Dylan D. Debelis
Dylan D. Debelis, a founding editor of Pelorus Press, is a publisher, poet, performer, chaplain, and minister based out of New York City. Dylan has poetry published or forthcoming in the Buddhist Poetry Review, [TAB] Literary Review, Carbon Culture Review, and multiple other literary journals. His first full-length book of poetry, Our Graveyard Shift, is forthcoming through Spring Otter Press in Summer 2016.
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What’s on your nightstand right now?
Live for a Living by Buddy Wakefield. Every time I take it off my nightstand it somehow finds its way back. My fiancée often asks me if I read anything else to which I reply “sometimes.” That book has saved my life more than once.
Print or ebook?
I’m one of those scummy tree-killing hipster millenials that loves paper and hates kindles. I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister so I have a huge library that is constantly growing. I just can’t connect with electronic writing as deeply as the printed word.
Tell us about your favorite bookstore.
I mean, Powell’s, right? My favorite in the city I currently live, New York, is McNally Jackson. But there is only one Powell’s and that’s the book store I grew up with.
What book made the biggest impression on you as a kid?
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. My high school girlfriend’s older brother lent me his copy and I lost it because my mind could not comprehend what the heck Pynchon was saying. It was the first time I realized that language could be such a satisfying and angering puzzle.
Tell us about your writing routine. Do you have a favorite time or place to write?
I write on the bus on the way to and from work.
Where do you find your inspiration?
My current ministry is hospital chaplaincy. I spend a lot of time comforting people who are suffering tremendously. I also spend a lot of time celebrating with people who are recovering. I carry the stories of my patients with me in everything I write.
Besides writing, what’s your passion?
Pomegranates. Delicious, delicious pomegranates.