Indy Perro: Writer, Independent Thinker, and Recovering Academic
Sharing stories with people hungry for a mythology of contemporary life.
Books aren’t our vegetables. As much as I love to read and believe in the power of a good book, I don’t think literature makes us better people. Reading and thinking might, but literature can only do as much as we, the readers and writers, do with the language at our finger tips. The best books provide a point of contact for consciousnesses, a place to question social and cultural assumptions, and a testing ground for ideas.
My work is:
- Literary not Literal
- Mythology not Tautology
- Philosophizing not Opining
- Independent not Corporate, Academic, or Canonized
- Not the Dog in Any Fight
My Origins
My journey began in a city where, when I wanted to be alone, I went to a public place.
Asking questions, or what I like to call the difficult task of thinking, appeals to me because my life required I support myself. At fifteen, I was forced to leave home. Bouncing through three different high schools, I learned how to get into and out of trouble. At nineteen, I dropped out of a college I couldn’t afford and lived briefly out of my car. I found my way after a year and a half of changing course, saving money, escaping influences, and hiking in the mountains. My future wife encouraged me to return to school. Paying my tuition and bills required three jobs: waiting tables, a paper route, and clerking in a bookstore, which meant sleeping in two- or three-hour shifts. My memories of this period of my life are some of my most cherished, but I don’t feel the need to do it again. I graduated from college in three years with highest honors and was accepted into graduate school.
In graduate school, I studied several languages and earned graduate degrees in religious studies, comparative literature, and education. For twelve years, I taught writing, philosophy, and literature at a few different colleges, worked as a freelance editor and translator, and taught high school English.
After many years gaining education and experience, I’ve dedicated my life to the craft of building worlds and developing character driven stories within those worlds, stories that question the assumptions we make about how and where we engage meaning in our lives.
Writing means making contemplation an adventure.
My Writing Life
I love to write. I published my first story in high school and won my first writing contest when I was twenty. Notebooks have been my constant companions, and over the years I’ve published articles, scholarly essays, and a few short stories. Central City is my first novel, and in 2022 I plan to publish its sequel Journeyman and a stand-alone novel set in Central City.
My path to becoming a writer has been an adventure that fuels my work, and I hope to share that work and adventure with you.
Contact me
Please feel free to reach out. I love talking to readers and writers. Whether you want to discuss writing, literature, philosophy, publishing, my work, or what you’re reading this week, I’m always happy to connect. I’m open to visiting a writing group, reading group, university club, or simply exchanging an email or two. Writing can be a lonely craft, but we need a feeling of community to feed our sense of purpose.