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author of the month

Author of the Month: Sheniz Janmohamed

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Tell us about yourself.

I’m the kind of writer who thinks more about writing than actually writing. Perhaps this is the dilemma of all writers. Instead of writing, I enjoy buying books I never seem to finish. I also enjoy searching for earrings I don’t need on etsy.com (visit with caution), drinking earl grey lattes, downing coffee and organizing poetry events. I have a passion for vegan chocolate brownies. I think one of my thesis advisors was right when she said that I focus too much on food in my writing.

Other than eating and drinking delicious things, I write poetry and am attempting to write a novel. A novel whose characters seem to elude me. I’ve just returned from India, where I performed spoken word in front of an audience of 1500+ people at the Jaipur Literature Festival. It was maddening, exciting and surreal. And the chai was damn good.

My first (and hopefully not only) book, Bleeding Light, was published in 2010 by TSAR Publications. It’s a collection of poetry written in ghazal form. The ghazal is a stunning, complicated form of poetry that has its roots in Farsi, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, to name a few. Since I can’t write in any of those languages, I write in English. Etymology excites me because I uncover the hidden meanings and origins of words—which, for a poet, is like discovering treasure.

I could list all my performances, publications and accomplishments, but that’s exhausting to write and to read. I’d rather end with some recommendations—read poetry, eat well, go for long walks, take criticism with grace, take compliments with humility, and don’t forget to breathe.

When did you realize you had a passion for writing?

I loved writing when I was little—I used to write poems but called them ‘polems.’ When I was 13, I realized that I wanted to be a writer/author, and that’s really where the journey began.

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

There are so many writers/poets that have influenced me. They seem to change as I grow and change. Gibran was my first love. I also fell in love with T.S. Eliot and Carl Sandburg. The love affair continued with sufi poets, particularly Bulleh Shah, Rumi, Hafez and Mirza Ghalib. A friend introduced me to the ghazals of Agha Shahid Ali and no one has, or can, match him in his mastery of the ghazal in English. I am in awe of his writing. Rishma Dunlop’s The Body of My Garden became a staple in my purse for most of my first and second year of university. If I could write novels, I would want to write like Elif Shafak (40 Rules of Love). Sartre’s Nausea is full of gems. Borges is magnificent, particularly “The Aleph” I’ve also read and re-read Emerson’s essays and insights. I recently discovered the poetry of Mary Oliver, which is luminous.

How and when do you find time to write?

I’m still trying to figure that one out. I have a hard time writing on the computer because I get tempted to surf the internet, so I have an old school notebook that comes with me wherever I go. I wish I could be like my friend and fellow author, Ava Homa, who religiously sets aside time to write daily. Hopefully I will get into the routine of writing daily, instead of waiting for the inspiration bug to bite me.

What has been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a writer?

I think being a writer is a challenge in itself. Every time we pick up a pen, we experience challenges. I write to come to terms with challenges in my life, or to meet them head on. There are too many to explain here, and I think my poetry would do more justice to the question than this response.

How have you changed as a writer over the years?

When I was younger, writing was a means to understand and explore my identity as a minority. I needed to understand my heritage, ancestry, religion and race. I wanted to ‘belong.’ After exhausting the topic, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t have to ‘choose’ to be ‘this’ or ‘that.’ I can be all of it, at once. Labels are limiting. I identify first as a human being, and this has changed my perspective of myself and the way I look at the world . . . which of course, manifests in my writing.

Emerging Author of the Month: Julia Zarankin

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Tell us about yourself.

Julia Zarankin is a Toronto-based writer. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Threepenny Review, Antioch Review, Dalhousie Review, PRISM International, and The Globe and Mail. She was long-listed for a CBC Literary award in nonfiction (2011) and an essay called “Leaving the 18th Floor” is forthcoming in Truth, Dare, Double Dare (Goose Lane, 2014). She currently blogs about birds and words at Ontario Nature. In her former life, which ended in 2008, Julia worked as a Russian literature professor at theUniversity of Missouri.

