Shaun Jex - Writer, Poet, and Lit Kids Mentor
- litkidsmagazine
- Jun 5
- 7 min read
Shaun Jex is a writer from the Oklahoma City Area. His first collection of poetry, A Catalog Curious Creatures, was recently published. Along with poetry, he has written several nonfiction books and spends his free time reading comic books and peeking under rocks to find the bugs living there.
1. If you could pick a single fruit to create a story around, what would it be?
This is a fantastic question (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a little hungry right now)! There is so much great folklore around fruit that it’s hard to pick just one, but I’ll try.
In Southeast Asia, there’s a big, spiky fruit called the durian. It’s often described as having a sweet, creamy flavor sort of like a custard, but it’s best known for being incredibly stinky. I saw someone online describe the smell as “a mix of rotten onions, sewage, sulfur, and smelly gym socks.”
I think it would be fun to write a poem from the point of view of a durian that just wants to be loved but is lonely because it smells so badly. It could also be fun to write a poem based on some of the folklore about the durian.
A story from the Philippines tells us that a king once asked a wise man to help him create something to delight his wife. The wise man created a tree that bore delicious fruit, and the wife adored it. To celebrate, the king threw a feast and invited a whole crowd of people, but not the wise man. In anger, the wise man cursed the fruit with its terrible smell and the spines on its outer shell. I think you could turn that story into a really interesting poem as well. It’s got everything you could want: a wealthy king, romance, magic, betrayal, curses, and stinky fruit!
2. Where do you get your ideas from?
EVERYTHING! My day-to-day life, books I’m reading, video games I’m playing, movies or shows I’m watching, hiking out in the woods, looking at the plants in my garden, eating a tasty meal, or even staring at the ceiling while feeling bored. I assume this is true in any creative field, but it’s particularly true in poetry. Anything can inspire a poem. If you pay attention, everything you experience can lead to ideas. It’s an exciting thought, isn’t it? You don’t have to be rich or famous; it doesn’t matter where you live or what you do or don’t have. A poem can be about anything and everything, big or small.
3. If you could choose only one thing to do/have to inspire yourself, what would it be?
I feel like I’m cheating a little bit with my answer here, but if I could pick only one thing to have in order to keep myself inspired, it would be access to my local library. Books are so magical! They can take you to places and times you’ve never visited.
One of my favorite books is called the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It’s an ancient Chinese book that was written 2,400 years ago. It’s all about the mythical creatures that were said to call China home. I first read it by checking it out at the library. Just think! Reading its pages, it’s like I was having a conversation with its authors, a conversation that stretched over 2000 years!
Libraries and librarians are magic, and the books I’ve discovered while visiting my local library have had some of the greatest impact on my life as a writer.
4. What is something in your field that you don't yet know how to do, but you would like to learn?
I think it’d be amazing to write a novel-in-verse, especially if I could write it in the style of the old epic poems like Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I’ve played around with turning classic fairytales and folklore into short poems, but turning one into an entire book written in verse would be a pretty amazing experience, I think.
A lot of the earliest or oldest stories likely began as songs. That’s how stories were told before we even had a written language. Even after we gained a written language, books like The Iliad were originally sung or chanted. Writing an epic adventure in verse would be like becoming a link in a tradition that goes back thousands and thousands of years in human history.
5. What is the hardest part of your job?
Marketing a book and getting people to buy it are by far the most difficult parts of being a writer. That’s not to say that writing and editing don’t have their challenges. But there’s also joy in the process. But once that is done, there’s a whole business side of things, which is not my favorite (there’s a reason I went into writing instead of business. You play to your strengths). You have to submit your poems to magazines or submit your book to a publisher. If you decide to self-publish, you have to do all of the marketing work yourself as well. It takes a completely different set of skills.
6. What did you like to write and read as a kid?
Growing up, I read a lot of books with my mom. We read classics like C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I loved epic adventures and fantasy, and getting lost in the incredible worlds the authors created.
