Author Interview "Jamell Crouthers"

Poet and writer that creates thought-provoking content about different aspects of life. My goal is to write as many poetry books on societal issues that we all face in today's age. Through writing poetry, it is an easy read for others and it's a gateway to getting inside of my mind and how I write.

Hello Jamell! Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?

I started writing poetry at the age of 13, I never knew I would honestly write a book, let alone four up to this point. I went to school for mass media communications with an emphasis on television production. I did take some writing classes but I always had a knack for writing poetry.

Last year, when I decided to write a book, I asked myself what I would write about. My biggest concern was society and the issues we deal with and face. I figured why not incorporate societal issues and poetry into one and write books about them. Here we are four books later with a fifth coming soon and I enjoy the process.

In regards to what I do in my spare time other than write poetry, I love to watch my sports (basketball, football and baseball) and I always have headphones in my ears listening to music. It’s my escape from all of the noise and clutter that goes on around me in the world. I’m very adventurous as I love to travel, spend time with family and friends and enjoy the simpler things in life.

Your books cover different sensitive and or taboo societal issues ranging from rape to depression. What inspired you to write about such tough topics?

The world is a tough place to live in and a lot of subjects aren’t discussed and talked about enough. So I figured it was time I incorporate that into my writing to make people realize that these issues need to be discussed more in an open forum. These are serious issues and these issues affect us in some way, shape or form. We all know someone who has dealt with some societal issue that I discuss in my books or someone has experienced it themselves.

While people do write about these things, I decided to really hit the nail in the coffin and not sugarcoat my writing as these are situations that can and may have happened to people. While these are tough topics to write about, life isn’t easy, life punches you in the chest all of the time so me writing about this, it showcases the realities of the world and it’s a matter of what are we doing about it.

Over the course of the narratives in your books you give only the names of characters and no other descriptive characteristics such as race or ethnicity. Why did you do this? Do you believe not disclosing defining characteristics will help your readers better connect with the characters in your books? If so, how?

In regards to not disclosing the race and ethnicities of the characters in The World We Live In and the Struggles and Growth of a Man, the reality is these societal issues that I discuss happen to anyone and everyone. There isn’t a specific race or ethnicity that it happens to, we are all human beings at the end of the day with emotions and feelings.

The goal is to make people feel and emote while reading my books without having race being discussed in it. I want people to be open to reading my books and not being judgmental before opening my book. It does allow the readers to say wow, that could be me or that was me, or that was my friend or a family member that went through that. I took into account that there will be different races and ethnicities of people reading my books and by not bringing race into the picture, it also made me a better writer and made me focus on the character more and their emotions and feelings.

You never know what people are going to take offense to. Therefore, I'm certain that you had to develop tough skin when publishing literature about topics that evoke emotion in people. Have you received any negative feedback about your writing? If so, how do you handle negative feedback?

Oh yeah, definitely had to have tough skin releasing these books. I had to expect the unexpected and know that not everyone is going to feel comfortable reading my books. When I talk to people face to face, I do tell them the content that is discussed in my books ahead of time, granted they can read the synopsis.

Fortunately for me, I haven’t dealt with any negativity regarding my books so far. I may encounter it at some point but I’m prepared for it, but to be honest, my books relate to life and things that actually do happen to people.

Honestly, The World We Live In I have had people get emotional to where they’re in tears from reading it. That was a shock to hear but when I heard that, that’s when I knew I had it in regards to getting people to emote. That motivated me more to keep developing storylines that are believable to readers and also life.

In your book America Under Mind Control you describe how the elite use many tactics including wealth and status to control the minds of society. Can you explain what you mean by this?

Let me tackle the education system in America, what are kids taught? A lot of unnecessary things that they will never apply to their life. Kids are taught to sit in one place for long periods of time, hands folded, be obedient and not disrespect authority which is exactly what we do when we go into Corporate America.

Kids aren’t taught about stocks, bonds, IRAs, medical benefits, opening a bank account, managing money, buying a house, buying a car, you either learn that from your parents or you learn that on your own. You’re tested on what you can remember in school, meanwhile life is nothing but experiences, you learn more by being hands on with anything and everything that you do in the work world. Can anyone remember anything they’ve learned from school from the age of 5 into their 20s whenever they finished school?

You are taught to be an average American, live a mediocre life, pay your taxes, be obedient and not question anything that’s going on around you. Imagine if billions of people were knowledgeable of what’s really going on. That’s why trash television is created, advertisements to get rich, crappy music on your airwaves are created to be a distraction along with new phones, new televisions, new cars, new computers and social media.

What message(s) do you hope your readers will walk away with after reading your books?

I hope that readers will understand that there are a plethora of societal issues that we face and that we must come together as people to discuss things and do whatever we can to make the world a better place. Life can’t be just about surviving, we have to be mindful of future generations that are coming after us. We have to do all that we can to setup the future for success and not have them struggling, we are the example setters and stepping stones to what the future will be.

Can we expect any new literary work from you in the near future? If so, please tell us a little bit about your upcoming book(s)?

Code Blue: An Oath to the Badge and Gun will be released on June 16th. It’s about a police officer on the force who comes across fellow officers who are corrupt in his department and he is caught in the middle of it. He chronicles 6 cases that he was involved with and he goes through a range of emotions that he’s dealing with and going through. He does all that he can to keep this from his family but he has a son who wants to be a police officer and he has to come clean to his son about what’s going on in the community. This book deals with race issues and it will make you question whether good cops know who the bad ones are.

In September, The World We Live In Part 3 will be released, I’m currently writing it right now as we speak and to finish the year I will be releasing the Struggles and Growth of a Man Part 2 in December, this book is already finished, just have some finishing touches to put to it.

Any last thoughts for our readers?

Please follow me on my social media pages, I not only write books on societal issues, I also write short poetry about life on Instagram and Twitter, I share random things about myself on Twitter. I do recite poetry on YouTube about societal issues too so please subscribe to my page there. I have 3 more books coming this year and I plan on publishing 5 books next year so stay tuned everyone!