Tell us about the piece you’ve decided to share.

This is an excerpt from a piece that began as a letter to my deceased Latin teacher. It’s about themes that permeate my writing: language, dislocation, nostalgia, yearning for an understanding of one’s past, mysterious connections. This piece appeared in the Antioch Review in 2011.

When and why did you realize you had a passion for writing?

It started with a compulsion to write letters and diaries—when I was a teenager, I must have written at least ten letters a week. I was seriously obsessed. It must have been at that time that I realized writing calmed me down and made the world around me more comprehensible; when I wasn’t writing, I didn’t quite feel like myself. I’ve always been fascinated by my immigrant identity; early on, I started writing about my family, and they continue to inspire me in their strangeness, their tenacity, their fearlessness, their success in making a home for themselves in a new country, and their captivating identity, which I’m constantly striving to understand.

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

I keep turning back to Anton Chekhov. I don’t think there’s anyone else like him who can make you laugh and cry at the same time. I reread Tolstoy for his expertise in the human body—I don’t think there’s anyone else who can describe involuntary physical responses as well as he can. These days, Isabel Huggan, Jonathan Franzen, Alice Munro, Maureen Stanton, Jhumpa Lahiri, Virginia Woolf occupy coveted space on my bookshelf.

What kind of writer do you aspire to be?

One who works hard to craft memorable sentences and who never tires of the rhythm of language.

How and when do you find time to write?

I’m a freelancer and have the luxury to keep my mornings free and reserved for writing. Still, it’s discipline and it’s work, and I use a computer program called FREEDOM to keep myself off the internet during writing hours. The question, for me, isn’t about finding time to write, but about making sure you use the time you have.

Author of the Month: Anne-Marie Woods

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Tell us about yourself.

My name is Anne-Marie Woods aka Amani. Amani is my spoken word performance name and it’s a combination of my birth name Anne-Marie and my company name Imani. Amani means peace in Swahili. I have always loved to write and started writing letters to my Godmother who raised me till I was 4 years old at the age of 5. I was always one of the top readers in school from primary grades onward, so I think that my love for language, words and expression started in elementary school. I can remember this amazing book that I had called Young Years, it had fables, nursery rhymes, fairy tales and was a humungous book. I knew many of the stories and rhymes by heart. I also loved the library from the time I was 5 years old and could take books out on my sister’s card.

I describe myself as a shy extrovert. I can do almost anything onstage performance wise and I love speaking and teaching theatre and literacy workshops to young people. But, when it comes to going to banquets or attending networking events, I’m not always as comfortable with the one-on-one conversation with strangers, especially industry strangers. There are people that find this hard to believe, but I think a lot of artists feel this way. I was born in England in East Hackney, and then baptized in Trinidad, West Indies and then at the age of 4 my family moved to Nova Scotia. I am so glad that I grew up there; Nova Scotia has shaped and prepared me for the career that I have now. I am the type of person who doesn’t take no for an answer when I really want to do something or really believe in it. A few examples of this are the time I spent in Philadelphia at Freedom Theatre. I was running a cultural youth organization at the age of 27 and took a group of youth to Philadelphia, and Freedom Theatre ended up being one of our stops, but also a place that had a huge impact on me. I decided while visiting that I wanted to go back there. I asked them if they ever had interns from Canada, and they hadn’t but I went back to Nova Scotia and worked out a way to go back there and share in their Africentric theatrical experience. I wrote my first Canada Council Grant in 1996 to do a residency at the theatre and received it. I spent 9 months at Freedom and those 9 months changed my life considerably. I was challenged, because it was a different culture, I had to stand up for myself quite a bit (being the lady from Canada), and I actually cried a lot at night, but always went back down to the theatre smiling each day ready to face the challenges again. In the end, I made life long connections and learned that I don’t have to be afraid to try/do anything in life. I can’t say that I’m fearless but I will say that I can face my fears. I think if I’ve never faced my fears I would still be sitting in an apartment in Nova Scotia wishing I could do things.

