David Alec Knight
Chatham, Ontario
Canada
Good morning, David, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site or Art and Authors and that love them. Can you tell us what you’ve written?
I have had around 300 poems published since the mid-'90s to now. An as yet unpublished horror novel. And I have in the last few years started getting short stories published -- different genres, like a slow-burn horror, a couple fantasy stories, and a few that are semi-autobiographical. I have had three full collections of poetry published.
Leper Mosh (2022) and Crow City Bleeding (2025) were published by Cajun Mutt Press, and for both books my submitted art was selected for each cover. The first half of Leper Mosh has poems looking back on being a teenager in the '80s, high school, and heavy metal as a culture of art, music, movies, and ideology. Perhaps a conflicted ideology though, as I examine in the long prose poem "Growing With Metal". Then the poems start to look at the transition between decades, it opens up into different tones, wrestling with broader issues of darkness and light, hope and despair. It's a book of poems that fans of the movie '80s movie River's Edge might like. Or perhaps fans of Stranger Things who aren't poseurs...
With Crow City Bleeding, I feel I really let loose with an honest unfiltered look at living in apartments and subdivision housing, and at urban sprawl versus Nature, with Nature only winning sometimes. It's my biggest book, at more than 100 pages, and I’m extremely honoured to have the foreword written by Mort Castle, an American writer I have read for many years. Quite a few poems throughout examine the experience of work -- some humorous, some critical, and some just matter of fact. Many poems about working on the assembly line seem all to have taken place on Midnights even though I worked all three shifts in rotation way back then. There's something about night shifts, no matter the job, that have surreal moments I think that encourage creativity. And then the river that runs through the city is a presence. Living in a community that is part of Canada's Rust Belt can't be avoided either, as a fact, or an influence on my writing, most especially in Crow City Bleeding.
What is your favorite genre to write?
Mostly poetry, and mostly free verse. I will write a sonnet once in awhile, but when I do write in rhyme my favorite rhyme form is actually the villanelle. I believe a poet needs to listen to the poem in its gestation though. It will tell them what it needs to be, what form it needs to take -- a rhymed form or unrhymed form, and which structure of either.
Favorite food.
I like a lot of food from other cultures, but mostly Chinese and Japanese.
Tea or coffee?
In my younger years I was a coffee fiend. But as I get older, I believe I'm getting more into tea, because of the variety of natural flavours whereas with flavoured coffee it seems forced. Not only flavours, but some health benefits of some herbal teas make it make sense to me. And there is something meditative about brewing tea, letting the bag sit and steep. Even more so when it's not pre-bagged and processed.
Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza. I like Hawaiian Pizza the most -- it was actually invented in my hometown even, by Sam Panopoulos in 1962.
Wine or beer or soda or what?
As a kid I used to like a pop called Tahiti Treat. It was addictive but my grandparents were happy to supply me. I don't recall seeing it much in the city, but out in the county it seemed to be at every gas station and country store, right next to the Atlas and Charlton comics...
I remember Tahiti Treat! Yum.
In Between wine or beer, I have to say beer. But, my thoughts on beer have gone through a lot. These days, while I like SOME beer, I think most beer is awful crap. It really IS about ad campaigns and social programming and peer pressure. It's really all about getting to that fourth or sixth beer and getting that buzz. Most people drink that first one with the anticipatory expectation of the eventual buzz. When people start drinking just one beer though, just for taste then and not the buzz, they start thinking WHY did I drink THAT? That was awful! And they quit that brand. Even more so with light beer! Watered down awful is still awful... I have always liked Guinness though, and also McEwan's Scotch Ale, from my '20s and right on into these successful '50s, but perhaps with more moderation as the years have passed I admit... I think that some of the BEST beer though is being produced independently, in your local craft breweries, where they are more like artisans than corporate swill sellers. And they provide good quality beer. Where I live, we have a few. I like a lot of what Sons Of Kent produces. One of my all-time favorites of theirs is called 8-Track.
Where would you like to visit?
I'd like to visit Newfoundland. L'Anse aux Meadows. I've always wanted to visit the site of the old Viking settlements. And of course I'd like to go to Scotland, where my grampa came from. Apparently, there's a castle still standing today that almost a century ago my grampa and his friends always snuck into when they were kids. I climbed trees and I jumped off garage roofs when I was a kid but THAT must have been wild. Of course, these days, I would go as a well behaved Canadian tourist through the proper entrance.
