Benjamin Percy is receiving national praise for his full-length wilderness novel “The Wilding.”

“Oregon is my muse,” Percy, assistant professor of English, said. “I have a trapdoor in my head that takes me back to my childhood in Oregon whenever I’m writing.”

Percy’s early life in the high desert of central Oregon frequently influences his writing in a variety of ways.

“I grew up in the middle of nowhere,” Percy said. “I was always ranging through the woods, ducking under barbed wire fences, firing slingshots at jackrabbits.”

“During those times, I was alone, and my imagination would often take over as I imagined myself as Tom Sawyer or He-Man or John Wayne.”

Like every great writer, Percy loves to read.

“Growing up, I always had a book in my hand,” Percy said. “I loved genre books most of all as a kid.”

Percy graduated with honors from Brown University.

“In college, I was practically forbidden to write genre,” Percy said. “I had to read a lot more ‘literary’ books, and my tastes have kind of hybridized as a result.”

Along with his tastes, Percy’s writing style has also changed since being introduced to more intellectual novels.

“I write genre observed through a literary lens,” Percy said. “Genre is great for a number of reasons, namely the fast-moving and cleanly-constructed plot. And literary writing is great due to the complexity of the characters, the rich, lyrical sentences. I throw out the worst of each and try to bring to the table the best.”

After graduating from Brown, Percy attended graduate school at Southern Illinois University. It was during this time that he faced the harsh world of the writing industry.

“As a writer, you have to develop a thick callous around your heart the size of a catcher’s mitt,” Percy said. “In grad school, I submitted my stories widely and stubbornly and faced rejection nearly every day, when I would go out to my mailbox and find it stuffed with letters from editors saying, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.'”

Percy has always had multiple projects going on at once. As a result, Percy never has writer’s block.

“When I’m tired of working on a novel, I write a short story,” Percy said. “When I’m tired with that, I’ll work on a screenplay or an article or a comic book or a craft essay.”

 

Percy is a published author of two books of short stories, one of which, “Refresh, Refresh,” is to be adapted for film and directed by James Ponsoldt, who directed the film, “Off the Black,” starring Nick Nolte.

Percy is currently working on a new novel entitled “Red Moon.” It’s slated to be released in 2012, though its film rights have already been purchased by The Gotham Group.