Writers Spotlight

I am looking forward to receiving the gifts of feedback and observation from my mentor as we begin this mentorship journey. I am hopeful that by working with an experienced author (May Q. Wong) who may nudge me to question and to challenge myself, I will ultimately dive deeper into my writing and re-emerge truer to myself as a writer.

The manuscript I will be working through has been steeping for about five years. I started writing bits and pieces in between the space of having my first child and having my second child. I developed some ideas into personal essays. I workshopped some material in online writing courses and in a program through the Manitoba Writers’ Guild. Yet it was only last year when I began to consider that my musings around spirituality could be a cohesive book. I have written most of the material this year, in short bursts of time after the kids go to bed and stolen moments on the bus to work.

I obsess thoroughly about structure as part of my writing process. I always start with core nuggets. I outline these ideas in its fundamental forms. These are the ideas or elements that compel me to write. I consider, play around with, and tinker with the structure to weave the narrative together. Then I write it and rewrite it and rewrite it.

If I could choose an author to write a book about my life, I would be honoured to choose Kim Thuy. She is a Canadian author of Vietnamese descent and I am deeply moved by her work.

In my perfect world, as a professional writer, I would be reasonably compensated for the hours and hours and hours of labour that go into writing. Compensation would address salary and benefits.  The increased financial stability of being a writer would remove barriers and lead to cultivating an inclusive space for diverse voices to allow voices from marginalized communities, voices have not heard from before, to breathe and to create.

Ten years from now, I have published my first book, the manuscript I am working on now, and I have published my second book, bits and pieces currently marinating, and I am working on my third book, emergent sparks in the background currently. My lowest point is the self-doubt deep in the night when it’s just me and the computer, whispers swirling – who cares what you think.

The highlight is receiving notes from readers about how they saw themselves in my journey, how my story resonated with them, how my personal path served them on their personal paths. The tears in my eyes and the hum in my heart – to do something that matters, that what I did rippled through the universe in a positive way, the interconnection to all.  Also, the highlight is continuing to model to my kids to pursue their hearts’ dreams by the road of hard work and perseverance.

I visualize this future and I work towards this future day by day.

My manuscript is a story that’s been haunting me for years. In a horror movie I recently saw, learning the name of the ghost renders it powerless. I feel writing this story will help me do the same; it will enable me to move on to other projects, and I may sleep better at night once it’s done.

Having an established writer (Farzana Doctor) as a mentor is like having the light on at night. It makes being alone a little less scary. Being selected for this program is a validation that I’m on the right path. I expect to continue improving as a writer and have a publishable manuscript by the end of my mentorship.

Most of the time, an idea gets the writing process started for me; or it could be something I read or heard; anything could spark a character or a situation. The next step then is to imagine these made-up people; what they might be like in real life; if I put them in a particular situation, what would this person do? The first draft is writing down everything about this imagined world as best as I can. I’ve noticed often that when I return to a piece later, I almost always have better words, or a more accurate way of describing something. And when that happens, the story continues to become sharper and deeper.

In a perfect world, of which I were the ruler of all, writers would have everything they’ve always wanted – all the time to work on their writing projects; invitations to beautiful writing residencies; a permanent break from domestic duties; generous grants, and quiet, comfortable writing spaces.

In ten years, I’m an award-winning author of multiple books and a creative writing teacher.

If I could choose one author to write a book about my life I’d pick Jenny Offill.

I don’t remember when my stories started looking like a collection to me; perhaps when I realized similar themes kept repeating in them. I think that I tend to notice the speculative/ fantastical in everyday objects or events, and they keep jumping out at me as potential stories. My stories often come from an instinctual response to a moment in time in the world.

I don’t have a specific writing process, for me, it depends on the piece. Most pieces start off with an idea that I’ve written down, whether it be on the subway, or as I’m eating dinner, or while I’m sifting through conversations. After that, I sit down at the computer and try to build on it (though it mostly takes a lot longer than I imagine).

I hope that through this mentorship, the characters in my writing will become more three-dimensional, and that I’ll be able to incorporate dialogue more seamlessly with the characters’ actions. As a writer, I hope that I’ll be able to refine any accidental ambiguities, and become more adept at smoothing the process for the reader.

If I were able to choose any author to write about my life, it would be Virginia Woolf.

For some reason, I cannot imagine a perfect world. However, I feel that a writer should be dedicated to questioning or pushing the status quo. I don’t think I would like being a ruler, because I’d have less time to write and create.

Ten years from now, I want to create, write, and learn interchangeably. In my writing career, I hope to have at least published a novel and a collection of short stories, and written a few plays and screenplays. I also hope to have written at least a dozen songs. Leading up to it, the lowest point will hopefully be when I was caught in a shadow, and the highlight will be re-reading something I wrote, and reconstructing it.

The collection came from a period of dreams and nightmares, and re-evaluation of my personal and family history. I also spent a lot of time reading afro-futurist works by Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor and folktales (both Jamaican and African American such as “The People Could Fly”) that reimagine Black survival tools as magical powers. I love that they affectionately and unapologetically redefine traumatic experiences, and re-orient the world towards Black experiences.

I spend a lot of time with other writers, friends and writing community, who explore afro-futurist themes in many different genres. I find that there is a very rich interest in afro-futurism in a Canadian context which is very encouraging. Nalo Hopkinson is the most prolific speculative and afro-futurist Canadian author that I know of.  I would love more works of Canadian afro-futurism to be published.

