Jon Pineda

Jon Pineda is an American poet, memoirist, and novelist.

Quotes

• Once I wrote poems, I found that I was able to piece together individual moments that would, I’d hoped, sometimes compound. The line was the most important thing to me—that and the music it produced.
  • On how poetry writing eventually led to short stories and other works in “A Poet’s Novel: Jon Pineda talks LET’S NO ONE GET HURT” in Booklist Reader (2018 Mar 22)

• I think it’s relative to the story you’re writing. Some novels are filled with summary and some are filled with scenes. Others are a beautiful, confusing mix, of course. Ultimately, I wanted to write a novel that I’d want to read later.
  • On choosing a story writing method in “7 QUESTIONS WITH JON PINEDA” in Hyphen Magazine (2018 Jun 7)

• Fiction is something that I've always wanted to write. I think that I give myself a break when I write fiction. And that's not to take anything away from people that write fiction, because I know that it's just as taxing, and there's so much involved with that. But for me, I write poems because I have to, and I write stories because I want to. When I'm writing stories, I tend to write stories when, like right now, I'm writing a lot of stories because I'm trying to get away from this collection of poems. It's just killing me. But, that's kind of what it is for me.
  • On fiction versus poetry writing in “AN INTERVIEW WITH JON PINEDA” in Blackbird (2004 Jun 17)

• The setting, with all of its contradictions, is crucial. The land provides a deceptive promise of freedom, yet also presents itself as a burden. I’m drawn to these contradictions. They feed the emotional intensity of the novel…
  • On placing his characters on a stretch of land in “Coming of Age With a Dog Named Marianne Moore” in the Chicago Review of Books (2018 Jun 1)