Author Spotlights

Joan Dawson is a member of the Lunenburg County Historical Society, the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society, and the Antiquarian Club of Halifax, and she is a fellow of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. She has written many articles on maps and local history, co-authored Historic LaHave River Valley, and authored Nova Scotia’s Historic Rivers, Nova Scotia’s Lost Highways, The Mapmaker’s Eye, and The Mapmakers’ Legacy. Joan lives in Halifax.

How did you get interested in history? 

I’ve always like social history, and growing up in the UK with its mediaeval churches and ancient villages, it became part of my everyday life.

What books did you read as a young person made you want to become a writer? 

I read everything that came into my hands, from Winnie the Pooh to Shakespeare. From an early age at school we were encouraged to write, and I enjoyed it.   

You seem to take such an interesting slant in your books. I’m thinking of A History of Nova Scotia in 50 Objects and Nova Scotia’s Lost Communities … topics that aren’t often explored. In writing history books about our area, what do you hope readers will discover? 

I would like them to think about the way our communities have grown up, and to look for traces of the events and people that have shaped them into the places they are today,  their hopes and dreams, successes and disappointments, joys and sorrows.  

You’ve got a new book out this year, Nova Scotia’s Historic Harbours. What kinds of things did you find out that Nova Scotians may find surprising? What is it like to release a new book during a pandemic? 

Two very different questions! First, I would like people to realize that almost all of our history began on our harbours. They are where Europeans first met the Indigenous people who frequented them, where people arrived as adventurers, colonizers, immigrants or refugees, to begin new lives; where they established communities based on industries; where they saw changes over the years. 

Secondly, it is strangely relaxing not to be planning for a launch, for talks and signings, the usual events associated with a book release. I suppose—and hope—there may be reviews and media interviews, but it all seems to be very low key. Perhaps by the publication date which is still some time away, I’ll have more of an idea of how things will go.

What is your research process like? What’s your favourite part of writing a book? 

My research method varies depending on how familiar I already am with my subject. I may go back to old notes and documents, re-read books, and look for new information. Or I may start from scratch, using the internet to find background material, and then check other resources for facts and details. I often use old maps to get a feel for a place and its inhabitants. I like to visit places, take photos, browse in local museums and on the internet.  Probably my favourite part in writing a book is the initial planning and getting the first words onto the page.

What is your favourite part of Nova Scotia? 

Lunenburg county and the LaHave River, for their beauty and for the depth of their history.  

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be? 

An idle old woman messing about in her garden. (I often wish I had studied archaeology.)

If you could only have three books to read during the pandemic, what would they be and why? 

I recently bought Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies and The Mirror & The Light, but before I began on them, I went back to Wolf Hall, which I had read ages ago. I’m now nearly through Bring Up The Bodies, and will soon begin on the last (and thickest) of the trilogy. So there are the three that I’m actually reading, but if I were limited to only three for the duration, I would probably chose a complete Shakespeare, the Oxford Book of English Verse, and a Dickens novel.

What is bringing you happiness during this pandemic? What do you find the most difficult? 

A great joy has been sunny Sundays when my son and daughter-in-law and a grandson have come to have tea with me—at a distance—in a sheltered corner of my garden. Working in my garden is another joy, and even weeding, now that there’s all the time in the world, brings a sense of satisfaction. What is difficult is not being able to meet friends for coffee and a chat, but it’s good to exchange news and ideas by email.

What are you working on now? 

I have been writing pieces for Historic Nova Scotia, a website highlighting interesting people, places and events around the province.

– questions by Marilyn Smulders

Briana Corr Scott is a painter, illustrator, and an author who lives in Nova Scotia. Her oil paintings, paper doll kits, and children’s books are inspired by a deep love of the natural world. 

In this Q&A, Briana talks about how her love of art and children’s books came together. Her books include I Dream of Sable Island and The Book of Selkie, both published by Nimbus. (See the book trailer for The Book of Selkie here.)

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I’ve always loved your artwork and known you to be a painter. When did you decide you’d like to write a book and be an author too?

I have always loved writing. From a very young age I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator and author. I had a very influential creative writing teacher in high school and during that time I fell in love with poetry. Poetry and painting are the same activity to me; there is a method and an expectation, they both have restraints and a tradition that together form a creative box. I am more inventive with parameters. While I was attending art school I put aside the dream of being an illustrator and author because the illustration department  had just switched from analog to digital, and I wanted to learn how to paint. I continued to study poetry in my electives,  and I took on fine art as a major. Consequently, I have had to learn a lot of the computer programs for illustration later in life but I don’t regret the path I took to get here. I didn’t pick up my childhood dream again until recently, around 2016. I was just about to burst with all the stories I was keeping inside. I sometimes have imposter syndrome about being an author, but hey, it is way too fun for that to get in the way for very long. 

Where do you draw your inspiration?

My words and paintings are inspired by drawing from life, mostly objects from nature. Drawing is the thinking part of my process, and the creative thing I love most out of anything I do. I start by drawing objects that I am curious about. While I am drawing, pieces of stories or lines of poems come to me and I jot them down next to the sketch. I have piles of these scribbles and sketches in my studio. At some point a whole story or a whole series of paintings forms from this jumble.  I usually work around a theme. For example, in 2017, I was obsessed with Sable Island. I made a series of 20 fine art oil paintings at the same time I wrote my first picture book, She Dreams of Sable Island. I feel like whatever am currently curious about gets pushed out through writing, illustrating and painting. 

From the illustration exhibition 1,000 Words held at Teichert Gallery last year, I know you actually created your first book much earlier, when you were a little girl. Can you tell me about that?

My first grade teacher saw how much I loved to draw. She encouraged my mother to help me enter a book making contest. She helped me put together the illustrations and story into a book. Specifically,  my mother had to build a book from scratch , using a pattern and a typewriter , she even had to hand bind it. The title of the book is called The Flower Horse, and I find it funny that this is  very “on brand” for what I create today. The book is a beautiful object and I  treasure it. Making a book is like creating a universe that someone else can hold in their hands. I became hooked on that process at a young age, and it is every bit as thrilling to me now as it was back then. 

What were the books you enjoyed as a girl? 

I have a whole slew of picture books that I loved and I still love to look at, they include some Gyo Fujikawa among others.  For novels I loved the Anne of Green Gables series and Little Women. I loved and re-read Little Women so much that I named two of my children after the main characters. (I have a Josephine and a Teddy. Jo thinks her middle name is March but it is really Margaret. ) I also loved anything by James Herriot. In high school I lived in the poetry section of the library, Charles Simic was and is still a favourite.

I Dream of Sable Island contains paper dolls … I remember loving paper dolls when I was a kid but they seem so retro now … why did you want to create paper dolls in your first book and what has been the reaction been from kids?

I loved making paper dolls and figuring out all the details of the wardrobes when I was younger. I started an illustration business self publishing paper doll kits in 2011, after making a series of kits for my own children. It sparked something inside me and I have been making them ever since. I was thrilled when Nimbus wanted to include a kit with my first picture book, I think it adds another layer of interaction with the stories I write. 

Congratulations on your new book, The Book of Selkie. What’s it like releasing a new book during a pandemic?

Thank you! This story has been inside me for 30 years at least, I am happy to have it in the world. Books and stories are so important right now because they offer a chance to leave your house, even if it is just in your imagination. I am determined to give The Book of Selkie a proper release despite the pandemic. I have created lots of digital content to help get this story into the world. I am excited to share some stop-motion videos featuring my selkie paper doll, as well as colouring pages, bookmarks and projects for families to make at home. My version of the selkie is so relevant right now; she is a creative person who loves to be alone, loves to make things with her hands, and loves to eat simple, good food.  That is what a lot of us are doing in isolation if we are lucky 🙂 

Your website is so good. I love the short videos and the gallery is lovely. You’ve also got a section called Fun Free Things. What’s your hope for this section?

