Adam Cohen is a name I hide behind, it gives me the freedom and confidence to say and create what I want without fear.
I was brought up in a religious cult and have lived with addiction, learning difficulties (dyspraxia and, more recently, ADHD) and mental health challenges. These experiences run through my work.
My great-grandparents were Eastern European Jewish immigrants, and I often think I might not be here if they hadn't been allowed into England. That sense of displacement and inheritance informs much of my writing.
Raised in a very restrictive religious family where all forms of fiction and popular culture were forbidden, I became obsessed with stories in all forms: novels, country music, graphic novels, TV and film. I often imagined myself as a character in a film and was always inventing imaginary narratives.
Favourite Graphic novel - Preacher - so good and strange and wrong and religious.
Favourite Film - Aguirre The Wrath of God - mesmerising.
Favourite TV show - that's hard. Oh yeah, Twin Peaks the Return - unlike anything before or since.
Favourite Song (at time of writing (it changes every day)) - Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
Favourite Book - Blood Meridian
I also take inspiration from music including Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The RZA, Eminem and Lauryn Hill. Also from TV shows like Fleabag and Peep Show, which I admire for their honesty, intimacy and willingness to humanise taboo thoughts. They made me feel more normal. If my work can have that effect on someone else, that would be the best outcome I could hope for.
home