Another story about my perseverance was when I ended up in the National Black Theatre Festival in 2001. I had a new one-woman comedy show called Waiting to Explode. I tried to get into the festival last minute in 1999 and no matter what tactics I tried, nothing worked, so I told them point blank: “That’s okay I will be in your festival in 2001!” I applied for the festival, they lost my application and I had to resend it, I called the office every single week, and then I moved to Toronto. In the summer of 2001, I got a call from Larry Leon Hamlin the festival Creative Director: “Miss Woods, this is Larry Leon Hamlin, I am calling to say that your show Waiting to Explode has been accepted into our festival, and you better be good too cause we bumped another show to let you in.” I was very calm when I talked to Mr. Hamlin but when I hung up the phone, I jumped and screamed and ran around my basement apartment. From that phone call, I decided I had to get publicity because I would be the first African Canadian featuring my play there, so I tried to reach people at CBC in Toronto, but couldn’t reach anyone. So I called CBC in Nova Scotia and asked them who they could connect me with in Toronto and they told me, Joan Melanson. I called Joan and sent her a press release, and from that phone call got a live interview on the air with Andy Barrie. Now, as I said before, I am not good with one-on-one interaction, so when Mr. Barrie came in to speak to me I didn’t say much, and I can remember kicking myself internally because I know I should have said more. I didn’t know this until later but he went back into the studio and asked if there might be a replacement for me as he thought I might be a dud. But when I got on the microphone to talk about my one-woman comedy and did each of the characters, my 2-minute interview stretched to 9 minutes, which is long on radio . . . and from that interview, I was offered a job on Metro Morning that I started in the year 2002. I have many stories like that with my career and there is so much you can do with writing. I happen to write and perform, but I have also written poems, and stories and plays and presentations for countless people, organizations and businesses at this point in my life. So, I would describe myself as a young woman with a dream who has lived many parts of that dream and now that I’m older I still believe in the dream, and I feel that the only obstacle that can hold me back from achieving things is me.

When did you realize you had a passion for writing?

I would say that I realized that I love writing or had a passion for it in grade school. I may not have understood my passion at that point, but because I loved reading so much esp. when I was younger, the Ramona book series, and then in grade 4 my sister gave me Judy Blume books. I wasn’t allowed to read some of the books until I got older, but I loved Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber and Are You There God it’s Me Margaret (unbelievable that I remember all these titles). I used to make up commercials with my sister Cherrie at home and say them into the tape recorder. I would also write poems and short stories for English class and I loved doing that as well. I was always making up these intricate scenarios and story lines for my Barbie collection. My imagination was definitely an active and non-traditional one. But that was often how I entertained myself. I can remember the books I read in English class as a child: Seven is Magic, The Dog Next Door. In grade five, because I was an above average reader, I got to read a special reader called Northern Lights. To me, reading, performing and writing are intertwined and it’s probably why I started out writing poetry and plays by the time I was in Junior High.

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

The pieces of writing/authors that had a great impact on me could take a while. My reading style in elementary school was very, how shall I say this, eclectic. I loved Beverley Clearly books: Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, etc, and reading about Ramona and Beevus. I enjoyed these books because I was often in trouble myself and just enjoyed the characters. I was reading Ramona books in grade 2. I also loved to read the Tin Tin cartoon and by grade 4, I had launched into the Judy Blume phase of my life, and though I wasn’t allowed to read some of her books till I was older; I read them anyway. I read Deenie when I was in grade 5.

There was a poem we learned in school that I saw on the TTC Poetry Series, it was called Annie, I believe. I read this poem in grade 7 English class and it just had a huge impact on me because it’s so true when it comes to life and what’s funny is at the time I didn’t know who Leonard Cohen was and learned that he wrote this poem the year when I saw it on the subway.

Annie

With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
with the morning sun?

