Interviews

Oyster River Pages: September, 2024.

ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?

Ernest Langston: At first, I believe it was my immigrant grandparents, who told me folktales and filled my imagination with wonderment. They were great storytellers and, consequently, sparked my love for stories. Then, I fell in love with movies, television, music, and books, all different mediums for storytelling. I was hooked. Of course, the source of inspiration has changed throughout my life, but I believe a story can be developed out of most human experiences/interactions, as long as there’s some sort of conflict present.

ORP: Do you write or create with an audience in mind? If so, how do you consider the relationship between that audience and your work throughout your creative process?

EL: I believe it is best, especially in the first draft, never to think of the audience. However, when discussing the topic of where art and commerce meet, I will say, yes, think of the market, think of where and with whom you want your work to be placed, imagine the spec project as a self-directed assignment, as some sort of creative experiment, to cast off an feeling of artistic compromise. I believe there is reward in writing for one’s self and writing for money (although, they may not be equal). When a target market audience (money, units sold, ROI) is involved, I think of the old master painters and their commissioned work. As in most endeavors in life, one must continue to grow and always reach beyond one’s grasp (with or without an audience).

ORP: What does vulnerability mean to you as an artist and/or writer?

EL: As a writer/artist, one must be vulnerable. But, how does one be vulnerable? I think of it this way, the smaller you write, the bigger the audience. In other words, it is our human imperfections, our internal/external flaws (physical, emotional, etc.) that can unify and makes us relatable to each other, regardless of demographics. When a writer is vulnerable in their work, the work has the potential to become something greater than a product of entertainment, an item for sale; if the work is sincerely vulnerable, it can speak directly to an audience and make a lasting impression. This is why many of us still have a favorite book, poem, film, album, painting, etc. A writer/artist created something so profoundly vulnerable that when we experienced it, it impacted us on a personal level, so much that we can never forget that moment in our lives; it let us know that we are not alone in our human condition.

ORP: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing or creating? What advice would you give to another writer or artist?

EL: Most valuable piece of advice about writing: show up and sit down (even if you don’t write a single word). My advice to another writer/artist is: read, invest in yourself, never force anything, learn the basics, allow time for rest, never compare yourself to anyone, be vulnerable, be relentless, smile in the face of rejection, and always, always, always keep a small fire burning for no one else but yourself. And maybe, someday, you’ll write something that makes you sincerely proud.

READ ERNEST’S STORY “THE SEPARATISTS” FROM ISSUE 7.1 HERE. 

Pictura Journal: Issue 4. August, 2025.

Tell us about your path to writing or creating artwork.

My approach to writing is completely different from my painting; however, they are both rooted in basic theory and structure. With writing, I try to paint a story with language, to evoke emotions dynamically on each page, and hold the reader’s attention throughout the story, which, for me, requires craft theory, outlining, and revisions. As a writer, I am asking the reader for their time and to believe that the narrative will be rewarding. On the other hand, painting is more physical than writing and allows my subconscious to run free on the canvas. 

Of course, there are basic thoughts on composition, color theory, and the rest, but painting, unlike writing, has a way to clear my mind in an almost therapeutic way and bring forth the creative solutions that my conscious mind was unable to make clear. Furthermore, a painting, unlike a work of fiction, play, or screenplay, is greatly taken in at first sight. Writing helps with my painting, and painting helps with my writing. Their creative paths are different, but they both lead to the same place.

What tips would you give someone taking their first steps in creative work?

First, abandon all expectations—just start. Second, allow creative curiosity to lead—in the first draft stage, there are no mistakes. Third, progress over perfection. Fourth, always reach beyond your grasp. Fifth, ego, fear, and self-doubt are your worst enemies.

What did you need to hear when you were getting started?

When I first started, I didn’t have anyone cheering me on, but if one is able to find one person who sincerely believes and encourages them on their creative journey, they’re ahead of the pack.

Are any movies, music, books, or poetry collections particularly inspiring to you?

I love movies, music, books, and poetry, but music, in general, will always have a special place in my heart—because it was my first and truest best friend.

If your work had a soundtrack, what songs would be on it? Why?

If Green Woman Mural on a Building had a single song (or a vibe at this moment), it would be True Blue by Boygenuis. This song has a melancholy vibe with bittersweet lyrics, and the Green Woman Mural on a Building, the knowing gaze in her eyes, appears to hold the same sentiments.