“Fun Free Things” is a section I created to share colouring pages and other resources to accompany my picture books.  During the pandemic I decided to add to it weekly. I wanted to help people in some way, and I used my skills to create activities with kids and families in mind.  It is place where I post stop motion stories that I make with my paper dolls, drawing tutorials, and free printable projects. It is important to me that as many people as possible can see and interact with my art. I have a degree in Museum Education, and some part of me is linking back to that skill set by creating these themed activities. The free projects are another layer of interaction with what I make.  

What are some things you’ve been doing to cope with the stay-home order? What are you missing the most?

I have been pretty busy despite the stay home order. My husband and I both work at home so that hasn’t changed,  but my three kids are home from school. I love having them home but I have less focused time in the studio. The kids enjoy helping me or watching me make the stop motion videos so we sometimes do that as a group. I have made lots of sketches in the 20 minutes here and there when I am not cooking or homeschooling or entertaining kids. I am not putting pressure on myself to work because nothing good comes of that, but if some time materializes I do something that makes me happy.  I using time in the evenings for a personal project in which I am documenting and dissecting all the themes of my work by creating a “visual vocabulary”. Each day I draw a different item that I always return to, and then I write about it and what it might symbolize. This project is for my own benefit but people have enjoyed learning about this “behind the scenes” investigation on social media. I also taught a drawing class via Zoom which was fun and crazy! 

What will be one of the first things you do when we’re allowed to go out again?

I will put on real pants, hug some people I haven’t  seen, and then I will go eat a delicious sandwich at the Bird’s Nest Cafe in Halifax which is one of my favourite treats. I will then walk down to Argyle Fine Art and look at beautiful art and then I will poke around Desseres. 

What are you working on now?

I am extremely excited about my next book project with Nimbus. The new book is a retelling of the classic story of Thumbelina. It is called Wildflower.  The ideas for it started this past summer while I was on a painting residency at the Burren College of Art in Ireland. I was observing  and sketching the rare wildflowers that grow in the Burren.There is a strict code about not picking these wildflowers, and that honour code inspired me and became one of the themes of the book in an interesting way.  The other theme is about the bond between a mother and a child. I am so excited to escape into this new universe, it is very different from the two other books I have published. 

– questions by Marilyn Smulders

Jo Treggiari was born in London, England, and raised in Canada. She spent many years in Oakland, California and New York, where she trained as a boxer, wrote for a punk magazine, and owned a gangster rap/indie rock record label. Her novels for teens include Ashes, Ashes, a multiple award nominee and bestseller, a novella Love You Like Suicide, a psych-thriller Blood Will Out, and her most recent book The Grey Sisters which was a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist and an Arthur Ellis Award finalist.  She lives with her two children in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where she co-owns a curated, spirited, independent bookstore Lexicon Books. 

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Tell me about your latest YA novel The Grey Sisters. What’s it about?

The Grey Sisters follows three teen girls as they travel to the site of the mountain-side plane crash that killed their siblings. D and Spider are hoping for closure, and Min comes along for support. Meanwhile, Ariel, a member of an isolated survivalist cult who lives on the mountain, experiences a deadly attack that sends her looking for help from the outside. When the girls meet in a chance encounter, none of them are prepared for the way their very different worlds collide. I was asked to sum up the plot in one sentence recently and I said it was Little Women meets Deliverance. 

You seem to be unique among YA authors in that your books are scary and this seems unusual to me. What is it about these genres (YA, thrillers) that attracts you?

The exciting thing about writing for teens is that you can delve into experiences that most humans face—love, death, loss, grief, fear to name a few—but for a teenager, they are happening for the first time and there’s a tremendous amount of emotion and growth attached to that. A thriller lets me ramp up all those feelings, heighten twists of the plot, and build my characters by testing them. Writing page-turners comes naturally to me but I spend a lot of time fleshing out my characters so that readers can still relate to them in some way even though most of us will live our lives serial-killer and cult free.

Back when you were a teen reading YA books, what did you read?

I was a voracious reader so I read everything. All the books in the house which included all of my parents’ books too. Both of them are teachers, and my father is also a librarian. I read and enjoyed classic literature including the myths, Arthurian legends, fairytales, but also modern horror like Stephen King and Clive Barker, and I was a huge fan of Tolkien, Charles de Lint and Ursula K. Leguin. My favourite genre was adventure stories but back then there weren’t many that featured female or diverse heroes so that’s definitely become a theme in my books. 

Congratulations on the nomination of The Grey Sisters for an Arthur Ellis Award. What was your reaction upon hearing? Why are awards (and award nominations) important for writers? 

Thank you! I was thrilled and surprised.  The great thing about awards and nominations is that they increase the visibility of your work. And they level the playing field especially here in Canada. Lesser-known authors and smaller publishers have as good a chance as the bigger houses and best-sellers. There’s often a cash prize as well and that’s certainly appreciated by most authors I know!

How did you end up in Lunenburg? Does Lunenburg or the south shore end up in your fiction?

Like so many others, I came on a trip, fell in love with the beauty of Nova Scotia, and on a whim decided to move here. I grew up in Ottawa, but lived in the States for 30 years before making my way back to Canada.  Nova Scotia definitely informs my plot ideas and inspires me but since I write about horrible things, I’ve been reluctant to situate my books here geographically. That being said, I’ve read a lot of local non-fiction that has flavored my stories and I’ve begun a first-draft for a YA mystery that will be set here in my hometown.

Not only are you a writer but a bookstore owner too. Can you tell me about Lexicon Books and how it came to be? Is Lexicon still operational right now?

One of my many past jobs was selling books in upstate New York at The Golden Notebook which has been in business now for over 40 years. It’s a wonderful magical place like so many bookstores are and it’s located in a town very like Lunenburg—an arts and culture hub, a tourist destination, a summer spot, but with a year-round community of avid readers. Owning a bookstore was always a dream of mine but I fast-forwarded it when I became a single mother. There weren’t many jobs available to me that would forgive snow days, sick days, and shorter hours due to school pick-ups. I knew fellow moms Anne-Marie and Alice and it just seemed to come together naturally. We are closed temporarily due to Covid-19 but we have plans to open again as soon as it is safe for everyone. 

You wrote about the plague in your acclaimed book Ashes, Ashes. As we live through this pandemic, how does the experience feel like fiction? 

When I wrote Ashes, Ashes back in 2010 my children were young and I was imagining the worst thing that could happen to their world. I  wanted to explore the aftermath of something so cataclysmic and life-altering and through it write about bravery, strength and our shared humanity. Would we pull together? Would some people fight to preserve how things had been, or put their faith into science and technology, while others built new communities and went back to the old way of living–growing food, and reconnecting with the earth? It does seem prescient at the moment and recent tragedies have been almost unbearable but I am heartened by how people look after each other, check in with each other, and how kindness and compassion can overcome anything.

Writers are generally used to being solitary to work — has the State of Emergency changed things for you? Are you able to write?

I’m used to and enjoy the isolation of working alone on my books but I also love interacting with people—one of the reasons that working at the bookstore is so fulfilling- so it’s been hard only seeing my friends and neighbors at a distance. Most of my family lives in Europe and that has certainly been a sadness for me. I’m lucky that my kids have been with me full-time although we had to go through a period of adjustment getting the younger one settled with home schooling. My eldest already studies from home.  If I had not finished a first draft of a new book in March, I’m not sure if the current situation would have lent itself to a new project but fortunately I am editing and I find it easy to immerse myself in that process. Writing has always been a cathartic activity for me so there’s a lot of comfort in that as well. 

