CCA News
SF Station Interview with Writing Alum Kevin Whiteley
Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, by Jim Norrena
About Kevin Whiteley
Kevin Whiteley (aka Wayne White) graduated from CCA's MFA Program in Writing in 2009. His writing has been featured at Reservoir.com and New Expressions. He's also ghostwritten for photographer/model/singer Sarah Vanderhaar. He's currently working on revisions to his forthcoming novel, Chi-Town, My Town as well as embracing historical fiction with "Appeasement," a work in progress.
Mark Your Calendars
Tales of grime, crime, and hard times find a home in Chicago-based (by way of SF) Criminal Class Press, whose band of touring writers will perform at San Francisco's Edinburgh Castle Pub (950 Geary Street) December 4 as part of an inaugural West Coast tour.
Writers Gene Gregoritz, Brian Murphy, Bill Hillman, Johnny No Bueno, and Jeff Kerr kick things off December 2 at San Quentin State Prison with a “literary throwdown” against a class of inmates whose work appeared in the recent Prison Issue of Criminal Class Review, the press’s biannual journal. Additional stops are planned for Los Angeles (Book Soup and the Portland Story Theater) and Portland, Oregon (Alberta Street Pub).
SF Station Interview
Spectrum is the arts and entertainment blog under SF Station. Recently, blogger Diana Salier posted an interview with MFA Program in Writing alum Kevin Whiteley on November 28, 2011, about the genesis of the press [Criminal Class Press], the seedy underside of Chicago and San Francisco, and the new writer’s workshop at San Quentin.
How was Criminal Class Press first created? Why the focus on gritty, dark content?
(KW) It was first created as a literary branch for a record label, but when that fell through we just decided to keep doing it, and we’ve been growing ever since. We had this punk record label, and our mission statement was to bridge the gap between story and song—what compels musicians to write about the things that they do, what happened to inspire those songs? We took that and ran with it and ended up embracing noir and grit and crime, things of that nature.
How long was the press based out of San Francisco before moving to Chicago?
(KW) It was based out of San Francisco for about a year—definitely a great place to earn our literary wings. When I moved to Chicago we had a lot of people interested in joining the press and a lot of them lived in Chicago, so it just made sense. We also have [staff] in New York and a couple people in San Francisco.