An Indian from the State of Indiana, Shaan Bon Joshi
is the Editor in Chief of Bohemia's English Language Literary Journal and
Cultural Review, The Prague Revue. The following interview reveals the
background of the Prague-based literary magazine that has over 10, 000 readers
and about his perception of writing, literary journalism and literature.
When did you come to Prague?
I
believe two years ago.
How and why?
Good
questions. I was working with a school at Haiti. Before I came to Prague, I was
a project developer on a primary education course at a school and I spent a few
months down there. They had an education programme that was good, but it didn’t
quite meet its potential. I was asked to take the lead and take (the program)
to the next level – so we were able to standardize the curriculum, hire local
teachers and everything was going well. I realized I had a foundational and
structural understanding on how this programme should run and where it should
go, but I reached a limit in how I could mentor those teachers in how to teach
ESL – because I wasn’t a trained ESL teacher. My thinking on that was that I
would go get trained in ESL and in that way better serve those native-born
teachers who were doing really great work there. So I was looking around at
different programmes, I necessarily didn’t want to stay in the States. I was
able to work from a satellite location. I had a friend who had taught in Prague
who I respected and he said “Hey Shaan, I think you’d really like it if you
went there”. So I found a month-long certification programme and decided okay,
I’ll do it, I’ll go see Europe. During this time the school has undergone great
development allowed by the work we did (holding technical or computer courses,
getting TEFL certified) and I fell in love with Prague and was able to stay
here without any feeling of guilt or irresponsibility. I fell in love with the
culture, the people, the deep beauty of walking through the city and, of
course, the cheap beer. The cheap beer was the kicker. So that’s how I decided
to come and to stay.
So you continued to teach English here?
Initially,
yeah. It was never really planned, but I got certified and that work in Haiti
had evolved independently. I could leave it without any regret. They were
moving in wonderful ways and there was nothing more I could give them really.
How long did you work there actually?
I was
on site at the school for 3 months but was probably engaged in work with them
as Education Coordinator about a year in total – in Croix-de-Bouquet, which is
a suburb of Port-au-Prince. I miss it very much and I hope to come back there
in the summer; it’d be amazing for me to see the school and see where they are
now.
So you came here, began teaching for a while..?
Yup –
but didn’t really plan it to be something that was permanent. I always had
these romantic ideas about Europe and saw that Prague was really one of the
best places to be. In the United States, we have such a myopic understanding of
the world outside of us and I quickly realized I kinda had a myopic
understanding of Central and Eastern Europe. Coming here even just for short 4
weeks during that programme, I saw that there was more I wanted to know more
about this place. As cliché as it sounds, I fell in love with it here. Even
just taking a stroll for breakfast, I look up (which is dangerous to do in
Žižkov) and am amazed by the beautiful architecture.
·
College
years
Before you came to Prague, you graduated college in
Journalism.
Yes,
journalism with concentration on English.
Why did you choose that field in the first place?
Ironically
enough, I didn’t wanna become an English teacher. (pause) I always loved literature and reading, but I wanted to
approach making a living in writing in a pragmatic way. Most of my friends who
went into English had these high ambitions to become novelists, which is fine,
but I could see that if I was going down the route of getting an English
degree, then the likelihood of just getting shuttered in by teaching 7th
graders would get higher with every day. For me, journalism was a way to write
and get paid for it; and it was the best way to also become a better
writer.
Did the course teach you anything new?
That’s
a whole different interview. My feelings on higher education (laughs) vary. Did they teach me
anything? I don’t know, maybe I’m stubborn, but I think I learned everything
myself. I’ve always enjoyed learning in my own way – so if you give me a stack
of books, I can figure things out my own way, especially when we’re talking
about things like writing. When you try to standardize creative expression, I
start having a problem with that. I think young writers need guidance, but
necessarily not all of them need rules. Journalism sets these rules and I found
this to be an old way of thinking. It was a dinosaur that would be extinct soon
and I could see it back then. And I think time is proving me correct on that.