What are some of the positives you are experiencing?

I could say that I am embracing the slower pace of life at the moment but to be honest my daily life hasn’t changed that much.Normally the bookstore would be on winter hours still, and this is the time of year when I try to write a new book so I was already in hibernation mode.  Being surrounded by nature has always mattered a lot to me and to my well-being and it’s a big reason why I moved here. I can still get out for long hikes with dogs and kids. My study overlooks the harbour and the ocean.I’m whipping my vegetable garden into shape. I have a houseful of books. I feel very grateful.  

What are three great books you’d recommend to folks who are at home and need a good read?

In general fiction I just read and loved Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, and  Hamnet and Judith by Maggie O’Farrell. In Middle-Grade and YA, I’d say Coo by Kaela Noel, Bloom by Kenneth Oppel and Keep This To Yourself by Tom Ryan.

What are you working on right now?

I’m doing edits on a new teen thriller called Heartbreak Homes which will hopefully come out next year. And in another compartment of my brain, I am working on a first draft of a mystery thriller The Moontown Murder Squad set in Lunenburg.

Tammy Armstrong is the author of two novels and five poetry collections. Her debut collection, Bogman’s Music (Anvil, 2001), was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Her most recent book is a poetry collection titled Year of the Metal Rabbit, which was published by Gaspereau Press last fall. In what follows, Armstrong discusses her writing practice, what she loves about living in southwestern Nova Scotia, new books she’s looking forward to, and more.

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How long have you been writing? What drew you to writing in general, and poetry in particular?

I suppose, like many writers, I’ve been writing in some way since I was young. Before I started school, I’d sit on the kitchen counter while my mother cooked and she’d say, “Tell me a story or make up a song,” and so I would. I never had a sense of being “drawn” to writing until I submitted a manuscript to UBC’s Creative Writing Department. I was an undergrad and wanted to switch out of the English department, but was unsure where to go. Before that, writing was just something I did, and I didn’t see it as anything beyond that. I didn’t have aspirations to publish books; that wasn’t something that I felt to be in my reach until I was in my mid-20s.

I probably have suspicions about language that brought me to writing, slant-wise, as well. I had to go through the ITA program in grades one and two. ITA was a ludicrous, 1960s literacy project based on synthetic phonics and short hand, with a symbolic alphabet of 43-45 characters—none of which accounted for regional accents. On the page, it looked like Chaucer, the Jabberwocky, and the Cat in the Hat got together over drinks and co-wrote a book for children. Parents couldn’t read it and were therefore shut out of their kid’s first years’ of literacy. I could already read and write when I started school, but I was reprimanded for spelling even my name in conventional English or reading books written in conventional English. In this way, English became subversive to me. I learned that writing exercises my mother made me do at home, were not the exercises I did at school. It was all very Cold War. In grade three, we were told to forget ITA and learn how words were really spelled. You can see how there’s now a generation out there with terrible spelling skills. I came away from that project with a distrust for rigid systems, but also with a better understanding that there is no one-way to approach language. It has shape-shifting qualities.

Having said all that, I came to poetry through music as well. I wasn’t exposed to much poetry when I was younger, but I had access to a lot of records and so songwriters, to some degree, have influenced how I think about language and form. I’m thinking of writers like Gordon Lightfoot, Bobbie Gentry, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt. Each of them, in their own way, manage to endow marginal characters, edge lands, and difficult experiences, with a sense of grace that other, lesser writers might overlook or dismiss. I also grew up in the 90s and there were many, many wonderful songwriters recording then, as well.

How do you know when a poem is done?

Finished is always a feeling, isn’t it? I never know, really, but I have a sense when the snags are sanded down, when nothing jumps out of the frame. If a line or a word bothers me each time I read a piece, if a stanza is balancing badly on three legs, then I know I’ve got to go back and fix it. When I feel that everything is resting or moving as it should, where it should, then I’m ready to move away from it.

While I wrote the collection over six-seven years, I wanted to compress many of those experiences into a seasonal/annual wheel. Over those years, I lived in four cities in two countries, I travelled to another six countries, and saw firsthand austerity riots in Athens, mega forest fires in New Mexico, and Colorado’s flash floods, which tore through our little town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains—with devastating results. I saw the yards of old boats that African migrants risked their lives in to reach Sicily. And my husband and I drove from Colorado to Nova Scotia five times in two years. All the people I met and all that I saw in those years made my sense of the world strange. It made everything feel displaced and misplaced.

While all of this shifting was happening, I was also finishing up my doctoral dissertation, which explored how animals disrupt poetry with their presence. So, I suppose the “metal rabbit” is that juxtaposition between all things outside the animal (in my case a lot of cars, and planes, and urban living) and all things which give space to the animal (in my case the sea birds and seals now, and the mountain cats, bears, rattlesnakes, mule deer, coyotes, and rabbits I shared my yard with in Colorado). This is why there’s so much shape-shifting in the collection, I think. When you pass by things quickly, or see them through glass, they can trick your eye. They can become something they’re not.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” And I adopt that sort of gentle handling, when it comes to how I think about writing. I come to the page every day, but some days might be puttering or reading or taking notes, and that’s okay. I’m not a fast writer, so I don’t have daily word count expectations or unachievable goals. With things the way they are right now, I feel inadequate with words. So I’ve been spending time reading Anna Akhmatova and letters written during the Spanish Flu, though I have to keep reminding myself that I am reading from the other side of that pandemic and the letters are from the centre; there was no ending for the writers yet, there was only being inside of it.

I also love how various art forms speak to each other. Lately, I’ve been really interested in visual artists, such as Andrew Wyeth, Andrea Kowch, Linden Frederick, and the Russian architect Alexander Nerovnya. All their work orbits around houses, in a sense. I think seeing how others translate the world in other mediums is both a humbling and inspiring way to spend an afternoon.

Do you have any writing rituals?

More habit than ritual, I suppose, but I like to take the first hour every morning to read some poetry or some fiction, especially something that challenges my own preconceptions of writing. I always have a hot cup of Yorkshire tea beside me when I work. And I always write under a quilt that a friend made for me some years ago. I write in an armchair by my window so I can spy on the bird drama that unfolds daily from the English Walnuts outside. When I’m editing, I like to use these really nice metallic gel pens that I bought in Latvia a few years ago. I haven’t been able to find them anywhere since, so I suspect I’ll miss them when they’re gone. I wish my dog would come hang out in my office with me, but he’s afraid of stairs and refuses to make the trip up to my room. That’s a German Shepherd for you.

What’s the biggest misconception about being a writer?

I’m not sure . . . maybe the misconception is how much work goes into writing a book, how much of yourself you have to put into it, for years. I read a while ago an analogy to this (can’t remember where), that said something like, can you imagine an architect building a beautiful home and then having to put it on a flatbed truck and move it around, asking if anyone wants to buy it? Writers work on projects for years with very few assurances that they’ll ever see publication. I think all the foolishness with social media tends to skip the hard work because everyone just wants to see the result. Here’s a photo of me after all the hard work’s been done. But we also learn from mistakes and disappointments, and these are, sometimes, the most vital means of achieving a goal, or realizing that we were reaching for the wrong goal. When I look around at all my bookshelves, I see them in terms of years and years of very hard work, so I quietly celebrate and appreciate them in that way.

What’s great about writing in your part of Nova Scotia?