Give us some background on the piece you contributed to this issue.

Green Woman Mural on a Building developed as I recalled some Parisian public art painted on the sides of apartment buildings in Le Marais—large, colorful murals transfixed above the wet streets below. I love how murals are allowed to exist in public, urban areas, especially in Paris. Think of all the artwork, the history, the quantity, the quality, the number of talented, master painters, and the number of museums– now, think of the unknown street artists who paint amazing, larger-than-life murals on aged, weathered buildings. Regardless of where a painting resides, art is for everyone.

---

See “Green Woman Mural on a Building” in the fourth issue.

Artist Trust Artist Fellowship Award, Literary Artist, 2025: Interview, September, 2025.

Interview with 2025 Artist Trust Fellowship Recipient Ernest Langston

Please introduce yourself and share a little about yourself and your background.

I am a first-generation, Latinx/POC writer, visual artist, and author of two novels, Born from Ashes and Beyond Everyday Secrets. My short fiction has appeared in Litro Magazine, The Plentitudes Journal, Oyster River Pages, and other publications. In 2018 and 2021, I was a finalist in the Seattle Film Summit/Bigfoot Script Challenge; in the interim, I was a 2019 PEN Writer’s Award recipient. I was fortunate to be awarded artist residencies at Centrum, Vashon Artist Residency, Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology, and international residencies in Spain and Germany. In 2025, I was awarded an Artist Trust Fellowship Award. My artwork has been accepted for publication and or exhibition at Art Week, Pictura Journal, Visual Art Journal, Lowlife Lit Press, The Vagabond’s Verse Literary Magazine, Gallerium Art Exhibitions’ 3rd Annual People 2025 Exhibition, Gallerium and The Book of Arts’ 3rd Annual Shapes and Colors 2025 Exhibition, and Exhibizone’s 2nd Annual International Future 2025 Exhibition. I have earned a BA in English and a certificate in Professional and Technical Communications from San Jose State University, a certificate in Writing from the University of Washington, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. I accredit my noted achievements, current pursuits, and future successes to my family members who encouraged and supported my artist lifestyle, endured historically harder obstacles, and made constant sacrifices in the name of love. For more information, please visit: ernestlangston.com.

Your writing often touches on generational familial and social tensions with a humorous and refreshing directness. How does personal memory and experience play a role in your work?

This is a complicated question to answer, but as a first-generation, first son from an interracial, failed marriage, I am intrinsically drawn to writing about historically marginalized people struggling to break free from oppressive traditional obligations and find love, equality, and acceptance or, at the very least, tolerance within their families and society. It is these everyday people, regardless of color and creed, navigating through self-discovery, familial and societal expectations, and developing self-love and courage to be their most authentic selves in a world that wants to categorize them that I find most interesting. My memory and experience play a substantial role in my writing, a bittersweet, evolving perspective on the human condition with increased empathy for those who cling to the foolish notion that they know everything.

Art is constantly changing and developing. How has your work developed over the last few years?

Over the last few years (generally speaking), I have temporarily departed from mostly writing from a male POV (narrator/protagonist) to female and or LGBTQ characters/storylines. This creative decision was more personal, a way to further my development and perspective as a writer, and less about commercial trends. Good and heartfelt writing is indisputably rooted in the human condition; and as I mentioned earlier, I am interested in writing and reading about marginalized people in society; women, for example, for whatever nonsensical reason, have and continue to suffer from inequality. As an artist, I must continue to push my artistic boundaries, grow in new and unimaginable ways, explore the unexplored, and stand with the less fortunate in society.

What keeps your creative practice moving forward? Why do you create?

Curiosity. I am constantly trying to find a deeper understanding of my external and internal worlds and the connections between the two, which seems to be a continuous act of introspection. As a youth, I created out of boredom, a Spanglish-speaking kid with an overactive imagination who often escaped into a fictional world, where the events unfolded with more predictability. Since those adolescent years, I have knowingly written and painted to find comfort and meaning in my finite existence; through my art, I hope to help others navigate life’s mysteries with additional ease and grace.

As a 2025 Fellowship Recipient, can you please talk about how this award has impacted you?

