A Conversation with Gavin DuBois
Gavin DuBois is a filmmaker and writer based in Chicago, Illinois. His short films have played at genre and underground film festivals across North America. In his creative work, Gavin pulls from themes of nature and the human connection between place and self, an artistic preoccupation nurtured by the landscapes of his hometown in the Catskill-Hudson Valley. Now that he’s in Chicago, Gavin draws inspiration from Lake Michigan and the wide midwestern skies.
Gavin’s poems, “A Poem for the Pellagra Rash on White Skin,” “A Poem for the U-Turn on 1-70 West,” and “A Poem for Tombstone Lichen” can be read in Issue no. 1 of Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine.
“A Poem for the U-Turn on 1-70 West” is one of our 2025 Pushcart Prize nominees.
gray: tell me about yourself—your name, pronouns if you’re comfortable, where you’re from, and what hobbies you have besides writing.
Gavin: My name is Gavin DuBois, pronouns he/him. I grew up in the Catskill-Hudson Valley, in a little town called Neversink, New York. I’ve been a filmmaker since I was about 15 years old, and writing has been a craft that supplements my film work. More recently, writing has given me a respite from the career/hobby of filmmaking. Otherwise, I love spending time with my friends and family at home or at local restaurants and bars. Most of all, I love taking long, quiet walks in Chicago’s cemeteries, or in the northeastern wilderness where I grew up.
gray: how often do you write? what settings or routines best facilitate your writing process?
Gavin: I write at least 200 words every day, sometimes more if I’m feeling inspired. Probably ninety percent of the time, whatever I write is nonsense, but every so often I touch on something interesting that’s worth expanding on. I think the most critical thing for my writing is redrafting, a process that always starts with my morning walks in the cemetery near my home. Both the forward motion and the quiet helps me get my thoughts straight.
gray: your 3 poems in the magazine all had titles that began with “A Poem For…”. is this a pattern you usually follow? if not, how do you come up with titles?
Gavin: In the last year I’ve started drafting poems in earnest. These feel like “offerings” that I’m making to an idea that’s been preoccupying (or upsetting) me. The “A Poem for…” label allows me to center the work as just that, an offering to an idea I’ve been mulling over. The titles themselves feel like the centering of an idea that I can’t quite define otherwise.
gray: how do you combine discussions of place and time in your writing?
Gavin: I don’t think I could ever separate my writing or my filmmaking from a sense of place. It’s intrinsic to who I am as an artist. For me, place and time are fluid, living things that exist as “stubbornly persistent illusions.” Nearly all of the places that I knew growing up have eroded or destroyed or sold out of the family, but I still feel their pull. Maybe my work is just trying to make peace with that fact of transience.
gray: how has your writing evolved throughout your life?
Gavin: For a long time, my writing was always in service to my filmmaking. I might use free writing to get ideas for a film arranged in my head, or I would simply be screenwriting. Every so often, I would write a short story in order to satisfy an idea that was stuck in my head. In 2024, I committed to writing every single day, as a way to keep myself occupied creatively while my films moved (slowly) from script to screen. That practice of writing every day evolved, and now I’m drafting poems and short stories semi-regularly as I continue to make indie/DIY films.