It’s very quiet and kind here. I live in a village where my husband and I may be the only full-time residents not connected, in some way, with lobster fishing. My neighbours not only welcomed us here—no familiar ties, just a couple of vagabonds from away—they’ve also taught me a lot about the landscape, as well as the wildlife. I’m much better with my shorebirds now and my neighbours know, if they see me, I’ll have questions for them about something or other. I’m privileged to be able to live in a rural area by the water, with so many beautiful beaches nearby, and I say a little thank you every day for being able to wake up here and spend my days writing. I’ve always felt that I write from the edges of the country anyway, so I’m happy here, where I can watch the tides and weather change. It’s also the second longest address I’ve ever had.

Are there any books coming out this year that you’re excited about?

I’m looking forward to reading quite a few books, when our world find its balance again. In fiction: Edward Carey’s The Swallowed Man; Anne Louise Avery’s retelling of Reynard the Fox; and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. In non-fiction: Cassie Chambers’ Hill Women; and Lives of Houses, edited by Hermione Lee and Kate Kennedy. And in poetry: Molly Spencer’s If the House; Bruce Snider’s Fruit; Peter Gizzi’s Sky Burial; Linda McKenna’s In the Museum of Misremembered Things; and Sinéad Morrissey’s Found Architecture.  . . . seems to be a bit of a theme here . . .

What’s next for you?

I’ve been working on a novel for a few years now that takes place in New Brunswick lumber camps in the 1920s. I’m also working on a new poetry collection.

“Someone once said, ‘You’re a cinematic writer and a literary filmmaker.’ … For me, the two mediums are completely different languages.”

Shandi Mitchell is both an acclaimed novelist and filmmaker. Her second novel, The Waiting Hours (Penguin Random House), immerses the reader in the lives of three first responders: a trauma nurse, a police officer, and a 911 dispatcher.  Her first novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, was released in 2010 to great acclaim. It won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the John and Margaret Savage First Book Award, the Regional Commonwealth Fiction Prize, the KOBZAR Literary Prize, and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. 

Her films include The Disappeared, Tell Me, and Baba’s House.

Born in New Brunswick, raised in Alberta, Shandi presently lives on Nova Scotia’s south shore.

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First of all, tell me about The Waiting Hours. What was the inspiration for it? Why did you decide to immerse yourself in this world?

Inspiration is difficult for me to pinpoint. It starts as a vague internal questioning. Something I’m sensing in the world, something gnawing inside me, or a chance encounter that bumps me into a character which begins the exploration of what I can’t yet articulate.

Before this novel began, I was sensing a mounting global anxiety and absorbing the collective grief, tension, and uncertainty of the world post-Boston Marathon bombing and pre-Trump. I borrowed a car that had a police scanner and as I was driving through the city on a perfect sunny day, I heard a constant chatter of invisible emergencies all around me. I wondered about what is seen and isn’t seen. At the same time, I was also feeling like a first responder for my family dealing with mounting medical emergencies.

I wondered about the accumulation of loss and trauma and the personal cost of running into crisis.  I have loved ones with mental illness and I think I was also trying to find a way to hold those difficult, conflicted feelings on the page. I wondered what it might be like to be a full-time responder, the pressures on and off the job. How they cope. How they’re affected by their work. How they step back into the ordinary world.  I wanted to know how they (we) keep their (our) hearts open. I started to dream 911 calls, and I was on the receiving end. That’s when Tamara arrived. I began to follow her and she led me to the others.

The book starts with a line from Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing – “Fear has a smell as does love.” How does that line relate to your novel, and perhaps to today’s situation during the worldwide COVID-19 crisis?

One of the primary characters is a search and rescue dog, Zeus. His job is to find those who are lost. Scent is his narrative. He can ‘read’ us emotionally, as well as physically. Like Zeus, I was searching for how we find our way back to “alive”.  How we break through the uncertainty and fear of waiting for the storms of life to arrive or pass or end. Waiting for something to change, something to happen. But in the waiting, there is also the possibility to act. To choose finding the small graces, courage, beauty, and light of the everyday. To choose love over fear. 

How did you come to know so much about the jobs and lives of the three first responders? What kind of research did you do?

I talked to responders. I read first person accounts. I did ride-alongs and sit-ins. I listened and watched.  I was incredibly lucky to be invited into communities willing to share their stories and show me their worlds.  At later stages in the writing, I asked professionals to assess the work’s authenticity. Did it feel true for my characters? I’ve always admired the skill, pride, high-pressure calm, humour, and compassion that I found in these fields. I once considered a medical profession, but I don’t think I could have found the balance to not absorb all the stories of the lives I encountered. I wouldn’t have been able to keep myself safe.

There’s a gap of almost 10 years between your first and second novels. Why is that? Given the overwhelming positive critical response to your first novel, was there a lot of pressure on you to pick up the pen again?

Yes, I think my publisher would have liked me to keep writing! But I had a feature film, The Disappeared that was gearing up immediately after my first book was released. Like writing a novel, the film process is long and all-consuming. From inception to writing to pitching and funding and rewriting and casting and directing and editing and distribution. Five years is not an uncommon time frame. And then I started, The Waiting Hours. A different process but equally consuming: conceiving, researching, writing draft after draft, securing a publisher, copy editing, proofing, covers, author materials, release and festivals… Long form projects are a marathon. They take years. And through it all, there is life and the constant chase for money and side jobs to allow the time to create. Every artist knows the hardship, dedication, courage, and obsession that it takes to complete something. The pressure comes from within. The need to do it despite the odds of it being seen or read. To do it because it’s the only way you know how to speak.

What impact did participating in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program have in your writing of Under This Unbroken Sky?

The mentorship program gave me encouragement, courage, and the conviction to keep going. It was a safe place to step into the unknown, knowing that my mentor was up ahead holding up a light, coaxing me onwards. It’s such a vulnerable time to share early or first attempts, so to have someone cheering you on and a program like this saying ‘we see something here’ is a powerful infusion of confidence. Having also been a mentor for this program, the goal is not necessarily to achieve a finished work, but to strengthen the voice, hold the fragile bloom of possibilities, and share some of what you’ve learned along the way. It’s about keeping the focus on the page. One step, one step, one step…until you reach the end. Then go back to the beginning and start again.

I note that your mentor for the program was Sue Goyette, a poet. This strikes me because so many passages of The Waiting Hours are pure poetry. Do you write poetry too?

I was so fortunate to have Sue, one of our treasured writers, as my mentor. She is poetry for me. Not only her work, but her engagement with community and her deep observation of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and our fragile, confounding, heartbreaking, astounding world. I’m fascinated by poets and how they see and taste metaphor. I love the musicality of language and the tonalities that can be imbued in structure and word choice. I’ve written a few poems, but they sit in my boneyard file. I think of them more as portraits. I don’t see universes in them. I do consciously try to use the language of poetry in my writing if it reflects a character’s internal being, or if I want to pull beyond the limits of fiction to allow the metaphor to reverberate. In The Waiting Hours I was playing with music for Tamara’s character and a poet’s heart for Hassan. I love the challenge, limitation, and impossibility of creating a sense of another art form with words. 

How does being a filmmaker influence your writing? And vice versa, how does being a writer influence your filmmaking?

Someone once said, “You’re a cinematic writer and a literary filmmaker”. I’m not sure that’s a good thing!  Filmmaking has taught me to see. I bring film techniques to fiction writing such as constructing scene arcs and strong transitions. I’m conscious of tension and subtext.  I want the reader to vividly enter the story. When I read, I want to feel something. I ‘see’ my scenes or chapters, then try to create a language to allow the reader to see it, too. In fiction, I evoke an emotional tone. In film, I create a visual palette to affect the tone. I approach both forms through character, but in film I’m looking for visual ways to reveal a character’s internal state, whereas in fiction I’m inside my characters. For me, the two mediums are completely different languages.

As a writer, how are you uniquely suited to coping with the Stay Home edict? Do you have any tips to help people get through this period?