I am sincerely honored and grateful to be one of the fifteen 2025 Artist Trust Fellowship Award recipients. This significant award has greatly impacted my creative career and arrived at the perfect time. Like most individuals working in the Arts, I am constantly developing my craft and “paying my dues” as some would say. As I pursue a successful life as an artist (writer/visual artist), I continue making numerous sacrifices, social, financial, and otherwise, to further my artistic development. This Artist Trust Fellowship Award is an undeniable indication of my artistic validation, credibility, and inclusivity—a calling card that reassures me that I am on the right path. In addition to the artistic encouragement, this generous grant has provided financial support, so I have time to create and develop longer works of fiction, consequently, creating additional future opportunities. This award is an unforgettable achievement, a milestone in my writing life, and an indelible experience I can reflect upon for future motivation and reassurance.

How can Artist Trust continue to support artists across Washington State?

Artist Trust is an invaluable organization for Washington artists, especially in unprecedented, tumultuous, and divisive times. All artists across all mediums require time, support, and financial resources to continue creating art. Yet, these necessities are becoming increasingly scarce as well as the once-popular sentiment that art (created by humans) has an integral role within a cultured and civilized society. Washington artists, like most artists, face old and new socioeconomic challenges as they attempt to create and maintain their artistic careers. Artist Trust unifies Washington artists and fosters artistic endeavors by providing an inclusive community with a multifaceted, wide-spanning support system. Artist Trust can continue supporting Washington artists by keeping in lockstep with marketing advancements that bolster public awareness of the organization’s mission, vision, and values, reinvigorating its unwavering presence and dedication to Washington artists.

Feign Literary Magazine: November, 2025.

KMWR: Can you tell us about what it was like writing the first draft of “Walk a Mile”? I was drawn to this piece from how you establish character, humor, and tension right away: “It had been snowing a great deal that winter, which drove up the electrical bill, so we rented the living room to Dean’s cousin, Charlie, as a way of circumventing the additional expense… Charlie had recently been dishonorably discharged from the Army due to an accident involving a horse, a firehose, and two waitresses from the High-Five Bar and Grill.”

EL: The first draft is always a bit of a mess, but I tend to start with character over plot.  Whenever creating with a situation, complex or as common as cousin Charlie needing a place to stay for a while, I find it best to use an odd number of characters who differ in ethics and personalities, because the triangulating of points of view naturally creates inner conflict (showing additional layers of each character) within the group beyond the external conflict (Charlie unexpectedly living with Dean and Tanner).  When Charlie, who was recently dishonorably discharged from the Army, shows up, it quickly sets up the question, “What’s going to happen next?” Most interesting stories feature an innocuous inciting incident, illustrating how a simple “yes” or a small, kind gesture can set in motion a series of unfortunate events.  Below the surface, this fun, quirky story points to the proverb “Be wary of strangers bearing gifts” and to the ideas that unlearned life lessons are cyclical and how energy, good or bad, can reappear in many forms, like handcrafted slippers changed into albino alligator shoes, yes?

 
KMWR: I’m intrigued by the relationships that make up your portfolio. I’m thinking of your previously published works “The Separatists” and “Sign the Papers” in conversation with “Walk a Mile” where complex characters and conflicts are tinged in the slightest by a strange occurrence–bullfighting dreams, a wedding band jumping fingers, the alligator slippers. What drew you to write these fictions and to fleck them with these strange notes?

EL: I have always been fascinated by the unsuspecting details in most everything in life, people, places, things, and the overlooked, strange occurrences that are everywhere. Since I can remember, I have always tried to find the backstory for most everything; however, doing so can lead to a rabbit hole.  Without a healthy curiosity and an over-active imagination, I would surely be lost in triviality.  For instance, and to oversimplify, when I notice something in a person, like a scar, ring, chipped tooth, or shade of lipstick (details that seem commonplace to most), I begin to see the person in a unique light, wondering how and why these details came to be.  In Rome, when I toured the Colosseum, above and below ground, my imagination raced with horrific and victorious visions, wondering about the gladiators who carved into the stone walls of their cells.  Now, try to imagine the moment when a forgotten gladiator felt so compelled to carve a message into his cell wall.  Those smoothed-over, illegible stone carvings made my mind overflow with emotional backstories.  But a writer does not need to go to Rome or any location for this type of experience to occur, because most writing, good or bad, begins in the imagination, and the spark of a story can start with a simple detail and express a great deal beyond its physicality.  I’m drawn to details because of the choices behind them—that’s where the greater insight rests.          

