As part of this month’s Ontario’s Best Books Digital Residency, we’re profiling some of this province’s prominent authors. See all of the profiles here.
What’s your most recent work (Sous le soleil de midi) about?
How heat affects our behaviour and peels back the masks we wear. Heat can often bring out our darkest, least likeable side.
Do you have anything specific you do for your writing process?
I like to observe and reflect on the world around me. Thats how I come up with my subjects and my characters. It also literally fuels my imagination. I learn a lot. Always. And then its time to sit down and write.
Describe one opportunity that improved your life as a writer.
Ontario Arts Council (OAC) grants for writing and research have allowed me to spend more time on my writing. When the creative process occupies more of your life, you improve and can create more.
Whats one thing Ontario creative industries could do to be more inclusive of authors from indigenous and diverse communities.
Work harder at identifying the many authors from those communities, systematically include them in creative databases and in cultural and artistic events, invite them to participate in judges panels, et cetera.
What’s one piece of advice you wish someone had shared with you when you were first starting out as a writer?
Look into all the resources that are available from the Ontario government to support and sustain artistic creation, as early as possible. If I had done that, I would have been able to devote myself more to writing at a younger age.
Do you have any favourite authors or books?
Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Camus, Laurent Gaude, Cocteau, St Exupery, Romain Gary and Colette to name just a few.