As a writer, my world is often solitary. The aloneness doesn’t unsettle me as much. But since my creative work is to observe, question and hold the pulse of life, I’m finding at times it’s a difficult balance not to absorb all the heightened emotions and worries of this time. I don’t have tips. I’m sure I’m doing what we all are trying to do—managing our best. Giving ourselves permission to feel; soothing with movies, music, food, and books; allowing laugher within the grief; holding close those we love, reaching out to friends and family…hello, hello, hello. Being grateful for small things. Trying to take good care of one’s self and those around us. Trying not to “smell” only the fear.

What makes you laugh?

Someone else laughing. Children discovering anew. Me discovering anew.

My dog’s unbounding joy for a walk, for food, for play, for waking up, for a poop…. the gratitude of every moment of her day.

Being awed by great art, food, films, books…Work that makes me marvel at the capacity of human creation.

Encountering the wild in an unexpected moment.

Silly games. Goofy jokes. Great meals. Orange super moon’s rising over the ocean.

Where’s your happy place?

As above. By the sea. By the sky. In fields. Sun warm gardens. Finding a feather. Cake for breakfast. Finishing a project. 

What are you working on right now?

There’s a work I started and left last year, told from the POV of a whale, with the constraint of one page per chapter. I was curious if it could accumulate and arc like a work of fiction and if I could be free enough to write underwater. Maybe I’ll pick it up again.

I have another long piece that I hope to write. I’m 70 pages in and will have to wait and see if it’s large enough for a novel. I don’t talk about this type of work until I have a first draft. I don’t want to scare it away.

I have a film I’d like to make. But in these times, that project may be delayed for years. Lately, I find myself thinking about smaller projects. Maybe I’ll turn to small films that require just me and a camera. 

But mostly, I’d like to rest now and give myself permission to do nothing. Plant some seeds, paint a door, fill a bird feeder… Normally, after completing a novel and depleting myself creatively, I yearn to gorge on life and reconnect with the real world. But with the world closed down, I seem to be listening for what story is calling next and wondering how this time is changing us, and me.  

Daphne Greer is an award-winning writer of young adult novels, including Maxed Out (Orca, 2012); Jacob’s Landing (Nimbus, 2015); the Maxed Out sequel, Camped Out (Orca, 2017); and her latest novel, Finding Grace (Nimbus, 2018), a finalist for the 2019 Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature. Currently suffering from a broken wrist, Daphne answered some questions for us while typing with only her left hand. She lives in Newport Landing, NS.

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How long have you been writing? What drew you to writing in general and YA in particular?

I’ve been writing for approximately 18 years. I fell into it completely by accident when I was trying to find a book to help a family member understand his brother, who lives with autism. When I couldn’t find one that spoke to his needs, I decided to write a picture book, which later got turned into a chapter book and caught the eye of the American Library Association. Maxed Out is the title of that first book. Why YA? I guess it’s just an easy age to tap into, and it’s full of emotional highs and lows that make for a good story. 

How do you deal with writer’s block? 

When I have writer’s block, I try to get out of my head and allow free will to flow through. I often say a prayer before I write. I find going for a walk really clears my head. While out walking, I talk out loud about my writing problem. I know… a little out there–but usually, by the end of the walk, I have an idea around the block. 

How does living in Nova Scotia influence your writing? 

I find that I’m writing stories that are set in places I’m familiar with. Jacob’s Landing is set in Newport Landing, where I live. Camped Out is set at Big Cove YMCA Camp in Pictou, NS.

Do you have any writing rituals? 

I’m pretty basic. I can write anywhere, anytime. I guess my only ritual is a little prayer that opens up my creative juices, and I try to just take it one moment at a time. I don’t get focused on the outcome. I usually approach every story with a challenge for myself. That challenge is ‘let’s see if I can pull this off….’

Do you remember your first encounter with the Writers’ Fed? 

Yes! I signed up for a writing course with the beloved Norene Smiley. I sat around the table with my little picture book and about 12 other keen adults. After reading and listening to their feedback, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness. What have I got myself into?’ In that moment, I realized that I had a lot to learn. And I had several more weeks to go. So… the next day, I thought about the feedback and started a re write. I ditched the picture book and turned my initial idea into a chapter book. I’ll never forget what it felt like when Norene said, “I feel like giving you a hug because you listened to the feedback….”  I felt I could pull it off. Kind of like the little engine that could.

What’s the most interesting place wgere you have presented to children? 

When I was nominated for a Silver Birch Award, I gave several presentations in Toronto. That was a pretty neat experience. I signed my first arm that trip. 

What was the last great book you read?

The last book I read was No Fixed Address by Susin Nelson. I love her writing style. 

Do you have a guilty pleasure? 

Guilty pleasure: chocolate. Always chocolate.

What are you working on now? 

I just finished my latest draft, Jacob’s Dilemma. Its a sequel to Jacob’s Landing. It’s in the hands of my editor right now. Fingers (and toes) crossed that she likes it.

– with Linda Hudson, WFNS Arts Education Officer 

Halifax-based Jessica Scott Kerrin is the best-selling author of sixteen books—but she didn’t always want to be a writer. She wanted to be an astronaut. Then she had to get glasses in grade two, putting an end to her starry dreams. So, she started writing stories, and when she grew up, an astronaut signed her book about rockets! Still fascinated by outer space, Jessica’s latest novel, Clear Skies, takes place during the 1960s Space Race to the Moon. Jessica’s mentored many writers, she’s toured hundreds of schools and libraries across Canada and the United States and her books have been translated into six languages.

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How long have you been writing? What drew you to writing in general, and children’s literature in particular?

I’ve been making up stories since I was little, but my first book came out in 2005. My son and his friends served as inspiration for some of my earlier themes. 

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

I’m lucky that I’ve never experienced it. I wish I could say that about bad first drafts.

How has living in Nova Scotia influenced your writing?

I’ve lived in Halifax for all of my adult life, having moved here from Alberta to enroll in NSCAD (a painting major, then later, for a Master’s in Public Administration at Dalhousie). Nova Scotia has greatly influenced the characters, settings and weather for my novels.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I treat writing like a day job with deadlines that must be met. This is because I had a long career in arts administration, and I always enjoyed working with artists, dancers and curators who were both creative as well as dependable. That said, I do have some wonderful tools that I love to use: Scrivener (a writing software), post-its, my red-inked fountain pen, my desk that can be raised and lowered (lately, it’s mostly lowered) and most recently, due to necessity because my favorite libraries and bookstores are closed, my Kobo reader.

What has your experience with the Writers in the Schools program been like?  

I’ve presented to well over 150 schools across Canada and in the US. Each presentation is important to me because there are always a handful of future authors in the crowd. Earlier in my writing career, I presented to Grades 3-4, and eventually moved up to the Grade 6s when the content of my novels suited that age. The Grade 6s are taller than me and they ask some pretty sophisticated questions, so they keep me on my toes. My newest group is the kindergarten and primaries crowd, due to my picture book that came out in the past year. I thought it would be a challenge to hold and keep the attention of these little ones, but I’ve learned how by following advice from their fabulous teachers. You never know what these young students will ask, which is half the fun.

Where has been the most interesting place you have presented to children?

I’ve read to children aboard Theodore Tugboat as it crossed the Halifax harbour.

What was the last great book you read?

I’m going to go with the beautifully illustrated and written picture book called Small in the City by another NSCAD grad, Sydney Smith.

Do you have a guilty pleasure?

I bought a keyboard specifically because it is very noisy and sounds exactly like a typewriter. I literally pound out my words. It makes me feel powerful. I also keep buying toys for my dog, Ivy, from my local pet store. Her job is to distribute them evenly throughout the house, and my job is to gather and return them to her basket, only to be redistributed. This cycle is never ending. 