Not that I did compare,
But I do compare
Now that she’s gone.
—Leonard Cohen

Something in this poem struck a strong chord with me, so much so that I remembered it all of my life. As a matter of fact, when I saw it on the TTC a few years back, I nearly jumped up and yelled: “Hey everyone, that’s that poem, that poem, you know, the one from school!”

Then there was the influence of my brother David Woods who is a writer and a visual artist. He was always at home locked in his room reading and writing. He used to have this gigantic book that was more intricate than a regular dictionary and when I was younger he’d call me into his room, hand me the big book and say, “pick me up words.” Which meant pick any word at random and then he would tell me the definition. I thought my brother was brilliant and amazing. He started writing plays and poems when I was quite young, but I especially remember his work when I was a teenager because he started a theatre company called Voices. He would take me to all of his rehearsals and I was so moved by this experience. He also gave me the book For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf when I was in Junior High—this book was described as a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange. When he gave me this book, I think I was in grade 8. I loved it, I loved the flow of the words, the characters and the stories, I’d never read anything like this before and there was something about the spirit of the writing that vibrated through me. A great story about this book is that I received it in grade 8, and later the book showed up again when I was in a reading of its script in the late 80s. I also saw it onstage in Nova Scotia at the Cunard Street Theatre. But, even more amazing is that Ntozake has passed through my life on more than one occasion. Imagine me as a teenager reading her story, not even knowing what that would mean in my life . . . but she plays a role in my life thanks to my brother. When I was in theatre school, we had to do monologues in class and then turn them into movement/dance pieces for an in-class presentation and I chose lady in brown. I loved that monologue: “dark phases of womanhood of having never been a girl half-notes scattered without rhythm/no tune . . . ”

I remember doing my dance piece and interpreting the words in the poetic monologue into movement, it’s one of my fondest memories of my time in the Dalhousie Theatre Program. But, in 1997 I met Ntozake Shange during my 9 month residency at Freedom Theatre. Her daughter was in the stage production of Cooley High that I was working on, and so when we had the wrap party, Ntozake was there. Words can’t describe what it’s like to see an author in front of you whom you’ve read when you were a teenager and never thought you would meet, but there she was at our party. She was very colorful, and I know I have a picture of and with her in one of my albums; I was too spellbound to speak. But, I was too spellbound to speak, even though I did get a picture with her, I couldn’t tell her how much she influenced me. But God has a way of working because in 2001, I met her again. The National Black Theatre Festival that I performed in, well, Ntozake was on the same panel as me (crazy isn’t it?) . . . There I was, little old Anne-Marie from Nova Scotia sitting on an International Colloquium about Black Theatre in North America. And sitting right beside me was Ntozake Shange; this time I told her what her work meant to me. I knew in advance she would be at the festival, so this time I remembered to walk with my book, but of course I forgot it on panel day. But at the airport on the day I was leaving Winston Salem, I saw her in the airport in a line and ran up to her with my book For Colored Girls and asked her to sign it and she signed it “Keep Writin Ntozake Shange 2001.” Talk about a full circle moment!

How and when do you find time to write?

Finding time to write is sort of a funny question because finding the time to write this was a bit difficult because I am in the middle of preparing a lot of presentations and producing a youth production. However, I knew this was important so I am taking the time in the early mornings to answer these questions.

I write when the feeling hits me and that can be anywhere, on a bus, subway, in the middle of a presentation (that takes a bit of maneuvering ahahahaha). Sometimes it’s difficult, I have a very busy schedule where much of my time is taken up with admin work; grant writing, invoices, contracts, preparing literacy outlines and curriculums for schools. But, I just find the time or write when a feeling hits or an idea hits. I don’t write every day or practice writing every day like a lot of writers say they do. I’ve never done that, and I think I’ll be okay. However, I do really want to get published, at this point I have countless plays and endless poems and short stories and I really do have to compile these and get thee to a publisher!

