Author Q&A with Christopher R.A. Adams
July 11, 2026
Christopher R.A. Adams is a non-binary writer based in Nebraska. They hold a BA in English and Professional Writing, and their nonfiction has been nominated for the Dean Joseph H. Cash Award for Excellence in Writing.
Their flash fiction, The Evening Train, appears in Issue #23. It is their first published piece.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Christopher R. A. Adams (they/them), and I am an Omaha-based writer who is currently using my writing to explore that which cannot be escaped: death, the divine, love, and the oppression of capitalism. Beyond my writing, I love reading, weightlifting, hiking, thinking too much, and my beautiful partner.
What was the inspiration behind The Evening Train?
During my senior year of college, I decided to read Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s On Death and Dying, which, from memory, is predominantly a series of interviews with end-of-life patients on the nature of life and their perspectives on its conclusion. The reading experience was harrowing; I was disturbed and fascinated by the first-hand descriptions of life’s final days. These thoughts mingled with my many bitter experiences in hospitals and with medical professionals to become “The Evening Train.”
What unique or surprising detail can you tell us about the revision process, and/or the final version of it?
My initial attempts to write what would become “The Evening Train” were mired by far too many ideas, such that it split into two (and potentially three) short stories. Where the current version shows a rather typical old man’s final moments, the original story was about an old Hollywood starlet’s recollection of her life and a neglected lesbian romance during her 20s as she dies from a fall. The many revisions that led to the final story were valuable lessons in the ancient wisdom of KISS.
What do you hope readers take from it?
I hope readers become more willing to think about their own death and final moments. Death is a chore we all must get around to doing one way or another. I don’t speak from experience (I’m sorry to ghost enthusiasts and my grandfather), but I have to believe the whole affair is easier if you have given it some forethought. I hope readers find in Mr. Ross a potential future for themselves or those around them and begin to think about how they may prepare for their own evening trains before they hear the whistle.
At what point in your life did you begin writing and working on fiction?
I’ve been writing since I was nine but decided to write things worth reading at twenty-one. I started as a child writing Star Wars fan fiction, and, by fifteen, I would have the odd stab at ripping off Tolkien while stealing elements from some mythology to hide my crime. When I went to college and was formally introduced to short fiction, I fell in love; “Hunters in the Snow,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and “The Sculptor’s Funeral” stole my heart. The amount of meaning that could be shoved into so few pages made my head spin. Every short story I have written since has been an attempt to condense my understanding and insights into as few pages as possible.
When or why did you decide to start publishing your work??
In 2022, I was introduced to the idea of publishing work through one of my college courses. I was always told my writing was good, so why shouldn’t I? The following year, I submitted a story that I had become proud of to a journal, and it got rejected. That denial soiled my pride and kept me from trying again until this year, when I decided to try again in the hopes of making something of all the scribbling I had done. And now my story is available for all to read!
What fuels your desire to write (or engage in other creative outlets)?
What keeps me coming back to the keyboard is the chance to live beyond myself. Unlike the restrictions of my singular life, writing allows me to step into new modes of being, to see new perspectives, and learn from them. If I want to know if there’s life after love, I can step into being a widow and all its burdens. If I want to confront my mortality, I can become a man in his final days. If I want to be betrayed by God, I can become a prophet. I can’t deny writing, because it gives me more than mere living could ever.
What have been the biggest influences on your writing?
Leo Tolstoy and Albert Camus taught me how minimal a story could be and still enrapture an audience. T. S. Eliot and J.R.R. Tolkien showed me how to massage ancient symbols into new meanings and understandings. The stillness at 4 am made me pay attention, and the hustle at 5 pm kept me from lingering. The sex I’ve had sanctified hedonism, but the sex I haven’t had reminded me of the inevitability of regret. And Paradise Lost is proof that prequels and in-between-quels can be good if you actually give a shit.
How do you make expression a part of your daily life, or how do you find a balance between your writing and other responsibilities?
For better or worse, writing seeps into my life whether I make room for it or not. If I ignore it too long, I’ll become crotchety until I get behind a keyboard. To keep the desire at bay, I do my best to schedule at least a couple of hour-long writing sessions a week before I go to work so my mind is fresh. If I’m lucky, I can manage longer sessions on the weekend.
What do you think when you hear, “the good life”?
I think a slow spring morning with an open annotated book, a lover in arm’s reach, and a few dozen trees in view. String even a few such moments together, and a life can become good.
Thank you, Christopher, for sharing your writing with us, for spending extra time on this Q&A, and for being a part of our growing community. Best wishes for all your writing endeavors now and in the future! Write on, indeed!!