When you are not writing, how do you like to spend your time?

Lately, because of the pandemic, I’ve been doing a lot of knitting, sewing, reading and enrolling in digital workshops. I try to keep up with technology. It’s a losing battle, equal to Ivy’s toy basket (see question 8). 

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a middle reader manuscript in which my main character has parents who are obsessed with birdwatching, which is a problem because he is not.

– Questions by Linda Hudson, WFNS Arts Education Officer

A fomer high school teacher, literacy mentor, and university instructor, Don Aker fell into writing after attending the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Writing Workshops, where instructors encouraged participants to write with their students. Encouraged by winning the short fiction and nonfiction categories of the 1989 and 1990 WFNS Atlantic Writing Competitions (now called Nova Writes) as well as Canadian Living’s 1990 National Literary Competition, Don went on to publish numerous stories and articles and has written 20 books.

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How long have you been writing? What drew you to writing in general, and YA in particular? 

I began writing in 1987 after taking a course for teachers offered by Boston’s Northeastern University on the Island of Martha’s Vineyard. At that point in my teaching career, I felt I wasn’t as effective a writing instructor as I needed to be, and while pursuing my Master of Education degree, I learned of the highly regarded Martha’s Vineyard Summer Writing Workshops, which I applied to attend. Lynn Bloom, the instructor of the course that I took (and herself a writer), insisted that if educators wanted to teach students how to write effectively, they had to write themselves. Lynn believed that teachers often get locked into an assign-and-assess instructional mode, forgetting what it’s like to face a blank page or screen, so she required us to write every day and to share our writing with each other so we could receive suggestions for improvement. At the end of the two-week course, Lynn asked us all to share with the class one piece of writing that we were pleased with, and at the conclusion of that final meeting, Lynn took me aside and told me that the piece I’d read was strong enough to be published. Not only that, she offered to stay in touch with me to help make that happen, an offer for which I will always be grateful. At the time, she was writing a book called The Essay Connection, and she later included in the book two of the pieces I’d written. Besides earning me a little money, those pieces provided me writing “credentials” that elevated me in the perception of editors to whom I submitted later work.

I was drawn to write YA fiction because of my work with teenagers. During my 33 years in the classroom, I was witness to the struggles many of them faced every day, and those struggles seeped into my writing. For example, my first novel, Of Things Not Seen, focused on domestic violence, and I was drawn to write it after learning that one of my students was being physically abused by her father. I was the adult who had to report the abuse to the RCMP and Child Protection Services, and that student’s experience kept haunting me until I knew I had to write about a fictional character caught in similar circumstances. Since then, all of my novels and most of my short fiction have focused on social issues that reflect the pain I saw in many of my students’ lives.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

I simply don’t have time for it. I know that sounds flippant, but it’s true. Lots of days I probably delete more words than I leave on the screen, but my job is to keep putting them there, so I do. Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass and many other novels, once said that “All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?” For me, the key is not to be overly critical of my writing until I’ve completed a first draft—I can be ruthless when it’s time to revise, but I keep that ruthlessness at bay so I don’t derail the creative process. Also, I find it especially helpful to begin each session by reading aloud what I wrote the previous day. Like a skier building up momentum on a slope, I build momentum with my voice—when I get to the end of what I’ve written, I’m usually ready to write the next sentence/paragraph/page. For writers of fiction who find themselves completely bogged down in a story, I recommend they focus entirely on their character in that moment. There’s usually something the writer doesn’t know or hasn’t understood about that character, so I suggest they take time to explore the character’s backstory thoroughly until the answer presents itself.

After living in the Annapolis Valley for a number of years, has moving to the city influenced your writing? 

Moving to Halifax hasn’t influenced my process or, for that matter, what I choose to write about, but it has definitely affected my output. Now that I live minutes rather than hours from my grandchildren, I spend less time at my laptop than I did prior to the move.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I need to write very early in the day. When I first began writing, my daughters were toddlers and I didn’t want to take time away from them, so I set my alarm clock for 5:00 every morning and got up to write until they woke. That ritual has continued to this day. The only difference (besides the fact that my daughters are now grown with families of their own) is that I no longer need an alarm clock to get me out of bed. Whether I want to be or not, I’m awake every morning between four and five o’clock. People my age will know why.

Do you remember your first WITS experience? As a former teacher, was it different to talk to teens about your own personal writing instead of school curriculum?  

I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t recall my first WITS experience. I lay the blame on having been in schools for most of my life, first as a student, then as a teacher, and then as an author, so they’ve begun to blur over the years. One impression I clearly recall, though, is how, despite their differences, young people everywhere are so similar. I’ve given presentations in private schools in very wealthy neighbourhoods as well as in inner-city schools in deprived urban settings, yet the students in both asked me many of the same questions. Last year I presented at schools in Vietnam, and while their culture is very different than my own, they shared the same hopes, desires, and fears expressed by Canadian students. I find it heartening that young people are more alike than they are different, which probably explains the broad appeal of YA literature. 

Regarding your question about content, I never spoke to my classes about my own novels—I felt it unfair to promote my writing above the work of other authors—so it was definitely unusual to hear students at WITS presentations comment on my books. More than anything, I was surprised by how passionate young people could be about the characters I’d created.

Where has been the most interesting place you have presented to children?

I’ve been fortunate to take part in three of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Book Week tours, and during one of them I was invited to speak at a lock-down facility for young offenders in Calgary. I learned after my visit that the majority of the staff had actually been reluctant to have me come because they were worried about my safety, but the librarian at the facility persevered and got permission to extend the invitation. It was an amazing experience. Because my novel The First Stone is about a 17-year-old who commits an act of violence that nearly kills an innocent person, I focused on that book in my presentation, and the students eagerly asked questions about the story, my writing process, and so on. But it wasn’t until the next day that I learned the full impact of my talk. The librarian emailed me to say that two of the young men at the facility actually came to blows in her library over who would get to sign out the last copy of The First Stone. I was alarmed, of course, until I read her final line: “I’ll welcome fighting over books in my library any day.”

What was the last great book you read? 

I recently finished Lori Lansens’s This Little Light, which blew me away. Set in the near future, it depicts a world where the alt-right controls all aspects of society (much like if Donald Trump’s base became the prevailing influence). More than just a sobering view of extremism, Lansen’s book demonstrates the power of voice in writing. I can’t recall the last time I heard a narrator so clearly in my head.

Do you have a guilty pleasure (you are willing to share?)

White chocolate and red wine. In combination.

When you are not writing, how do you like to spend your time? 

I read everything I can get my hands on. 

What are you working on right now? 

Sorry, but I never talk about a current project. I don’t consider myself superstitious, but I worry that speaking about what I’m writing will lessen my motivation for writing it. (Now that I think about it, maybe I’m superstitious after all.)

Jaime Burnet is a writer who practices law and a lawyer who writes fiction. She has a master’s degree in Women & Gender Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies from the University of Toronto and a law degree from Dalhousie University. An associate lawyer at Pink Larkin in Halifax, her work is focused on the areas of labour, employment, constitutional, and human rights law. Released last fall, Crocuses Hatch from Snow (Nimbus Publishing / Vagrant Press) is her first novel.

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How long have you been writing? What drew you to writing in general, and fiction in particular?

I think I wrote my first story when I was eight or nine. It’s called “The Harmonica Girl” and it is very earnest. I still have it. I was also a pretty big liar when I was little, mostly just trying to make my life sound more interesting to my friends. I guess that’s still my approach to fiction – asking what my life would be like if it were slightly different in a few key ways. I also find it cathartic to write about a character going through similar experiences to those I’ve had. I like it better than journaling about my own life, which feels so close that I have a hard time writing honestly about it. 

