Brent Baldwin interview Matthew Sharpe in Style Weekly. Style spoke with the author and Wesleyan University writing instructor by phone about his experimental new work, Jamestown, which has been lumped in with recent “endtimes” books by the likes of Cormac McCarthy (“The Road”) and Chris Adrian (“The Children’s Hospital”), as well as postmodern writers such as George Saunders.

Jamestown retells the founding of Jamestown with historical characters and events, but set it in a post-annihilation world where resources are scarce and some dirty, brawling settlers from Manhattan — at war with Brooklyn — drive a heavily armed bus to Virginia to look for oil. Sounds daunting, but that’s what New York novelist Matthew Sharpe has done with his lauded new book, “Jamestown,” from Soft Skull Press.

Matthew Sharpe was born in New York City during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University, he is the author of Nothing Is Terrible and Stories from the Tube. He has taught at Columbia University, Bard College, and New College of Florida, and is the writer in residence at Bronx Academy of Letters, a new writing-themed public high school.

Baldwin asks Sharpe:

BB: You’re called a poster boy for the “small press.” Is that accurate?

MS: Well, my career was launched by Random House, but I happen to have had better success and an easier time with Soft Skull . . . . I would simply tell young writers not to think that the big publishing houses are the Holy Grail, as I once did. There are many ways one can make one’s way in the world as a writer, and indie presses offer a business plan that is likely more sensitive to the needs of a young literary author. [Note: Sharpe’s current promotion includes a MySpace page for the character of Pocahontas.]

Read the rest of the interview here.

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