Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away?
I lived in Ottawa for about five years in elementary school. My dad’s career originally brought me to Ottawa, and it also took me away to California. We eventually moved back to Canada, but settled down in Toronto.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I’ve always been an avid reader, especially of sci-fi and fantasy, but never thought I was capable of writing until I gave it a try two years ago.
My writing community has mainly been in Toronto and online, but I’ve also been lucky enough to have my poetry featured in the lovely Ottawa-based publications Bywords and The Sprawl Mag.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since?
Since I haven’t been too involved in the Ottawa writing community specifically, I just generally wanted to express that the writing communities I’ve interacted with in Toronto, online, and elsewhere have all been incredibly welcoming and supportive. As a new writer, everything felt quite new and daunting, but folks have been kind, inspirational, and generous with their time and knowledge. I feel particularly lucky to be part of the Canadian writing community because we support and uplift each other, and we’re also fortunate to have government-funded programs that keep many of our beloved publications and programs going.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
I didn’t become a writer until decades after I left Ottawa. But I will say that I had fond memories of my childhood in Ottawa, some of which inspired and continues to inspire my poetry, including my poem that was published in Bywords and received an honourable mention in the John Newlove Award. There’s something about a child’s perspective that makes all manners of experiences feel larger than life, and sometimes I like to capture that kind of childlike wonder in my writing, so I often draw from my elementary school days in Ottawa in those instances.
Q: What are you working on now?
A couple of short stories and a lot of poems, including a short story and a poem forthcoming in Canadian publications, Augur Magazine and On Spec, respectively. And I’ve outlined a novella that I hope to get to soon. I’m early enough in my writing journey that I’m still trying a lot of things to discover my voice and what I’m good at, which is very exciting!