Sometimes I have to write as part of a job, so then there’s no choice, you just make time. I worked at CBC radio for a few years and I had to turn news and current affairs into poetic rants, songs, raps and commentaries for the radio. My turn around time was often one day—get the story and then perform live on the air at about 6 am or so every day. What working at CBC radio did for me though, was it not only gave me the discipline to write and create under pressure but it helped me with one of the skills I always possessed but is now much stronger: writing about anything on any topic within a short period of time. I now use that skill to create signature pieces for organizations or big events. I just wrote a signature poem for the Ontario Black History Society called “Reflections” and performed it on Sunday. The thing is I wanted to write it before Sunday but I was in a big spoken word show “When Sisters Speak” and was busy preparing and writing for that show, so on Sunday morning before the OBHS event there I was conducting research and putting my thoughts and the outline they sent me into poetic form.

So I guess the answer to this is that I make time, I am able to write under pressure or for a deadline, but I also write when the feeling hits me. I also sometimes write out of the pure anger and frustration of being a self-employed artist. My one-woman show True Confessions of a Single Woman While Waiting for her Big Break the off offoffoffoffoffoffoffoffoff Broadway Musical, was written in one day out of the sheer frustration of not being able to get work. I just did a reading of that play in Nova Scotia in October, but wrote it in 2003 or so and performed it at a theatre festival at the Atlantic Fringe.

What has been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a writer?

My biggest challenge as a writer is that I want to be published more than I am. I have a story about my life (very similar to this article I’m writing now) in an anthology called And I Will Paint The Sky by Carole Trainor and published by Pottersfield Press (ironically Pottersfield Press is run by Lesley Choyce who published my brother’s first book of poetry and he was also my English professor in university). I also have had poetry published in a magazine in Trinidad, as well as a travel column that I wrote for Sway Magazine online, and I am a member of SOCAN and have had songs published on recordings and my Spoken Word CD is part of the Archives of Canada. I love all of that, but I really want to get my children’s books, poetry books and plays published. The challenge is that being self-employed, the time to really put these manuscripts together is difficult. I actually tried to apply for a fellowship grant this year so I could go back to Trinidad and spend time immersing myself in the oral traditions there and take the time to write and put my poems together to create my first book of poems. I didn’t receive the grant and now I am just thinking I am going to have to complete at least one manuscript this year. So, that is my challenge. Because I have to pay the bills somehow, and I do youth outreach work, teach literacy workshops, write poems for other people, and spend 50% of my time doing admin work so I can get work, that professional development of “let’s sit down and put a manuscript together time” just isn’t there. However, I am making it a priority for this year and next year. So, it will happen! I am determined!

How have you changed as a writer over the years?

My writing over the years has changed and I find myself actually wanting to write more and am even looking at doing my masters in creative writing. What’s funny is my degree is in theatre, but because of the type of work and projects I’ve been involved with since I was in my 20s, people often think my degree is in English, Creative Writing or Education. I feel that through my experience I have earned a very non-traditional education with honorary degrees in all of those subjects.

My ability to write my artivational speeches, poems, short stories, anecdotes and plays are still a huge part of my life, my existence, but what has changed is that over the years, my writing is really becoming more personal, more reflective.

When I was younger my poems seemed to be about love and heartache and about my culture which is very important to me, but boy, I have a lot of Black and Proud titled poems. I think that for me, writing has always been a response to personal or societal stimulants.

Finally, I just want to say to the young writers out there to keep on writing, there are so many resources available to you now that didn’t exist when I was younger; utilize them. I also want to say it’s okay to dream and it’s okay to love writing, there are endless possibilities of what you can do with your writing. And finally, please don’t ever let anyone hold you back or stop you from using your words!

Check out my artist website www.imaniartsbiz.com for more information.

Emerging Author of the Month: David Cozac

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Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Toronto, and studied English Literature at the University of Windsor (B.A.) and Queen’s University (M.A.). I have long loved reading and books, so perhaps it was inevitable that I would eventually get around to writing one of my own. Professionally, my career has centred on human rights communications and program management, both in Canada and overseas.

