Mikesch Muecke
What’s your genre?
Biography, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and design
Are you published?
I’m an indie press publisher
What inspired you to become a writer?
Fundamentally writing is about the sharing of compelling, riveting, awesome stories that captivate readers and transport them into an imaginary space full of (sensory) reality. Writing is always also an attempt at immortality, an attempt to transcend time (and space), to leave something behind when the writer is no longer there/here.
At the same time I, as an author/reader, am inspired to write by the writing of others about events that they share through their publications (books, ebooks, audio books). Listening and reading inspire me to become better at communicating ideas that I care about. Editing the books of other writers—a process that links writing with publishing—inspires me as a writer, too.
What author(s) do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
John McPhee—observing the environment, research, journalistic story-telling
Gustave Flaubert—acerbic writing, humorous, grand scale and personal
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—relationships, science
J.K. Huysmans—details
Jane Jacobs—society, culture
Indra Kakis McEwen—mythology, details
Robert Harbison—history
Diana Brantley—poetry
Carol Polsgrove—biography, culture
Marian Mathews Clark—society, culture
Name three of your favorite books and their authors
The Control of Nature and Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
Wahlverwandtschaften/Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
What’s one thing readers should know about you?
I’m curious about the world, at all scales.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to a budding writer?
What about what you know.
Author Bio
Mikesch Muecke, aka polytekton, teaches architecture and interdisciplinary design courses at Iowa State University, and holds two degrees from the University of Florida (BDesign in 1989, MArch in 1991), and a Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory from Princeton University (1999). When not teaching, he edits, designs, and publishes books for Culicidae Press (peer-reviewed since 2014) and for the non-profit publishing houses Hog Press, Musca Press, and Zanzara Press, all located in Ames, Iowa.
