Portrait of the author

When I finally found his office in the sadistic maze that is the fourth floor of Neuberger Hall, associate professor of English Paul Collins greeted me with a handshake and a warm smile. He had recently returned from an engagement and wasted no time before speaking with me.

“Let’s see, when did I start writing?” Collins asked himself, laughing. “I’ve been writing books since high school, but as far as actually getting paid to write, that really started later for me.”

Paul Collins is an accomplished author and has been an associate professor at Portland State since 2006. His seven novels have been translated into 10 languages, and he has written freelance articles for The New York Times, Slate and New Scientist. His work in creative nonfiction earned him the Guggenheim Fellowship for Nonfiction in 2009.

“I don’t think there are a lot of people doing what I do with nonfiction,” Collins said. “I think I’ve sort of carved out a place for myself in that field.”

Collins, who began writing at an early age, finished his first full book in high school, and later wrote as an undergrad for the University of California, Davis, newspaper, The Daily Aggie. While in college, however, Collins had a very different career goal in mind.

“I went in as a pre-vet, and I was terrible at it. At the same time, I was doing fantastically in all my English classes, so I knew I was clearly in the wrong major,” Collin said. “That’s when I started thinking more seriously about pursuing writing as a career.”

Collins began his career working in advertising and writing computer manuals. He then moved into reviewing albums and creating write-ups for the online AllMusic Guide, a catalogue of music. Many of his reviews from the database were transferred into iTunes years later.

“Reviewing albums was a lot of fun. After that, I started working for McSweeney’s, which is an American publishing house. It was kind of a one-man show at that point, but I started sending him a couple of historical pieces I had written, and he said, ‘These are great! Send me everything you’ve got,’” Collins recalled. “That led into my first book, Banvard’s Folly, which was a collection of historical essays. From there, I went into more magazine work, and I’m working on my eighth book now.”

He added that a publisher has picked up his latest work. Collins plans to finish it this summer and see it hit the shelves sometime in 2013.

A typical day for Collins is not unlike an average day for other professors.

“I compartmentalize a lot actually,” Collins said. “I sort of divvy up the parts of the day accordingly, so I’m working on teaching related things, like teaching a class, grading papers, preparing a lecture, thesis advising or things like that. I tend to do my own writing at night.”

On average, Collins spends three to five hours per night working on his books in addition to the work day. When asked about what he does in his free time, Collins chuckled.

“I don’t have much. And I’m a parent as well, which keeps me busy,” he said. “So I guess the short answer is that I tend to end up playing a lot of Super Mario Bros. with my sons.”

When he’s not teaching, writing or playing videogames, Collins spends as much time as possible with his family. An avid musician, Collins also tries to set aside time each day to play the piano or drums.

“Often I’ll use music to stall when I’m writing, with the vague notion that somehow I’ll be refreshed and better able to work,” Collins explained. “Actually, I find that going for a walk, I get a lot of thinking done. I think it’s because I’m not thinking about anything else. It’s stripping away the distractions that my office has.”

While Collins certainly keeps busy, he somehow finds time to prepare pitches for editors of various publications. Articles, he explained, are a much faster process to undergo than books, but the two are surprisingly similar.

“It’s funny, because articles and books start in the same way for me: I always notice something. They both begin with this question I have, which is, ‘What the hell is that?’” Collin said. “And the next thing to do is find out if that’s a real question, and it might be something that somebody has already answered. But if it hasn’t, then I might actually have an article. And from there it goes into the pitch process, where I’ll do research and write a little bit, and hopefully it’s picked up.”

As a successful author and teacher, Collins has endless advice for aspiring writers.

“Keep writing!” he emphasized. “It sounds fairly obvious, but a lot of people who would like to write don’t actually write.”

As for Collins, he will continue to write whenever he can find time, undoubtedly in the middle of the night.

“That’s when it’s quiet and nothing is interrupting me,” Collins laughed. “No phone calls or email, and everybody is off Twitter.”