#max eber

Max Eber

1. Who are you and what are you interested in?

My name’s Max Eber, I’m a 2011 graduate of Goucher College and studied English, concentration creative writing while there. I’m pretty scattered interests wise, it causes a bit of a problem as it sort of leaves me unable to pursue all of them. For instance I love art but didn't have time to finish an art minor while at Goucher. I was also lured into acting by my friends (as in forced) but having done it I found I really loved it and since then I would love to do more theatre and cultivate that craft through dance and singing lessons. But it’s hard to fit that in at the moment since I also enjoy horticulture and garden design and since graduation have started my own landscape design business as a means to support myself. Have already had a few clients this spring already so it’s looking to be an interesting year. Otherwise I really enjoy play and screenwriting, I’m in the midst of writing a play adapted from this Italian folktales that’s turning into sort of a Shakespeare pastiche.  It’s bawdy but in a frothy way which is pretty fun.

Otherwise I’m into superhero comics (particularly the Batman Family) and vintage film, animation, illustration, clothing and design. Pretty much anything to do with aesthetics and design interests me.

2. What are you reading now?

It’s a bit embarrassing since it’s not very literary, but outside of plant nursery catalogs, I’ve actually been engrossed in reading cooking books.  I’m a foodie and can make some deserts but I’m rather lazy when it comes to making savory food for myself. I’ve been experimenting and have been making a point to try to actually cook actual meals. Other than that I’ve been reading Italian Folktales retold by Italo Calvino, of which the tale I’m adapting for my play is from. It was the only story in the book that was relatively pedestrian and domestic. There was no magic or any of the other fairytale trappings that pepper the other stories in the book and so it really stood out to me and reminded me of Taming of The Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing.

3. What is the most important book you have ever read?

  Really hard question as I sort of equate a lot of books to food, you read them and sort of absorb them as you would food’s calories and nutritional content. So they all contribute whether you like it or not. I could say admittedly I get impatient with a lot of novels. I find really well written short stories can deliver a much more concentrated shot of emotions or leave one particularly disturbed. I really owe a lot of my creativity though to a lot of the picture books and young adult novels I grew up with. I’m very visual so these days I appreciate when revisiting my childhood library those books that had beautiful illustrations. My mom used to work at a children’s bookstore so she had a pretty extensive cache of children’s classics and sort of forgotten oddball works around the house growing up. I guess favorites, pretty unsurprising would be things by Doctor Seuss and Maurice Sendak (doesn’t take much to figure out why I liked Where The Wild Things Are) especially Pierre (A Cautionary Tale) and love even ones  he didn’t write but illustrated as he did for a Sesyle Joslin book on manners called What Do You Say Dear? Other things are the sort of amazing for their art is Imps. Demons. Hobgoblins. Witches. Fairies & Elves by Leonard Baskin, Masquerade by Kit Williams and The Practical Princess by Jay Williams, illustrated by Frisco Henstra.

As far as determinate life changers, probably reading Thorton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth sticks as it brought together both a bizarre flippancy and dead seriousness together in one package sort of  through me for a loop.  I also owe a lot of credit to Italo Calvino, Oscar Wilde, and J.D. Salinger.

4. If you could suggest one book, what would it be and why?

Probably Italo Calvino’s Difficult Loves, the Riviera section of stories is truly beautiful.