Your first novel has just been published by Nimbus. How would you describe the experience of publishing a book?

I’ve daydreamed of publishing a book since I was a kid, so it’s wonderful to have finally done it. But it is nerve wracking to have this story that I’d been writing since my early 20s out in the world. Even though it’s fiction, there’s a lot of me in it. It’s political, there’s a bunch of sex in it, and it was one of my main creative outlets for over a decade. It’s a very personal project. But those are the sorts of books I love the hardest – books that come out of an author’s real life. 

I had a very positive experience with Nimbus/Vagrant. It was incredibly important to me to find a publisher that shared my view of appropriate editing practices when a privileged person writes about characters who are oppressed by the same token. My book features African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw characters, as well as white characters, and a lot of the story focuses on systemic racism and colonialism in Halifax and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. 

Whitney Moran was committed to engaging African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw readers to review the book for cultural accuracy and respectful characterization. I’m very thankful to Tiffany Morris, Andre Fenton, Rebecca Thomas, Cheryl Maloney, and Lindsay Ruck, and to my friends, Michael Davies-Cole, Okanta Leonard, and Balraj Dosanjh, for reviewing the story and providing invaluable feedback on my representation of Mi’kmaw, African Nova Scotian, and South Asian characters and issues. Whitney also paired me with Stephanie Domet, who was such an insightful editor, and really helped me to ground the story in place and create a kind of resolution at the end without tying everything up into a neat package. It’s a strange experience to have something that was such a solitary project for so long become so collaborative, but I like the book much more now.

Were you worried at all about writing characters outside of your personal experience? What steps did you take to make sure your portrayals are culturally sensitive?

I was absolutely worried, and I think that’s an appropriate way to feel if it spurs you to do your best to represent characters in true and respectful ways. I’ve read comments by white authors who say they feel policed and censored by concerns about cultural appropriation. But no one has the right to write whatever they want and face no criticism. I think it’s positive and necessary that BIPOC authors’ and critics’ opinions about white authors who write BIPOC characters are being heard. If a writer is causing harm, they should be told so. 

I was concerned that, even if I did my best, I could still cause harm. But I also believe it’s necessary and valuable for white people to talk about racism and white privilege – particularly with other white people. Writing a white character who is learning about these things was my attempt to engage with white readers about these issues. Writing African Nova Scotian, Mi’kmaw, and South Asian characters was my attempt to write a story set in Halifax that more truly reflects the people who live here.

I tried to be responsible and accountable by doing research – watching documentaries, reading books, essays, blogs, and poems, attending talks, plays, poetry readings, and art openings, and listening to friends, partners, neighbours, classmates, teachers, and coworkers to better understand the experiences of Mi’kmaw people, African Nova Scotian people, and other people of colour. I asked Indigenous, African Nova Scotian, and South Asian friends, and white anti-racist friends, to read my manuscript and provide me with feedback before I submitted it to Nimbus/Vagrant. And then, as part of my publication contract, Nimbus/Vagrant committed to engaging Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian readers to further review the story. This process doesn’t create any kind of seal of approval on my book, but I hope readers feel that it was respectful and responsible, and I hope that the story rings true.

How did you find time to write while working a demanding job?

I mostly wrote Crocuses in the summers in my early 20s. I barely did any work on it during law school, or when I first started working as a lawyer. Just before I went on mat leave in 2018, I submitted it to Nimbus/Vagrant, and a few months later it was accepted. I did a lot of work on it during my leave, often typing with one hand while I held my baby in the other. It was like a writing sabbatical but with lots of breastfeeding and very little sleep.  

Having read Crocuses Hatch from Snow, I wasn’t surprised to read about the areas of law you specialize in. How were you able to incorporate your legal interests in your novel?

I wrote most of the book years before I considered going to law school. I think anyone who knows me wouldn’t be surprised that this is the sort of book I would write, or the sort of law I would practice. I read and think and write and work on issues of social justice because they are critically important. That was part of my reason for writing this book – to hopefully provide another entry point, via fiction, for readers to learn and think about racism, colonialism, white privilege, homophobia, ageism… I think that’s one of the most important abilities of art – opening people up to new ways of understanding things. 

Crocuses Hatch from Snow touches on many things: love, family, and community among them. I also read it as a love letter to Halifax’s north end. What is it about this part of the city that makes it special to you?

Halifax was the first place I lived away from my family, and it feels like my home more than any other place has. I first lived in the south end as a young university student, and then later moved to the north end, because rent was cheaper and that’s where my friends were living. I started playing music, hanging out at the Roberts Street Social Centre / Anchor Archive, and getting involved in queer, feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist activism. It was special to walk from my house to Roberts Street for movie nights, dumpster pitas from the Lebanese bakery, have organizing meetings and anti-racist book clubs in friends’ living rooms, bike all over the neighbourhood, go out dancing, play quiet songs at folk punk house shows and loud angry songs at Sad Rad and Radstorm, and kiss my friends at the queer bathhouse. 

As I learned about the destruction of Africville, the forced relocation of members of that community to Uniacke Square, and the gentrification of the north end, I started to think more critically about my presence in that neighbourhood. It’s been wild to witness how quickly it’s been gentrified, and how the demographic has shifted. This is a big focus of Crocuses – the gentrification of Halifax’s north end. Part of the story is set in 2007/2008, and the neighbourhood has changed so much more since then. So though I loved living there in many ways, I also feel very complicated about my presence in the north end and what I represent there as a white person. Even though I wasn’t actively gentrifying the neighbourhood by buying low income housing and flipping it, or opening an expensive boutique, I was still part of it. 

Over a year ago I moved to Herring Cove – not to get away from being a white person in a rapidly gentrifying, historically Black neighbourhood (white privilege exists everywhere – you can’t get away from it). I moved to be closer to the woods and the ocean, and so my family would have more room to garden and run around. And also because queer Halifax can feel very, very small. 

This may be a related question, but where is your happy place?

In the woods with my kid and partner and dog, or reading a book and drinking tea in the early morning before they all wake up. 

What are you working on right now? Any chance current events could make it into your fiction writing?

Maybe in five or ten years, once I’ve had some time to process it. Right now I’m working on a novel about an abusive queer relationship, as a way to work through my own experiences of that. And about pregnancy and birth and motherhood, which is such a central part of my life now. That being the case (my kid is now two), I write in the tiniest bits of time, so it could be many, many years before I finish another book. But I’m doing my best to write because it’s good for me.

The Honourable Doctor Mayann Francis, O.N.S. was appointed to the Faculty of Management, School of Public Administration as the first Distinguished Public Service Fellow in fall of 2015.

Dr. Francis served as Lieutenant Governor for the province of Nova Scotia, from 2006-2012. She was the first African Nova Scotian and second woman to be appointed as the vice regal representative.  

She is the recipient of six honourary degrees and an Honorary Diploma. She has served in many leadership roles including Chair of the Board for the Atlantic School of Theology. 

Dr. Francis graduated from St. Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Masters in Public Administration from New York University. In addition to her list of credentials, Dr. Francis can add author. Nimbus Publishing published her first children’s book, Mayann’s Train Ride, in October 2015. Her memoir, Mayann Francis, An Honourable Life, was released last year and was listed in The Hill Times’ list of 100 best non-fiction books in 2019.  

Earlier this week, Marilyn Smulders, executive director of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, spoke to Dr. Francis about her memoir, being a role model, fashion, and her coping strategies for the pandemic.

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First of all, why did you decide to write this book, Mayann Francis: An Honourable Life?