KMWR: You are a prolific visual artist. How do you balance your writing life with these other mediums? What aspects of visual art do you bring into your prose?

EL: I must admit, I rarely find balance in anything I do, and have come to embrace the fact, which is also saying that I am laser-focused and result-driven.  The writing life is exactly that: a life of writing, a relationship that has no ending, mostly because the greatest and hardest part of writing, regardless of its varying mediums, resides in the imagination (conscious and subconscious), not the physicality of writing, so my mind is always at work, whether I want it to be or not, even when I am not physically typing.  Before I began painting, I always noticed the details, physical and or emotional, in the world and tried to describe them to best of my ability in my writings, so whether I’m creating fiction or visual art, they are merely branches stemming from the same creative tree, and the writings or artwork are simply the leaves.  In other words, in fiction, I paint stories with the use of language; with visual art, I use color and theme to create a narrative, and in both disciplines, I attempt to evoke an emotional experience from the audience.  I find the greatest beauty in art and otherwise lies not in perfection but rather in the imperfections that make us human.

KMWR: What is your ideal writing session, and what do you like to have nearby as you write?

EL: My ideal writing session is when I hit that out-of-body stride when I am no longer aware that I am physically writing but rather existing in the fiction with all of the characters, situations, and emotional dynamics.  As a writer, that’s the best feeling; consequently, I am physically and emotionally drained at the end of one of those wonderful sessions.  It feels like channeling, energy flowing through me, like I am nothing more than some sort of medium, a go-between fact and fiction.  Since this writing experience is ideal and unexpected, I must rely on notes, outlines, and discipline most of the time to get the work done.  I tend to have a cup of coffee nearby when I write.

KMWR: What kind of habits do you have with writing–good and bad?

EL: I try not to develop any habits or superstitions when it comes to writing.  Otherwise, it creates a precursor to getting the work started.  A good habit/practice I like to do when writing is to speak/read the dialogue aloud, and this habit continues whether I’m physically writing, at the dinner table, or drinking a cup of tea alone in the living room, etc.  Yes, it may appear odd to most non-writers, but it’s just part of my creative process.  If you haven’t seen this writing process before, imagine you’re going to write a scene, let’s say, a cocktail party, for example.  Envision the protagonist in attendance, and then speak the dialogue as it comes to mind, speaking for the entire cast, including the narrator.  Allow the dialogue to come naturally to get a better sense of how people really speak, as opposed to writing dialogue weighed down with stilted, on-the-nose exposition.  The point of this habit is to get the ideas flowing.  It may look funny or strange, but this helps me with dialogue.  This good habit can be compared to method-acting.

As far as bad writing habits go, whenever I’m in the middle of a writing project, I do not read other fiction writers, so I keep myself strictly to non-fiction books, film, music, artwork, etc.  This habit began in days when I wrote music and has continued into fiction and painting.  It’s fundamental to have influences and steal from them, especially in the early stages of learning, if you must, but never ever copy another artist’s voice.  Regardless of how good or bad a piece of writing or any art form is, above all else, be original. Be yourself at all costs.  Nobody likes a copycat.       

KMWR: Are you working on anything new?

EL: Good question.  Currently, I have paused my dramatic writing, so no new stage play, screenplay, or television pilot is in the works, but if there is ever a good time to pivot disciplines, it is now, since the film and television landscape is under construction.  As far as writing fiction goes, I always have more story ideas that I have time to write them.  Currently, I’m seeking a publisher for my collection of short stories, a novella, two novelettes, four short stories, and one flash fiction story.  One of my short stories will be published in an anthology by the end of this year (Running Wild Publishing), so I’m looking forward to that.  Also, I’m adapting my latest screenplay into a novel (hopefully, the first draft will be complete in 2026).  I’m always developing new artwork, applying to visual art exhibitions, and trying to find homes for my existing fiction.  At the moment, I have three different paintings that I’m focused on.  I have the good feeling that there will be new short fiction written in 2026 as well.    

Read Ernest’s story “Walk a Mile” from September, 2025 HERE.