The smart thing would’ve been to just do my work and get good grades, but sometimes
your mouth gets you in trouble (laughs).
 |
| Image credit: Anna Hupcejová |
·
The
Prague Revue
Did you have any experience working with magazines
before TPR?
Yeah.
I worked for a newspaper, did some free-lancing for websites, covered boxing,
some racing... probably had more experiences in sports journalism than anything
else. I also covered Obama’s nomination and inauguration, so my experience was
pretty varied.
Turning to the PR, how did you get the job of editor
in chief?
That’s
a good question. You know, they say that the best place to network is on the
golf course. In my case, it was watching American football. I have a deep and
profound love for sport – the biggest two of which are basketball and American
football. I found this place that was showing American football games and I came
to watch; I saw in the window that they had some Prague Revue stuff and I got
talking to a guy by the name of Max Munson. Turned out this Max Munson was a
founding editor –great guy - of TPR. And through many months of the second half
of the football season (which can be very long), we talked philosophy and
theory about if we were to partner on something, then how we would do it and
how would we make it relevant. So he said, let’s bring back TPR in a way that’s
really relevant to what’s happening today. Four, five, six months later we
thought we had enough basis to do something – and once that was agreed upon,
then it was full sail ahead, I guess. We clinked glasses, had a gentlemen’s
handshake and it’s been that way ever since.
What is the history of TPR?
Max
Munson would be the best person to ask. But I can tell you that it started
right here in this restaurant, in Jáma. Max came to Prague in ’93 - he had the
Jáma Reading Series in 1994, 1995 here. There was a lot of great stuff
happening with English language publications because the wall had fallen – what
initially was The Jáma Revue was born from the reading series and in the second
issue it evolved into TPR. For each subsequent year until 2000, 2001 an annual
edition of TPR came out. So that’s how it started.
So it started off in print form.
Yeah.
But being in journalism school, Max agreed with me that if we are to come back,
then we should in print form as well as have an online way of doing it. It is
prestige because you can hold it in your hands, but I think that the internet
is more forever now than print, you know? That is a piece of carbon that will
erode and whither eventually while the internet is here for eternity. Even if
we manage to destroy ourselves (at which we’re doing a good job), I think that
somebody will come around in the next, you know, one, two hundred million years
and they’ll still be able to glean information off the internet and see who we
are and what we were doing. But that carbon-based publication ain’t gonna be
around for our biological ancestors to see so to speak... Everything is
happening online and if you wanna be relevant, you need an online media arm -
and that’s what the original mind-set was. The idea for print was there from
day one though.
Who are the aimed readers?
Hmm...
You know, we have a lot of diversity of content... I know that when you start
with something, you should (they say) have a targeted reader-base of who you
want or what you wanna do. To be honest, that was never my intent – maybe
that’s a fault, maybe a virtue. But really, my whole aim is to bring together
as many diverse voices as we can and to have the best writing that we can.
Whether people read it or not, I do care, but I really don’t. The whole
targeted/aimed readers, I don’t know – I just want to focus on getting the best
writing we can out there. That may not be the best approach, but that’s the way
I do it. But I can tell you that most of our readers are in that coveted 18-35
demographic and most of them are native English speakers.
What would you say makes TPR so attractive to them –
the articles, featured writers, the city in which the magazine is based?
I
would hope all of it – the architecture, the website, the easy navigation,
stuff like artwork, photos... The articles and content are one aspect of it,
but you have to have the total picture there. I would like to think that when
strolling down the museum of the internet, that you stop and ponder upon the
portrait that is TPR.
Define “In the Stream” for our readers?
Everything
that’s not classical fiction and poetry. I don’t want to think of “The Stream”
as a blog – there are a lot of blog pieces in there, but there is a lot of
magazine feature writing, a lot of literary journalism, confessional essays,
photo journalism... Let’s say it’s inspired by the whole Jack Kerouac “stream
of consciousness” concept, which means when you’re sitting there, it’s in that
moment of creation. I didn’t wanna limit what we could do there, except that it
has to have a non-fiction bend. We’re basically there every day – collecting
moments and articles from people all over the world and in this I’d say we’re
more than just a literary magazine.
