Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I moved here for a job opportunity, around 11-12 years ago.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I started writing in a more professional sense in Toronto, where I lived for many years before moving to Ottawa. I met writers in Ottawa through my publisher at the time, as they kindly introduced me to Ottawa writers who published with their publishing house. I was also introduced to Ottawa-based writers through my job at Carleton, thanks to writers teaching in the English department. I am also lucky to be able to invite writers to speak to students in our department, so this is how I met many wonderful Ottawa writers, including a certain rob mclennan. I continue to find connection with writing communities in Ottawa via my students at Carleton. They are always up to interesting things, so I’m grateful to have a sense of what younger writers are doing to and learn from them.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
When I moved here and knew only a few people, and not many of them writers, I immediately realized that I had taken everything for granted that I had before, friends, connection, sense of home. I realized how important artistic communities are, to have a sense that you are not alone in your pursuits, to exchange ideas with other writers, and share resources. Writers spend a lot of time alone, but a balance between practice and connection is essential.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
Ottawa writers are great at supporting each other and celebrating each other’s writing and achievements. We’re sandwiched between Toronto and Montreal, so that’s hard sometimes, but Ottawa is a unique place that produces writing with a distinct perspective. That’s something to continue explore and to celebrate.
My new novel, Fret, fictionalizes Ottawa in a very loose sense. It is about a musician who loses touch with her musical community and, therefore, with her art form and her sense of self. This musician does, however, reestablish a bit of a community, thus finding her footing again. But there is at the heart of the novel a sense of isolation and examination of how not everyone wants to be part of a community or feels they deserve to be part of one. This experience is part of what is explored in Fret.
Q: What are you working on now?
It’s a novel, but I don’t want to give much away as I may change my mind about it. I will say that there are elements of speculative fiction involved, and that’s a fun departure for me.
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