Brian Alan Ellis is the author of the story collections The Mustache He Always Wanted But Could Never Grow (2013), 33 Fragments of Sick, Sad Living (2013), and Something Good, Something Bad, Something Dirty (2014), as well as King Shit, a 2014 collaboration with illustrator Wayne Thornton. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in journals including Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Electric Literature, Juked, Atticus Review, Monkeybicycle, The Heavy Feather Review, Zygote in My Coffee, and many, many others. His short story “Jerry’s TV”, which originally appeared in the 2011 flash-fiction anthology The Incredible Shrinking Story, was adapted for the stage and performed by the Buntport Theater Company in Denver, Colorado. Ellis lives in Tallahassee, Florida.
Two nuns and a penguin approach you at a bar, and you tell them you’re a writer. When they ask you what you write about, how do you answer?
I’d be scared if that happened and I’d probably just shriek, “But I’m a writer!” while gradually creeping towards the exit. If they managed to ask what I write about before I made it out I would probably shout, “Escaping!” which is generally the most honest answer I could come up with under regular circumstances.