Joe Dunthorne explains how he found literary success writing in the voice of a 15-year-old
© Angus Muir
Joe Dunthorne is a poet and author whose first novel, Submarine, was published in 2008. The novel is soon to become a film directed by Richard Ayoade of The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd, and starring newcomer Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Noah Taylor of Shine and Life Aquatic, Bafta award winner Paddy Considine, and Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins. Not a bad role call for the work of a writer from Swansea who tells us he has to “write lots of crud before a gem comes to the surface.”
What inspired you to become a writer?
I’ve always enjoyed writing of one form or another, although it took me while to realise that it could be a career. I used to write comics when I was seven or eight, then I started writing “text adventure” computer games when I was twelve - the first one I wrote was called ‘depression’ and was a story in which the only outcomes were different kinds of suicide.
Then when I was sixteen, my girlfriend dumped me, and I was awoken to the powers of bad poetry. I haven’t stopped since.
Did you find an agent or a publisher first?
I found an agent first, through the MA course at the University of East Anglia.
Did you face much rejection initially? How did you deal with it?
Well, Submarine, my novel, was very lucky and was accepted first time round but, with my poetry, I’ve got a file full of rejection letters that I treasure.
What inspired you to write Submarine?
I wrote a short story from the point of view of fifteen-year-old Oliver. I liked writing in his voice so much that I wrote another story, and another, and another. Soon enough, I realised I was writing a novel. He was great fun to write.
How challenging was it to write from the point of view of a 15-year-old?
Not that challenging. I was twenty-two when I started, and could still remember it well.
How did it feel to have Submarine compared to JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye by the Guardian?
Very flattering and very unrealistic. I love Salinger so it’s a wonderful compliment.
What do you find the biggest challenges of writing?
Staying disciplined - making sure to put the hours in.
What do you enjoy most about it?
I love those rare but wonderful moments when it is flowing, and your brain is in good shape, and the prose is good, and you feel like you really know the characters.
Whose writing do you admire?
Lots of people, mostly Americans: Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Dave Eggers, Ali Smith, Miranda July, David Berman, Frank O’Hara, Frederick Seidel…
Where do you carry out the majority of your writing?
In a recycled Jubilee line tube carriage on top of a building in East London, shared with theatre companies, poets, designers and so on. It’s great. You can see it here.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Having Submarine made in to a film. It’s in its last week of filming, and will come out in 2010!
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
Practice. I have to write lots of crud before a gem comes to the surface.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing my second novel, which will be published by Hamish Hamilton in 2011, and I’ve got a pamphlet of poems coming out with Faber in May 2010.
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