John Montfort Gist

John Montfort Gist’s third novel, A Clearing of the Way (Strategic Book Publishing, 2009, $26.50), follows a man wrongly imprisoned for a crime as he struggles to find a new identity in the Southwest. Blending real locations with touches of the mythical and the mystical, Gist’s distinct style and storytelling ability offer a unique and hard-edged look at human redemption and the prophecy of nature. Gist tells Jeff Berg that it was a long, winding road that brought this native of Casper, Wyoming, to New Mexico, where he now teaches at Western New Mexico University–Deming.

Q: Why did you start writing?

A: Growing up in the sticks, in Wyoming, there was a lot of winter and not a lot to do. I would read a lot, books by Louis L’Amour and [William] Faulkner, but I also read things like Conan the Barbarian and The Lord of the Rings books, and Nietzsche’s work, which is a big influence. It was all a large-impact look at a different world.

What is your writing process, and how does living in New Mexico affect your work?

I write in the morning, and I am addicted to it. If I don’t do it, I feel irritable, and because I do it, I don’t have to pay a shrink!

After graduating from the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks, I had moved back to Wyoming, but I couldn’t find a job. A friend invited me to go on a backpacking trip to the Gila, and we went through Silver City. I ended up coming back to Silver City to work at WNMU–Deming because of the tenure-track program. I still hike in the Gila, and find that that landscape lends itself to writing. In writing fiction, I find that everything comes together and that it flows naturally for me.

What are you working on now?

It is another novel, since I’ve given up any aspirations of fame and fortune. It’s set in southwestern New Mexico, in the “slight future,” and is about a village where a sort of religious cult lives. Soon residents of surrounding towns start to disappear in The Trial of Gideon Sands. It has multiple narrators, and is slightly more magical than my other books. I’m also working on a philosophy book, and will be teaching a screenwriting class in the fall. I’d like to see one of my books made into a movie. I just want to keep writing.

Jeff Berg is a freelance writer who lives in Las Cruces.

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