Favorite musical artist.
If forced to choose I call at least a tie between David Gilmour, and Warrior Soul. Gilmour was the lead guitarist for Pink Floyd, singing half the songs. Gilmour's solo albums show he's adapt at many styles of guitar playing and approaches to song writing -- blues-y, jazz-y, some rock, some prog. His song "Rattle That Lock" was inspired by parts of Dante's Inferno! And then Warrior Soul -- I've been listening to them since their first line-up in the '90s. They're a mix of punk and metal in sound and topic but there's also a '70s glam-rock groove to some songs. Singer and lyricist Kory Clarke is the only consistent member -- they've had a lot of line-up changes, but their current line-ups has been steady and good for awhile now.
Do you listen to music when you write? What?
When I write I usually listen to instrumental music, mostly jazz from John Coltrane and Max Roach, or sometimes soundtracks by the Italian prog band Goblin. When I'm revising my work though, it's usually driving and forceful music, specific albums like Murder by the Canadian punk band DOA, or Turn Back Trilobite by UK thrash act Sacrilege, or most anything by Hawkwind, UFO, or The Alfee.
What makes you laugh?
My favorite comedian is Billy Connolly. My favorite sitcom is WKRP In Cincinnati. I grew up watching a UK show called On The Buses with my grampa that still makes me laugh to this day, and sometimes just because my grampa actually let me watch it when I was that young! Some '80s and '90s comedies, no matter how often I've seen them will get me laughing, like Real Genius, Batchelor Party, Private Resort, and The Big Lebowski. Most anything the Monty Python or Carry On guys did cracks me up. Of course there will be the odd thing happen in real life where I just have to shake my head and laugh, because something is funny or because I need it to be.
This is an Art AND Authors Blog, so I am obligated to ask: Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Liking SO much art and writing from so many different countries and eras, I won't answer that unless I first say how challenging such a question it is! I'm going to go Canadian, and go with the line work illustrations by Bertram Brooker. Brooker was a Canadian novelist, poet, painter and illustrator. Some of his art gets the consideration it deserves but not as much of it as should. Some of his novels have been kept in respectable print runs, but his poetry, which I think is brilliant, is NOT well represented, and what does make it to print these days is often a few stanzas here and there... I should mention that a print of Yoshitoshi's “Last Night of Hidetsugu”, did influence me to write a poem, musing on bushido and fate. At least my limited understanding of such things... And I must give honourable mention at least to the American painters Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth.
I wasn't even a teenager when I wrote my first poem. It was free verse. It was good. I still think it is good. Mind you I didn't know what I was doing, so it was just accidental that it was actually good. The next four poems that followed were awful hackneyed, with clumsy forced rhyme. When I was a teenager my dad got me one of his text books and showed me "The Shark" by E. J. Pratt and that got me into free verse again.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I just write the poems and sequence them later. I make sure there isn't a thematic clump where a bunch of poems about similar things are altogether. I spread them throughout the book. I like half the poems in a book to have been previously published, and half new. That way the reader has two incentives to read it, one being half the poems have been previously published and earned their way or paid their dues through blind submissions or editor invitation, the other being since half the poems are new, so if you like what has been published you can read something exclusive to that collection. I keep an open mind when discussing with my publisher, because at some point it becomes a collaborative effort.
Describe your perfect evening.
These days, a big meal I made myself, some nice cod or haddock, russet potatoes, some green and yellow beans, some long grain rice, all while jamming to Santana from my kitchen stereo -- I do indeed have a stereo setup in my kitchen -- and some mandarin oranges or some pineapple for dessert. A phone call from my kids -- they're both in college now and I'm so proud of them. Perhaps some Guiness or McEwens while watching some horror suspense film by John Carpenter, Dario Argento or Paul Naschy. Maybe an action film with Jason Statham, or Scott Adkins, or a classic Charles Bronson or Sonny Chiba. I'll read a book by Barry Sadler or Robert E. Howard, or some manga like Lone Wolf And Cub, or Sanctuary. My reading might get interrupted by an old friend calling. We'll go out for coffee then. Decaf. We'll talk about the old days, and be amazed and thankful at how we made it to this point in life. I'll get in when I get in. I'll read some Charles Bukowski or Carl Sandburg until I nod off to sleep by true midnight. I'll remember to pull my curtain aside before that though, so the sun wakes me up in the morning before my alarm goes off.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Other poets that have gone before. And of course a lot comes from living life, what I've experienced, what others have experienced.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
When I run out of ideas to write about I look at something I've already written and go into edit and revise mode. If I can't write or revise some writing I will get some canvas and acrylics and paint. I will usually paint about five paintings. Usually two will be good, three will be crap, but necessary experiments or teaching-mistakes on the way to painting the two good ones. Then I have some kind of renewal within and I'm recharged to go back at it. My painting leans heavily into abstract. Open to interpretation wildly from person to person, but none of that 'seagull in a snow storm' kind of nonsense. The absolute sure-fire thing for writer's block though is to go and live life, self-challenge sometimes.
