Edward Pomykaj Interview
Edward Pomykaj is a freelance writer and multi-disciplinary artist. He’s written for Pitchfork, Fast Company, Editor X, and many others. His creative work, meanwhile, encompasses poetry, fiction, photography, film, illustration, music, and recording.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
When I was growing up, music was always my obsession. Some of my earliest and happiest memories revolve around listening to music with my family, especially to Earth, Wind & Fire. I started playing the guitar when I was in middle school with my friend Bob, and we both got pretty engrossed in learning more about music, sharing it with each other, and writing and recording songs together. I was constantly reading articles or books about music, and trying my very best to listen to everything that felt important. I basically made a syllabus for myself out of various Rolling Stone lists and Wikipedia bios, and went down the rabbit hole from there.
As I got older, however, I went to college for English, thinking I might be a teacher or professor which seemed a bit more feasible than a career in music, and because I of course love to write. Eventually, I got my MA in literature from The University of Vermont, and then moved on to a Phd program at Syracuse University. During my first year at SU I wrote a few articles for the school blog about art and literature that were far more casual than the overly specified papers I was writing for class, and this—among many other things—helped me realize that I didn’t actually want a career in academia. I left the program after a year, moved to Brooklyn, and started pitching stories around to different magazines, hoping to write.