Author Spotlight: Dominik Slusarczyk

Dominik Slusarczyk won 3rd prize in Fiction in the Northwind Writing Award 2024 for his story “Erase Every Plate”. It is an honor to feature his Q&A here on Raw Earth Ink as part of our promotion of truly exceptional authors.

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Q & A

Candice: Who are your influences in fiction? If they are not fictional, such as the natural world, or a painter, muse, or other, please explain. 

Dominik: I started out as a painter so my biggest influence in getting into art was Vincent Van Gogh. As far as writing goes, I am a big fan of poetry so my biggest influences in getting into writing were Carol Ann Duffy and T.S. Eliot.

CD: This is not a children’s story but it also could be a children’s story because of the moral, fable-like quality it possesses. That’s a compliment. Was there an element of awareness that it could have that children’s story power to “Erase Every Plate”?

Dominik: I think all writing should be appropriate to people of all ages. I take great care to not include adult themes in my work because that would exclude younger people.

CD: Aside from other writers, what else gets your blood pumping when you feel engaged to write on subjects? What are those subjects and why do they appeal to you? 

Dominik: I am always trying to experiment and try new things. The greatest subjects only appear after extensive work on a particular style.

CD: Tell us a little about what brought you to becoming a writer, what your story is there, and how it evolved from the time you began writing, until now? 

Dominik: I became a writer because I wanted to make longer films. Paintings are small so you can’t say much with a painting. I started by writing poetry and then started writing fiction about a year later. I have recently started writing strange films with odd structures.

CD: You took some risks with this piece, as it’s untraditional. Did you think your writing would be received with as much love as it has been, when you submitted? Or did you fear the readers wouldn’t get what you were trying to say? 

Dominik: I think this style is interesting. I was expecting people to want to publish some of it but I probably wasn’t expecting to place in competitions.

CD: Can you talk to us about writing this short story and how you began writing in this style and what your objective was in writing this and submitting it to an award?  

Dominik: The idea came to me one day while I was writing other things. I wanted to write about objects because they are regularly ignored in favour of people.

CD: Did you find your writing changed over time and if so, how do you see that happening and what were the influencing factors to cause that shift/change? 

Dominik: This style definitely changed over time. It is important to let what you are doing naturally change as new ideas come to you as you write.

CD: Your style is incredibly distinct. Did you deliberately create a niche in your writing that enabled your work to stand out and be noticed? 

Dominik: I was trying to do something different because I think it is important to be constantly experimenting.

CD: As a reader of fiction, what do you like and dislike about the fiction you read, and why? 

Dominik: My favourite part of writing is endings so I enjoy fiction that has a good ending.

CD: Was this a piece of fiction that flowed out of you or more one you planned out consciously? In other words, what was the inspiration there? 

Dominik: I do not plan fiction at all. I was writing in this particular style but none of the elements of the story were planned beforehand.

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To read The 2024 Northwind Treasury, including Dominik’s winning piece, you can purchase it in paperback on Lulu, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, or as an eBook on Kindle. To see the list of contents and winners, visit our winner’s page.