From Law to Literature: Anthony Pond’s Unforgettable Narratives
Anthony Pond’s writing explores identity, travel, and life’s complexities. With a background in law and journalism, he crafts profound, realistic stories drawn from personal experiences, revealing the struggles and triumphs of humanity.
Anthony Pond is a writer whose work is as adventurous and profound as his own life. With a background in English, Journalism, and Law, his journey has taken him across the world—from the depths of the ocean to the peaks of mountains, from the heart of the legal system to the rich landscapes of storytelling. His literary realism is imbued with a deep sense of curiosity, capturing the complexities of human existence with remarkable depth and nuance.
His debut collection, Across the Border, offers an unfiltered look at travel, identity, and the transitions that define us. With Tarnished Dreams, he continues his exploration of the human spirit, drawing from his vast experiences and keen observations of the world. Through his evocative prose, Pond navigates the blurred lines between triumph and tragedy, weaving narratives that resonate with raw honesty. His ability to illuminate the inner struggles of his characters—often shaped by fate, choice, and circumstance—solidifies his place as a significant voice in contemporary literature.
Beyond his writing, Pond’s passion for photography mirrors his storytelling approach—stripping away distractions to reveal the essence of his subjects. Whether through monochrome portraits or carefully constructed prose, he distils the human experience into powerful, unforgettable moments.
In this exclusive interview with Reader’s House Magazine, Anthony Pond shares his inspirations, the impact of his travels, and his approach to crafting stories that linger in the minds of readers long after the final page.
Anthony Pond’s storytelling is rich, insightful, and deeply moving, capturing the essence of human struggles with elegance, honesty, and emotional depth.
How do your extensive travels, particularly in Southeast Asia, influence the themes and narratives in your short stories?
Traveling, for me, represents a search for meaning and purpose in life. It exposes one to new experiences, new challenges — the ingredients that make life richer. My travels are both literal and figurative border crossings, leaving the safety and comforts of the unchallenged life to cross over the boundaries into the unknown, the unexpected, the new. The extreme differences of Eastern travels help shape the contrasts between a life fully lived and that of mere existence. Though Southeast Asia does not feature directly in my first collection of short stories, “Across the Border,” it does in my second collection, “Tarnished Dreams.” It does factor in to all my writing with its distinct difference from a Western view.
In “Across the Border: Stories,” you explore travel and identity. What personal experiences inspired these themes?
“Across the Border” grew out of several road trips down Baja California back in the late 1970s when the peninsula was still raw. Those trips afforded me the opportunity to explore the emergence into full adulthood, post-college, through my main character’s self-examination. They were a pivot point from the cloistered world of academia to the real world of self-reliance. Then drawing on my experience of a long road trip through East Africa in the1980s, I was able to expand on this ongoing search into personal identity and growth following an emotional tragedy. Several tragedies in my life provide the “ghost wounds” that both haunt and propel my protagonist throughout these stories.
You photography emphasizes the human condition in black and white. How does this visual style inform your storytelling?
Photographing in black and white reveals more of the subject’s persona without the distraction of bright or flashy color. I hope to present more emotional impact through my monochromatic photos. This focus on persona carries over to my storytelling by dealing with inner turmoils of my protagonist than the flash of over-the-top action of plot. As black and white photography deals with many shades of gray, so too, I am concerned with the gray zones of the human condition.
“Doryman” portrays a fisherman’s introspection. What drew you to this character, and how does his journey reflect broader human experiences?
“Doryman” grew out of an opportunity I had while studying journalism. I lived in Newport Beach, California at the time and talked my way onto one of the fishing boats at the dory fleet there for a reportage assignment. It was a nighttime outing and I shot film with a flash as the dory fisherman motored out into the Pacific to set his baited lines. I saw how lonely this occupation was, requiring self-reliance, and offering plenty of time for introspection. I later drew on my legal experience representing criminal defendants to flesh out this hard-working yet doomed character, one whom life, and himself, had dealt a poor hand. The weather — wind and waves — plays an immutable role, chance, if you will, in adding to a life of poor choices. This story illustrates how good intentions aren’t always enough to better oneself and how, ultimately, one is responsible for the choices one makes in life.
Your stories often feature characters grappling with personal challenges. How do you develop these complex characters to resonate with readers?
I believe most personal challenges, when boiled down to their essence, are universal. Most people ask themselves at one time or another: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? How do I set a life course? Am I pursing my dreams? Does my life matter? Because I write in close third person perspective, my main character, and to a lesser extent secondary characters, are seeking answers to these questions. These are questions I ask myself. And, I try to observe how others have asked and answered those questions. I then impart this knowledge, or lack thereof, to my characters. Thus, as universal queries, I hope readers will identify with these questions.
With a background in English, Journalism, and Law, how do these disciplines shape your writing process and narrative style?
My writing process was heavily influenced by reading in college the Lost Generation of writers that emerged after the First World War. Among that group was Hemingway. His short stories that follow his character Nick Adams from boyhood to manhood was the inspiration to write my short stories centered around a singular main character. Initially, my stories followed several different main characters. But it soon became apparent that combining them into the same person, I could create a consistent backstory and let the stories build up successively to develop the character arc of my protagonist. From my background, I developed a straightforward, somewhat terse writing style. Endings are often open-ended, allowing the reader to supply the logical resolution.
What advice would you offer to aspiring authors seeking to authentically depict the human experience in their writing?
If you write literary realism/slice-of-life stories and want to depict an authentic human experience in your writing then you must live some of that experience yourself. Doing so, you will feel the events that affect you and relate that feeling to your characters. When describing settings, it helps to visualize the place from having actually been there, to have smelled the air, touched the land, heard the sounds. Then your characters can respond authentically and your reader will feel the experience as if they had been there. Lack of authenticity will harm your story, and your credibility as a writer.