Tell us about the piece you’ve decided to share.

This is an excerpt from Finishing the Road. Set in Guatemala in 1991, while the country’s civil war still continues, the novel tells three stories of individuals who’ve travelled through the country searching for and contemplating family, identity and belonging in a world in which they have come to feel estranged. One of the protagonists, a woman named Claire who is part Belgian and part Guatemalan (due to a fleeting affair that her mother had while travelling in Guatemala) travels to the country to meet the father she never met (but whom she had recently spoken to by telephone). However, he is murdered before she has an opportunity to see him in person. She chooses to remain in the country, travelling to several places in the country that had particular meaning for him and that he had told her to visit. She does so, writing personal, impressionistic accounts for an English-language newspaper in the country, using the motif of the rare and beautiful quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala. In travelling to, writing about and experiencing these places first-hand, Claire hopes to learn more not just about her biological father but also about her Guatemalan half.

One of the other main characters in Finishing the Road is a Torontonian, Marc, who is in Guatemala to study Spanish. When he accidentally comes across the first newspaper article by Claire, he is instantly drawn to her and impetuously decides to embark upon his own journey in Guatemala, letting her words be the guide, tracing her steps through every article that she writes. His is in a quest—unwittingly led by her—done in the hope of stepping into his own life and grounding his drifting soul, one that has never felt rooted in his hometown.

The excerpt is an article by Claire about one of those places where she travels: a remote Mayan village called Lancetillo.

When and why did you realize you had a passion for writing?

As mentioned, I have enjoyed reading for a long time. However, it was only after I had returned to Canada in 2000, after having lived and worked in Guatemala for a couple of years, that the need to write came to the fore. I came back armed with so many experiences and memories from my time there that I felt the need to channel them. So, I eventually decided to write a novel, which, while a work of fiction, does contain some elements based on people I know, stories I heard and places I visited.

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

I have been lucky enough to read a wide range of great literature by writers from around the world. If I were to select certain writers whose work has had a significant impact on me (and my writing), I would point to Jim Harrison, Cormac McCarthy and Gabriel García Márquez. With Harrison, he is simply an incredible storyteller with a gigantic heart and unyielding love for the world. McCarthy is a master of language and scenery. My single favourite novel is One Hundred Years of Solitude, which was my introduction to García Márquez.

What kind of writer do you aspire to be?

I suppose that I aspire to be a writer who is faithful to his vision and who writes with passion and conviction about it.

How and when do you find time to write?

I have to make time to write; otherwise, it won’t get done. For example, when I beganFinishing the Road a couple of years ago, I found that I was not making much progress. It was particularly difficult because I had a full-time job. Being at home was also a distraction, given the easy access to the Internet, television, etc. So, I joined the Toronto Writers’ Centre and went there every Saturday and Sunday over the course of almost a year. The TWC provided an ideal, distraction-free quiet space in which I managed to complete my manuscript. It involved a great deal of discipline on my part; however, because I was determined to complete the novel, I made the effort to spend weekends at the centre.

Author of the Month: Cherie Dimaline

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Tell us about yourself.

My name is Cherie Dimaline and this year I’ll be 38. Yipes! That’s crazy; I have no idea how that happened. First and foremost, in everything that I do, I have to properly introduce myself. I am Metis/Anishnaabe on my mother’s side. My family’s Metis roots travelled from the original Red River settlement where my ancestors fought alongside Louis Riel, and my Anishnaabe family roots stretched from communities along the journey from Manitoba to where we are now, near Christian Island First Nation on Lake Huron. My grandmother spoke her language and raised us to evolve, grow and succeed within the strength of our indigenous worldview. I am who I am because of the people who came before me.