Who is your favorite author?
Just in poetry alone, there are so many poets that come to mind! For poets I'll have to say the Canadian poets E. J. Pratt, Irving Layton, and Elizabeth Brewster; and the American poets Carl Sandburg and Stephen Crane -- Crane's poetry is so under-rated in my opinion, there's more to his writing than just The Red Badge Of Courage, though that is a fine novel. These poets are the most foundational and were a profound influence on my development before I ever read anything by Charles Bukowski, but then Bukowski is up there too.
Best book you ever read.
Gilgamesh as translated by Herbert Mason -- it's a book that has seen me through so much in life. And to make it a difficult tie, The Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Last book you read.
Casca, The Eternal Mercenary #58: The Hunter, by Tony Roberts. It's sort of a Military-Fantasy series about a Roman soldier who was cursed by a certain carpenter to live as a near-immortal fighting in war after war, wandering through the centuries, as he liked soldiering so much. It was originally created as a series by Barry Sadler who starting in the late '70s and into the '80s wrote most of the first twenty books before he was murdered. Roberts has taken up the series and done fairly well with it. It's led to affordable reprints of Sadler's original novels, thankfully. Two thousand years later, and in book #58, Casca is caught up in the most recent invasion of the Ukraine by Russia.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I work for a living, while being a writer. I don't see having to work for a living as being a barrier to being a writer. Writing will find its way. My working life, and the working life of others, often informs, inspires and influences a lot of my writing. I've written poems about truck drivers, security guards, construction workers, factory workers, waitresses, journalists, office workers, and yes, other artists and writers. I've written about spoiled rich kids' midnight racing through working class neighbourhoods. I write a lot about addictions and neurodivergence and how such things affect peoples' relationships. Working for a living keeps me and my writing grounded, and respectful of others.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
I don't think any single one person has. I feel like I'm the accumulation of a lot of encouragement and shared experiences. As a father, my kids have certainly had an influence on my personal life because I prioritize them. Spouses can separate but once you're a parent you're a parent. That reality, that responsibility, influences everything that follows -- what you feel, what you think, and what you do about it. Sometimes what you don't do.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I'd like to sit down with the author Harlan Ellison. I've admired his writing across genres and media, countless of his stories, collections of his work, and anthologies he edited, like Dangerous Visions -- he was a great writer. He almost always seemed impatient during interviews, but they were always interesting too. He didn't suffer fools gladly. I'd love to hear what he thinks of things now!
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Read as much as you can. Figure out what you like and don't like, and why. When you find writers who you feel are where you would like to be, look at what their journey was. Read in your genre, do the research, do the work, but don't forget to read for enjoyment sometimes.
BIO:
David Alec Knight is a Canadian author and artist. His work has appeared in many anthologies and journals internationally. He was recipient of the Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry, 2021. LEPER MOSH from Cajun Mutt Press in 2022, was his first book to feature his own art on the cover. David released his third and largest yet collection of poetry, CROW CITY BLEEDING, again through Cajun Mutt Press, in 2025. It features his artwork on the cover, and a foreword by Mort Castle.
Recent work has appeared in Verse Afire, Night Owl Narrative, Tickets To Midnight Volume 3, Starman Oddity Anthology, Stormwash: Environmental Poems, The Aleph Review, and Poetry Is Dead II: When You're Dead You're Dead. His poetry is occasionally autobiographical, but often is based on observations of every day people. He explores the shape and texture of the situational darkness in order to define whatever light may be left to find.
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In Social Media Links:
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https://www.amazon.com/Crow-City-Bleeding-David-Knight/dp/B0FBM9SCKX/
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https://www.amazon.ca/Crow-City-Bleeding-David-Knight/dp/B0FBM9SCKX/
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crow-City-Bleeding-David-Knight/dp/B0FBM9SCKX/
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