Then there were books like the Hank the Cowdog series by John Erickson, which always made me laugh. The characters had such big personalities, and the stories perfectly blended silliness with just a touch of suspense and drama. I also fell in love with Bruce Coville’s My Teacher is an Alien series. That blend of humor and adventure really appealed to me then, and it still does today.
My earliest attempts at writing were funny stories inspired by the character of Ernest P. Worrell from movies and television. I guess today you’d call it fan fiction. I took the character and wrote stories about him that made me laugh. They were more than a little influenced by the misadventures of the Amelia Bedelia books, too.
I didn’t really start writing poetry until high school, and then it started with writing song lyrics. I made some friends in a creative writing class, and we all started seriously writing poetry together, even putting on our own poetry readings in local parks and the like. I’ve been writing poems ever since.
7. What was your favorite subject in school?
Well, my favorite parts of school were recess and lunch, but I guess those don’t TECHNICALLY count as subjects. Although recess should absolutely count. Playing and imagining are essential parts of any education.
But in the interest of giving a “real” answer to the question, it would obviously be English. Especially when I started taking classes like Creative Writing in high school, or literature and writing classes in college. Once I started writing, it was basically all I wanted to do. The fact that I got school credit for something I was going to do anyway was just a bonus.
8. Who is your favorite author?
Mark Twain. His novels, short stories, travel writing, I love them all. His use of language, especially his ability to capture the voice of his characters and the places he writes about, is incredible and something I aspire to in my own work.
I’d say that my second favorite author is J.R.R. Tolkien. His ability to create completely immersive and fully realized worlds is unmatched. I mean, my goodness, he created a fully functioning language for the world he created.
9. If you could spend a day with another popular author, who would you choose?
I would LOVE to hang out with Tom Angleberger. He’s a fan of origami, old video games, trains, Dungeons and Dragons, and silly jokes. I love all of those things, too. His books always make me smile, and more often than not, they make me laugh out loud. Plus, he’s a huge fan of Star Wars. Spending a day with him sounds like it would be ridiculously fun.
10. How do you celebrate when you finish a project?
Honestly, my version of “celebrating” is typically just moving onto my next project. That’s not to say that I’m not excited when I finish up a book, but once a project is done, I’m ready to move on to the next one. I should probably come up with some sort of ritual or something, shouldn’t I? Maybe I should treat myself to a double scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone or something like that. That’s a good idea for the future!
11. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
There are two specific pieces of advice that I think every author should hear. First, if you want to write, you need to read. And I mean read a lot, especially in the genre or style that you plan to write in (for instance, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, fantasy, romance, whatever). I remember hearing an author say that reading 100 books in a genre is essentially like taking a masterclass in that style. Every style of writing has its own rules and conventions, and you learn those things by reading within that genre. Of course, you should read outside of your genre too, and hear from as many voices as possible, but it’s absolutely vital to read within your genre. As a poet, I don’t think I could write good poetry if I didn’t read poetry enough to know what makes poetry good.
The second is that you have to recognize that writing (or creating anything, for that matter) is a learned skill. Sometimes I hear people say, “Oh, I just can’t write” or “I can’t draw,” or whatever. I don’t think that’s true. If you’re willing to put in the work, you can develop the skill. You learn it by doing it, by putting in the work, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. Some people may learn it faster than others, but EVERYONE can do it if they really want to and are willing to put in the effort.
12. Would you share something about yourself that your readers don’t know (yet)?
I’m interested in a ton of things, which means I’ve tried a bunch of different things. I was in a rock band for a while, and later I performed as a street magician. I’ve been backpacking in Europe, snorkeling in the Caribbean, and even spent time performing as a traditional Tlingit dancer in Alaska. For a few years, I wrote for a newspaper and was even the editor and owner for a brief time. I also think I make some pretty tasty pancakes, though you’d have to ask my wife and kids if that’s actually correct.
Shaun, thank you for all you do for Lit Kids Magazine, and for the marvelous insight into your writing process and inspiration. Please follow him on social media and check out his wonderful collection of poetry, A Catalog of Curious Creatures, in our Bookshop. Keep shining!
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