I am learning to rework my process, but generally I am first fascinated with a concept or scenario. This is the most exciting part for me and I make a lot of notes. Then I come up with a character to place around it. I write instinctually so that I get something solid onto paper. From there, the second most exciting part, I ask a lot of questions about the characters and the concept to create the story; how would they react, what about the scenario could be stretched. Because I am so excited about specific concepts, I sometimes have a hard time then going back and developing the story arc around it. And that is what I am learning to do better.

I have to work on my craft and in particular the skill of telling a short story that is focused and urgent. My incredible mentor Olive Senior has already been putting me to work on this in the best ways. I know that I struggle with considering the reader as I write. I am hoping that the mentorship will also help me to interrogate my stories, to ask more questions and to pull more out of them with the feedback from my amazing mentor, as well as to create more fluency between my pieces as a collection of work.

It’s weird to think of who I’d choose to write my life. Maybe David Chariandy (author of Brother), Nicole Dennis-Benn (Here Comes the Sun), or a creative non-fiction piece by Dionne Brand. I love the way each of them capture the intimacy of unsaid moments with so much grace and accuracy.

In a perfect world, writers would be able to stop the earth from turning so that we could pause a day and have a very long time to contemplate and consider things on a minute level – and then press play and have an immeasurable amount of time for living, enjoying and having experiences. We would also have excellent patrons, who would pay for our housing, basic needs and travel budget. We would also be able to spend lots of time with other writers, and a great amount of time doing oral storytelling in our communities.

10 years from now, I have published one or two anthologies of short fiction, two works of very personal creative non-fiction, an audio album of poetry, I will have expanded my writing to other genres such as documentary and script writing, and am preparing to publish my biggest endeavor after years of research: a full length two part afro-futurist novel.

My lowest point, hopefully, will have been having a fever while I self-consciously confront my ten year goals for a Q&A. Truly, as corny as it sounds, my greatest highlight would be presenting my mother and grandmother with my first published full length work. Watching one of my works come to life on screen would be pretty magical too.

Being an oil-baby, I lived a nomadic existence. I was born in Calgary, moved to Trinidad, then Toronto, spent time in Winnipeg during school vacations, and then moved to Houston all before the age of 10. As an adult, I travelled for post-secondary and spent months in Nicaragua and years in England. In each of those places I met individuals whose stories lingered such that I couldn’t get them out of my head. Eventually, when I returned to Toronto from England I had gathered enough of them to see thematic patterns common in them and put together a collection.

I’ve never had the opportunity to receive literary fiction mentorship before, so I’m looking forward to getting my manuscript a professional polish and insight into it’s salability and where I should try to take it for publication.

I enjoy writing in a group using writing prompts. I find that the presence of others, all of us desperately trying to tap into our muses at the same time, is almost always a creative spark for me. I write by hand and type up my work and print it out to edit it. I have to read the non-fiction I write out loud. Most of the time I’m able to write a short story in one feverish push.

In my ideal world, a writer’s life would be peaceful and supported. Days would extend to 3am (just to accommodate those days when you can’t quite make a midnight deadline). There would be mandatory quiet time, and excuses from work to make deadlines. No one would be allowed to snicker at being a writer. Published or no. People wouldn’t be allowed to ask: where have you published?

I would choose Suzan-Lori Parks to write a book about my life. I think only she should could find some meaning in the things that have happened to me: string the whole thing together, invent a language, and turn it into something beautiful.

Ten years from now I have place in CanLit. Fewer individuals are telling me “that won’t sell” or you should “de-emphasize that.” I have finished multiple books, plays, and written for television. Maybe an award nomination (if not a win) or two? My highest point would be Suzan-Lori Parks agreeing to meet me. My lowest: slogging through learning (and mastering) the craft of poetry.

My collection has been quite some time in the making. It’s a series of personal short stories which have been incubating for years, until I finally put pen to paper last year in a true effort to tell these stories. They are stories about forming identities, usually under the influence of violence in an urban setting. I felt it was important for people to know how certain communities were coming of age in the GTA, and how they continue to come of age to this day, as I didn’t see these stories being told anywhere else.

I write on paper, then edit and transcribe on computer. I don’t always do this, but find this works for shorter stories as opposed to longer works. I don’t force anything. I maintain discipline and try to sit down at least twice a week to write or edit. If I find I’m forcing it, or at a block, I read and do research instead.

I hope the mentorship can help me become published, and that my mentor is able to provide valuable insight into the industry as well as assist me in being less ‘careful’ as a writer.

I would choose Cormac McCarthy to write a book on my life because I’d love to see a sentence that stretches for a page describing my stomach pain after eating Popeye’s for the third time that day. Either him or Shakespeare. Go big or go home right? I’d love to see how the Bard would sort my mess into a play.

In my perfect world, the writer would be free to read and write, have adequate studio space, and be able to secure grants and funding with ease to support their lives and projects. It would be nice if a writer was able to focus on writing, or devote time to whatever made them a more productive writer, instead of having to worry about bills and things.

Hopefully I’m published in 10 years. Beyond that, I’d like to think I’m financially stable enough to live a few months of the year abroad, writing, reading and eating my way through Asia, working on a novel. The lowest point for me is easily any point before I was writing prolifically, pre 2017. The highlights would probably be any time my stories are published, recognized, read, and loved.