending time mentally in these disturbing places?
From that violent, twisted novel I wrote when I was a kid, I've always had a certain level of comfort with the dark part of the human experience. It hasn't had an attraction, but it has certainly had a fascination. I wonder why people are the way they are. I wonder how do we justify the things that we do, because it always seems like we are doing terrible things. But the stories that we tell ourselves are always about our goodness and our idealism and that contradiction has been interesting to me throughout my whole life. I probably won't ever be a person who is writing romantic comedies.
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.