In 2007, my book of short stories Red Rooms was published by Theytus Books, an amazing Aboriginal publishing house out of BC. After that, everything changed; I travelled the world, people wanted to hear me read my words out loud at podiums and on panels and I could call myself an honest-to-god author. Then again, nothing changed. I still had to work a day job and sometimes I paid my rent with an American Express card. But that’s writing, I guess, it really cannot be for anything other than the love of it. Anyways, now I am the editor of several magazines: Muskrat and FNH (First Nations House), and this year I’ll also be taking over the reins at a national in-print Aboriginal magazine. I recently contributed to a gothic anthology that Joyce Carol Oates tweeted about (yes, I am such a nerd that I am including a tweet in my bio). I’ve also penned a children’s book for on-reserve elementary schools, contributed to two new McGraw Hill-Ryerson textbooks for high school English students and have had the honour of being invited to present my work as part of an exhibit at the Museum of Civilization in Hull this coming summer. My first full length novel The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy will be released this spring and I’ll get to travel the world all over again. This novel was written half here in Canada and half in New Orleans, a city I have grown to love. It’s a city where anything can happen. For example, New Orleans is where I met my best friend, even though her reserve is really close to my home community on the Georgian Bay and we’d both lived in Toronto for more than a decade in the same urban Aboriginal community. I also have another book of short stories in the barrel and will start sending that out into the world looking for a publisher this year.

I have three kids between the ages of 20 and 6 and I collect teacups, books and tattoos.

When did you realize you had a passion for writing?

It was definitely the first time I saw words embedded in paper in my hand-me-down collection of Dr. Seuss books. I was rabid to learn them, to figure them out, to employ them. That sounds far-fetched, but honestly, I knew I wanted to create and play with stories before I could read. I guess the real passion started messing with my life shortly thereafter when I’d gotten in trouble in class for writing stories when I was supposed to be learning math. My mom would have to kick me out of the house to play “like a normal kid” when I was young. One day, I wrote an entire story on the bottoms of my shoes with a pen I had stuck in my hair on one of those ‘get out of the house’ excursions. I had to ride my bike home on the sides of my feet so it wouldn’t smudge. Writing is something that has never been far from my thoughts and feelings. I greedily steal moments and fragments from my life and others so that I can write about it later. I have been known to stop in the middle of an important event to write about it. (Confession: I wrote on my wedding day and while in labour with all 3 of my kids.)

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

There have been so many writers that have impacted me over the years. I have a series of tattoos I like to call my ‘nerd sleeve’ that pays homage to several of them. It is comprised of Anaïs Nin, Charles Bukowski, and Hunter S. Thompson. And while I may not have the same style as any of them, each of these writers demonstrated on a daily basis a commitment to the art of literature that was theological. That is what inspires me; handing over your entire soul to the craft of words and communication. There are other people, non-writers, who give me the same kind of inspiration; people who live to serve their art. A recent example would be from Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about an 85-year-old sushi master who has worked every day at making sushi for over 6 decades. Every day. As the title suggests, he even dreams of sushi, and never once, has he ever hated or grown bored of his job. That’s dedication. With one phrase: “In order to make delicious food, one must eat delicious food. Otherwise, how will you get the palate to know good from bad?” He has inspired me to be better by being more studious and diverse so that I can improve my writing.

That being said, if there were only two pieces of writing I could suggest in terms of the way they slide between my ribs like a blade and crack open my chest to get to my heart the quickest, they’d have to be “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot and “heat” by Charles Bukowski. Interestingly enough, they are both poems, and I am no poet. But great writing is great writing.

How and when do you find time to write?

Sleep is optional. LOL! Seriously though, you MUST make time. I’m trying to think of an apt metaphor here, and I suppose the only way I could equate it would be—a child who grows the strongest, the most well-rounded and prepared to face the world is the one you give time, love and guidance. It’s the same with the projects and jobs of your life. The ones you have invested with your time and energy will always be the ones that take centre stage. If you really want to be a writer, the kind of writer that truly makes a go of it, you MUST give your writing centre stage. It’s not going to be easy; I have 4 jobs and 3 kids and all of them are quite lovely and successful in their own ways, but I have to make time for writing, even if it means scribbling out notes on the back of a menu or skipping a night out at the end of a long week so that I can hash out a character’s back story. It’s damn hard work, and it’s worth every second.