·
Behind
TPR
Do you think of leading TPR as a job?
Mmm...
sometimes it feels like a job, yeah.
In the negative sense?
Yeah,
sure. Not always though, I enjoy the work, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t. Kurt
Vonnegut’s daughter was talking about him writing – and she would say that he
didn’t really enjoy writing – he didn’t like it, but he did it with purpose and
dedication and he was very disciplined in how he approached it. He would do
things like draw and paint for enjoyment. So... I would say writing was
Vonnegut’s purpose, but did it feel like a job to him? Probably yes. So I would
say that I enjoy doing TPR probably more than Vonnegut did writing.
For example, there is the writer’s block, artist’s
block... Have you ever reached the point when you thought, “I don’t wanna do
this anymore”?
Absolutely!
I think everybody does. But you just sack up and you do it.
So is that how did you overcome the feeling?
Listen,
you can find excuses not to do anything – you have to have the mental
discipline to sit down and do it. When you’re talking about creative writing,
if you have the luxury of time on your side, you can walk away from it - you
can go for a walk, have a drink, but at the end you must always come back and
sit down and do it. And that’s what I think separates writers from people who say they are writers. Because people who
say they are writers aren’t able to overcome that mental switch; they don’t
have the discipline to sit down and flick it. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes
it’s a pain in the ass, but I find that sometimes that’s when you get the best
work done. Then you’re showing your dedication beyond doing it for pleasure.
You’re showing your dedication to the craft – and that’s what shows the real
writers.
What takes the most time - the editing, uploading,
writing of articles?
It
really, really, really depends. The
writing is always tricky. Sometimes it’s like golf when swings can be either
strained, or effortless and easy - and writing can be a lot like that. It
really varies, though... Some pieces require more time to write, others more
time to edit, then some take more time to present. There’s no one answer to
that. Everything depends on the piece itself – it’s always centred on the
content. Sometimes the hardest part is the content, sometimes it’s the
displaying and editing.
Is there anything you would say you don’t enjoy about
leading TPR?
(Repeats the question, thinking) Uuuuh...
no. Sitting here I honestly can’t say. I don’t know, if all the editors aren’t
there and it falls to me to upload all the articles for an entire week, then
sure, it isn’t so much fun. But then, there’s a reward for everything – the work
that you enjoy the least is then the most rewarding. Just do it.
How many people are actually in the Editor’s team?
(Thinks) I’ll tell you how many people
are working on it, regardless if on an everyday basis or not. Our editorial
board consists of 14-15 people. We’re entering the kind of territory where
we’re growing – and we need more hands on deck. In the next year we want to
become a multi-media organization and that only underlines the importance of
having a functional team to help you.
Do Czechs contribute also to TPR or are mainly
Americans (and native speakers generally) encouraged to write for you?
We are
open to ev-e-ry-body. Whoever submits, we take the best from. It’s like asking
the San Francisco Chronicle, do they only take people from San Francisco? We
celebrate Czech culture, especially the Czech freedom fighters and the whole
revolution and great struggle of people being here. Do I wish to have more
writers of Czech origin? Yes, yes I do. But that proves more difficult than
just saying “do you have Czech writers?” because you always have to find those people. But if anybody is
reading this, yes, I would welcome them to submit.
·
Literary
journalism, writing and literature
Does TPR have any “role models”, or other magazines
that inspire its form?
I have
to think about that... You know what? No. Maybe initially, but I think we’re
doing something new that certainly no other literary magazine has. We do so
much in creative non-fiction, literary journalism, everyday life that we are
forging our own identity. We may borrow certain elements from here or there
that comprise us – something like The
Rolling Stones in the 70s, maybe even Playboy
magazine in the 60s and 70s that – which many people forget back in the day
published some of the best fiction around. But I wouldn’t say that there’s one
source that informs us. Instead, we’re forming something that hasn’t been here
before – and that is evident day by day. But maybe when we started, we were
looking at The Paris Review – but not anymore. Every day is a new frontier.
