Where were you born?
I was born in the city of Brockton Massachuesetts which is a part of the Greater Boston Metro and located in the South Shore. I spent some time around Providence Rhode Island before making my way down to Lenoir North Carolina.
When did you begin writing?
I started in elementary school, just little short stories alot of which would be categorized under fan fiction. I became obsessed with Stephen King´s writing very early on and would tell original stories set in the worlds he had created.
In high school I began to take it seriously. I was a foster kid and had a lot of internal problems which would spill into my life and get me in trouble. An English teacher discovered my natural gift and encouraged me to refine it.
What is Rural Noir and Southern Magical Realism?
Rural noir writing is set in the backwoods of small country towns, usually down south where the depraved and gritty tales have a lot of space to place as opposed to the congested city noir. I find a rural setting much more upsetting, horrifying and cringe worthy but maybe that´s because I´m a city boy at heart.
Southern magical realism is set again in the rural south but there is a subtle injection of magic. An otherwise normal town may have a mystical entity haunting it, or in the swamp may be a hoodoo witch capable of casting sorcery. Although set in the real world this genre will lightly introduce the supernatural, careful not to saturate it.
Tell us about the upcoming novella Ẅorms Sprout Wings
This is a short book and although it is presented as a single story its actually a series of short tales with a loose connection. It explores the rural town of Banner Creek where this isolated little mountain town hides some of the worst displays of taboo behavior, violence and depravity imaginable. Rural noir is usually skating the realm of horror and with the added southern magical realism it can get pretty intense.
Would you like to address the language content?
Sure. I am not writing as John Putignano, rather I am the characters of the story or some backwoods narrator. With that said there are a lot of harsh stereotypes in the south and as will any noir fiction I must really invoke the seedy side in my approach. I´m in no way racist or abelist, mysoginistic or homophobic but these topics will come up in my writing because I must be true to the genre.
What´s you favorite thing to write?
I love to write disturbing scenes full of graphic description, hard dialogue and taboo subject matter. Some books and movies leave me feeling dirty and seeking a bath and that´s what I try to accomplish in my work. My stories aren´t for those with thin skin or weak stomachs.
John Putignano 