What has been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a writer?

Doubt. It is a writer’s worst enemy. Collect your rejection letters and then start a bonfire. Learn what you can from mentors, experts and bestsellers, and then do better. Take criticism into consideration but never let it dampen your own fire, and be prepared to fight for it.

How have you changed as a writer over the years?

I cringe when I think of the highly romanticized drivel I used to write, like Jean Paul Sartre says in Nausea: “scribbling like a little girl with a nice new notebook.” But, we all have to go through it I suppose. I am a better writer now because I have come to appreciate that my vision is great, my style is unique and important, BUT there are rules to the craft of writing. And even if you choose to break those rules, you better know them first and that it is a conscious decision and not just an oversight. I read more widely and I study every day. If there is a sentence I like, I write it out in my own handwriting and pull it apart. If there is someone writing in a style similar to mine, I read them and find where we intersect and where we part and make sure that what we do similarly—I am doing it better. Most importantly, I trust my writing self, that’s the biggest change. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good editor—I just had the absolute pleasure of working with New York Times bestseller Eden Robinson on Girl Who Grew a Galaxy. I take direction, but also trust the direction I take and I always give merit to the original thought. In the past, I would crumble and cave under advice and criticism and it never worked out.

Emerging Author of the Month: Becky Blake

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Tell us about yourself.

I’m a fiction writer who has worked as a journalist, a script consultant, an advice columnist, and a playwright. My short stories and articles are often inspired by my travels around the world. I’m a recent graduate with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. I currently live in Toronto where I’m working on my first novel.

Tell us about the piece you’ve decided to share.

The piece is a short excerpt from my novel-in-progress, Yours to Keep. Barcelona is my favourite city in the world (so far!) and this novel was born out of the many impressions I came away with after living there. The book is about a Canadian woman who suffers a loss shortly after moving to Spain and ends up living on the streets, where she apprentices with a pickpocket. This excerpt shows her assisting in her first theft.

When and why did you realize you had a passion for writing?

According to my mom, my first word was ‘book,’ and I think a passion for reading and a passion for writing are often connected. The first story I wrote that garnered attention was called “Seaweed Soufflé.” It was about an underwater dinner party; I wrote it in Grade 1 and I’ve been writing pretty much ever since then. Growing up, my favourite place to hang out was always the library. I know a couple of writers who don’t read very much, but most of us read like our lives depended on it.

What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?

Wow. This is going to be quite a long list! When I was a young teen I remember being given Judy Blume books as a reward when I did well in school or had something scary to tackle. Her books were always provocative and important to me. As an older teen, I was reading Leonard Cohen, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Ondaatje, Heinrich Böll, J. D. Salinger, Allen Ginsberg, and Sylvia Plath. Then I became an actress for a few years and I read a lot of plays: Shakespeare and Chekhov were my favourites. When I began to focus more seriously on the craft of writing, I fell in love with many of the usual suspects: Virginia Woolf, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Raymond Carver. Then, I spent a year reading only female writers and my most significant discoveries from that exercise were the works of Angela Carter, Marguerite Duras, and Jean Rhys. My favourite contemporary writers over the last two years have been Francisco Goldman, Sarah Hall, Junot Díaz, and Daniel Alarcón.

What kind of writer do you aspire to be?

The kind who learns how to write better and faster so I can share as many stories as possible.

How and when do you find time to write?

I write in the morning. I used to meditate in the morning and then start writing, but after a while I realized that writing is a form of meditation in itself, so now I just get right to it. At my day job, I’ve been working only afternoons for several years now and it’s a sacrifice that feels right to me: to have a little less money and more time to write.

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