All Faculty Profiles

Quinn Adikes

by Clyde Chelkowski

“Whether it’s your approach to writing, what you’re writing about, or just your worldview, it all gets funneled into your writing, whether you’re conscious of it or not.”

Zooming in from a cafe in Brooklyn, Gotham Fiction teacher Quinn Adikes enters the frame sporting a mullet, a Disclose band tee, and a thick metal chain. From his grungy look, it’s instantly clear that Quinn is not your average creative writing teacher.

“I’m really into motorcycles,” he says. “Building them and working on them. And riding them, obviously. I’m writing a novel about bikers right now.”

For Quinn, writing is not only a space to create, but a site of self-expression and experimentation. His versatile interests are clear from the sheer scope of his work. From haunted reality shows to the trials of potty training, Quinn’s stories resist the confines of any one genre, topic, or form.

“I try to do something different with every single thing I write,” he says. “When I start working on something, the form evolves into whatever it’s going to be.”

Quinn’s love of literature began in college when, after reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, he realized books “could be cool.”

“Postmodernists influence me a lot,” he explains. “Like Donald Barthelme. Reading him, I realized I could do literally anything I want. Because he does, and it’s great.”

This liberating view of writing has allowed Quinn to incorporate different aspects of his identity and interests into his work without the pressure of doing things “right.” He finds insight and motivation for his writing in his other creative endeavors, especially his punk band Kasso.

“I kind of approach writing it the same way as music,” Quinn says. “With punk music, it’s about being your own person and doing whatever you want. And when I write, I do what I want. You don’t have to go to Juilliard to write music and, in the same way, you don’t have to have some insane vocabulary to write description.”

Teaching is another area of Quinn’s life that fuels his creativity. Reflecting on his time at Gotham, he says, “The students are always great. Sometimes they will bring in stories and I think about them way after the class is over. I learned a lot just from working with them and reading everybody’s stuff.”

In this vein, Quinn highlights the excitement and fulfillment he finds in helping others expand their artistic horizons.

“A lot of people come in and they’ve never taken a creative writing class before. And then by the end, with the way they’re talking about each other’s work, I can tell that I’ve taught them something. It’s really nice.”

Biker, musician, writer, teacher, and more, Quinn ultimately believes that one’s enjoyment in their work is what makes writing worth it, for both the author and the reader.

“If you’re having fun as the writer, then the reader will probably be having fun too.”