Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I was nineteen and didn’t know what to do with myself. I had some friends living here and, coming from Kingston, Ottawa seemed like a “manageable” city, small enough not to be intimidating, but still busy with plenty to do. I enrolled in the College of Humanities at Carleton, although having to read Aristotle in second year nearly broke me. I ended up switching to Greek and Roman Studies, and then an MA from the University of Ottawa after that. Hard to believe I’ve been here for just over twenty years.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
Although I always had it my mind that I wanted to be a writer, and I submitted a few poems as part of my portfolio when applying to the College of Humanities program, I didn’t get really serious about writing until a little over ten years ago when I left school.
I can’t really say I’ve been part of the writing community here, though I’ve been peripherally aware of it. Most of my writing community I have found online in the friendships and writing circles that came out of various online writing classes. I regret not having pushed myself out of my shell more while I was at Carleton though. I knew of In/Words and various literary groups and events but was too shy to go.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
There’s such a relief in being in contact with other writers, isn’t there? In having the strange obsession/compulsion to make marks on paper be understood and celebrated.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
I think Ottawa’s size has a lot going for it. Not too large to be intimidating. Though I don’t think the literary community is as culturally diverse as perhaps it could be.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
I don’t think they have, except in so far as some of my historical fiction has been inspired by either reading Classics in university or from local history (as long as local is broadly interpreted as southern Ontario).
Q: What are you working on now?
Currently I’m looking for a home for a short story collection. Having just completed a novella, I’m trying to up the ante and write a novel. But this keeps getting sidetracked because of the affair I’m having with poetry at the moment.
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