“Unlocking the Secrets of Unfulfilled Aspirations: Brian Lee Knopp Dives Deep in ‘Dreams I’m Never Gonna See'”
Dreams I’m Never Gonna See is a misfit anthem. It’s one for the makers of what the late, great John Lewis called “good trouble”, a power ballad for the chaotic good inside us that howls for a better world. I got to catch up with Knopp over email and ask him a few questions…
Lindsey Pharr: At your recent author event at Malaprops Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, you described this essay collection as an “oops baby.” Would you care to elaborate on that?
Brian Lee Knopp: Yeah, this was an “oops book.” It was neither the book I had intended to publish in 2024, or even one that I thought was possible at the time. At the end of 2023 and up until the spring of 2024, I had been working on several writing projects: an illustrated fable celebrating neurodivergence; a short story; and ghost writing a true crime book. First my illustrator bailed on the fable. Then I bailed on the short story (for the present). And my true crime client put the brakes on her book. The doubloon I had nailed to the mast was for a book published in 2024. So I wrote some new essays, selected others that had been published previously, and slap! Wahhh! The Oops Book was born.