I decided to tell my story because I felt there were lessons in my journey that would be helpful to many people. I wrote it to inspire people especially if there are barriers to overcome.  I also wrote my story to encourage people to look at themselves and honestly consider some of the issues I raised and ask what am I doing to promote positive change so that all of us can move forward with honesty, love, faith, peace, and respect for differences.  

My hope is that everyone can learn from my journey. 

What would you say were some of the particular challenges you faced in the role, being the first Black person to occupy it?

When I was called to Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I was in a state of shock. I wasn’t sure whether I would say yes to his request to be the 31^st Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. As a Black woman, I wondered would I be accepted? Growing up here in Nova Scotia, I know the history of race relations in this province is not positive. 

I also remembered some of the negative Canadian reaction to the appointment of Michaëlle Jean as Governor General. In any event, I prayed about whether or not I should accept this opportunity.  The answer I received was yes. 

One of the biggest challenges was not having an official government residence to live in and carry out my duties. Government House was closed and under construction. I lived in my own condo and was based out of the Maritime Centre.  My memoir goes into details of what it was like to not have an official residence to live in and to perform my official duties.  It was extremely difficult and at times very depressing.  

When I finally did move into Government House after three years, what went on beyond the scenes, is detailed in my story.  I ask difficult questions in my book as to why I was being treated differently, as I was told, from other Lieutenant Governors. For example, in the private quarters, I did not have a stove or a refrigerator. I was told I could use the commercial kitchen (in the basement).  When my term ended, my successor was given a fridge and a stove as soon as they moved in.  As I said, my memoir discusses many challenges.  Nonetheless, I was not going to let anything break my spirit or comprise my dignity.  My faith in God gave me strength.     

What was it about growing up in Whitney Pier that may have prepared you or helped you in the role?

I definitely did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth and I’m so proud to have grown up in Whitney Pier. Growing up in Whitney Pier was regarded as being from the other side of the tracks.  But because an emphasis on education was widespread throughout the Pier, the other side of the tracks turned out many successful and prominent people. I always say Whitney Pier was a solid foundation for me when it came to understanding the importance of diversity, inclusion, education, religion, caring, and respect.

Looking back, what makes you most proud during your time in office?

A stand out was the chance to meet her Majesty the Queen, which I did twice.  Meeting her was a great honour. On one occasion, I flew to London along with my sister to meet her, and then of course when she came to Nova Scotia in June 2010. I’m a monarchist; I’m not going to hide that. And she is a wonderful person, very smart, and I felt truly appreciated by her. 

Another highlight was to sign the Royal Prerogative of Mercy Free Pardon for Viola Desmond. This is different from a regular pardon, in that it meant Viola was innocent to begin with that day in 1946.  Only her Majesty or her Majesty’s representative can grant the Free Pardon. Viola was the first person to receive this pardon in Canada. I was deeply moved that I granted her this pardon. We both made history.  

Now we can see her for the person she was, a successful businessperson and a very enterprising woman, and not as someone who committed a crime. (Viola Desmond was thrown in jail and convicted of defrauding the government of one penny for sitting in the white’s only section of a movie theatre.) It is so good to see that she is getting the due she so deserves—to see her portrait on the $10 bill means her legacy will not only live on in Canada but also internationally. There are many other ways throughout Canada that Viola has been recognized. 

I’m also proud to have opened up Government House to the public. I hosted the first opera ever to be performed in Government House. On Tuesday evenings, I held public events and invited well-known Nova Scotians to come in and talk. I’m very happy that this is still going on. I think it’s great. Everyone loves going to Government House on a Tuesday night. 

Some of the awards I created are continuing, including the Lieutenant Governor’s Community Spirit Award and the Lieutenant Governor’s Persons with Disabilities Employer Partnership Award. 

And, if you go to Government House, you’ll see the art on the walls doesn’t represent just one colour or one gender any longer. You’ll see Viola Desmond’s portrait and William Hall’s. Portia White’s portrait is now there too and a Mi’kmaw drawing. My memoir provides more details. 

Are there any parts of your book that may surprise readers?

Anybody who has given me feedback has expressed disbelief when my term was over and I moved out of Government House, that they put in Government House a fridge and a stove in the private quarters.  There are many other experiences in my story that have left many people speechless to the point that some people have shed tears and apologized for what I went through. They are surprised that I was able to maintain my calmness and dignity and still carry out my role. 

Do you feel comfortable being a role model?

I don’t label myself as a role model. I just wrote the book because I feel there are lessons to be learned by my life. 

But if someone sees me as a role model, I feel very honored and flattered by that. 

(Some of the role models in her own life include trailblazing Black entrepreneur Beverly Mascoll, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Shauntay Grant, her grade school principal Mr. Sheldon MacDonald, George Elliott Clarke, Rocky Jones, her mother Thelma and father George, who were newcomers to Canada from Antigua and Cuba respectively.)

I wanted to ask you about fashion. I adored the exhibition, The Dress: Mayann Francis and the Call to Serve, which was on display at Dalhousie Art Gallery in 2016. Why was this important project for you?

After I left office I went on a tour in Europe and visited a lot of textile museums, some with exhibitions on clothing. I thought that’s interesting; I haven’t seen that in Nova Scotia.

There is a story behind all the outfits I wore as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. As the first Black person to take on the office, I knew I would be judged not only by my performance but what I wore and I know some of the stereotypes people have about Black women. 

I was determined that my clothing would not make a negative impression. I was really fortunate to have Salwa Majaess as my dressmaker; she fully understood where I was coming from. Whatever I wore had to have a lot of dignity to it.

I didn’t want to stand out as Lieutenant Governor, and have people say, ‘her skirt is so short,’ ‘that colour is too loud.’ Having the exhibition gave me the chance to tell those stories, and it was great to bring everything together, the suits, the dresses, the hats, wigs, gloves, purses, jewelry etc.

There are other Nova Scotian stories out there, and I believe there’s room to have a museum of sorts dedicated to textiles and fashion. I really do. 

Are you working on any other books?

Yes, I’m working on another children’s book, which is due out in 2021. I just finished the edits, and it’s due at the publisher this month. The new book is focused on Whitney Pier. 

You’ve had a lot of firsts in your life (among them: first Black Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, first woman to serve as Nova Scotia provincial ombudsman, first Black woman to serve as director and CEO of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.) Are there any other firsts you’d like to conquer?

I think at this stage of my life, I’d like to leave that for people coming up in the world. So no. 

In my book I mention, in part, that “Progress will be demonstrated in Nova Scotia when a Black Nova Scotian, or another racial minority is appointed as deputy minister or assistant deputy of a line department…” And recently it was announced that Candace Thomas, an African Nova Scotian, was appointed the new deputy minister of Justice and of the new office, Social Innovation and Integrative Approaches.  So I do believe the Premier is sincere about making change. I hope this new appointment opens new doors and heralds the beginning of systemic and Institutional changes to eliminate barriers.  

What’s your advice for staying sane through this pandemic? 

It’s a very challenging time for everyone. 

What can I say? I love my land line. I made sure that I made a lot of phone calls to people who are doing the same thing I’m doing, staying home and following the directives and advice of our Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Premier and Prime Minister. 

I’ve done Zoom too with a friend who was having a little party (online). We laughed our heads off and enjoyed ourselves. 

Other things: I go for a walk every day, pray, meditate, do exercises and, as usual, I pay attention to what I eat. 

I’ve decided to downsize my den. It’s time to go in and take a look at all the paperwork and many books to see what needs to go. 

I have a beautiful Ragdoll cat (named Noah James) that keeps me happy. 

For some people, being alone is difficult. And I understand that.  I tell my friends and family to give me a call. Let’s try to have fun via the phone or texts.  We are all in this together.  It is not easy but we must continue forward with hope and faith.