What topics are discussed in literary journalism – is
it only reduced to literature, as the title of the field suggests?
I can
give you examples of literary journalism and I’ll leave it up to your readers
to apply their own definition to it. Literary journalism is ... Tom Woolf,
Hunter Thompson, Joan Didion, it’s what
those people are doing. It can be about politics, it can be about a lot of
things but it’s just a more considered approach than what you’d see in classic
journalism, which is your who-what-why-where-how and that formulaic thing that
comes after it. So I would really point you towards the new school journalism
with people like Joan Didion. You can see in their work what literary
journalism is. In the end it’s a more creative expression of writing which
takes into account the human psyche, the human soul that regular journalism
leaves out.
What do you think makes a good article / writer?
What
I’m looking for is execution of an idea – I may not agree with it, but if the writer
is executes it well, I’m glad. We’re not a closed box – we’re open to rain at
The Prague Revue.
Reading and editing articles all day, do you still
have time to write outside TPR?
Not
anymore. (after a while) Aaah well...
yeah, yeah I do. For other organizations? No, but for myself on a personal
basis? The last 3, 4 months were hard to do so but yeah.
Poetry?
No,
I’ve never been a poetry guy. More literature. I like fiction. Hard-boiled,
hard diction, chockful of good ideas, good plotting – that’s the kind of stuff
I like.
So what writers do you admire?
The
holy trinity for me as a writer growing up, not necessarily who I’m reading now
these days, but who I will defend on all grounds against any assault will be
Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski. Those are my three guys, often
imitated, much maligned, but I find them all necessary and I will defend them
to my dying breath from anybody.
Reading all day articles for TPR, do you still have
time to read other journals and books?
I
think it was Marquise de Sade (I think it was and I’m sure I’ll butcher this)
said something along the lines that “A good writer needs to read more than he
writes”. So I would say that in my reading I’m always chasing the ghosts of
classic literature. And as far as other journals go, like ours? Probably not.
When I find time to read, I want to read books. Good books by great writers. I
spend enough time online with our stuff that I don’t wanna see anything else
online – am really past that. It doesn’t mean that I don’t, but I just don’t do
in-depth reading of other sites. I return to books if I really wanna read.
Do you ever reach a stage when you get “sick” of
words?
All
the time when I’m losing an argument, I get really sick of words! (Pause) Sure- sure! More I feel that I
fail the words by not being able to reach for the appropriate words on the
shelf. I’m more sick of my inadequacy with words rather than the words
themselves.
·
Concluding
questions
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| Image credit: praguerevue.com |
I’m neither
a practical nor realistic person, so I can only answer upon the foundation of
idealism. (Thinks) I wanna see us as
a multi-media organization, I want to have a dedicated print arm, I want to
expand the number of articles and the scope of what we do online and I also
want to play with some video stuff. Vice dominates that video landscape and
they do a great job, but it’d have to be something new, different from them.
I’ve kind of toyed with the idea in my brain of a creative content channel,
beyond podcasting, maybe with creative content video, but that’s something
we’re not close to yet. I’d say it’s in its conception state if anything at
all. But it’s something that’s 3, 4 years down the road. Right now we’re
focusing on the print issue that’s coming out in May and then 3, 4 months down
the road I want to have the podcast running. We’ll have to find a way to make
those things successful and sustainable – and if we do find a way and continue
to grow as we are, then I think that you’ll see us doing some original video
content type of stuff. But it’ll have to be done with the right partners. I
wouldn’t say it’s so far down the road, but it’s far enough down the road that
we see the silhouette on the horizon and we can’t kick at it just yet.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I love
Prague, I wanna be here. The great thing about the internet is that it allows
you to be at all places at one time. I definitely want to do more travelling in
life - but Prague has given me so many things that I’m going to be forever
grateful for and I want to have a foothold in this city for as long as I still
draw breath on this Earth.
Anna Hupcejová
Find The Prague Revue at the following links:
facebook.com/ThePragueRevue
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