We’ll see you again soon. November 28, 2023 I’ve been more moved by the interactions I’ve had throughout this inaugural season of Women of Letters than I can say. I’m grateful to you, reader, for having read along with us over these past six months; it’s been a real privilege to prepare these interviews knowing there was someone who would be looking forward to them. I’m grateful to Eden Friesen, not only for her contributions… Read More »We’ll see you again soon.
“I never considered any other path”: Frances Dickey on her career as a writer and professor November 7, 2023 Editor’s note The field of English literary scholarship is, by nature, not one in which news about writers tends to make headlines. Mostly, this is because the vast majority of works under study were written so long ago that there simply isn’t much possibility for new or unexamined information to come to light. You can only… Read More »“I never considered any other path”: Frances Dickey on her career as a writer and professor
“I’ve been able to find my way”: Jenna Butler on her career as a writer and scholar October 17, 2023 Editor’s note “The keeping of bees,” Jenna writes, “is a blending of science and spirit; a passion that is, at its roots, an act of hope.” In her latest book, Revery — a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction — she invites readers into the rich and deeply moving world of… Read More »“I’ve been able to find my way”: Jenna Butler on her career as a writer and scholar
“I did not think I was following any kind of path”: Nancy K. Miller on her career as a writer and professor September 26, 2023 Editor’s note I first discovered Nancy’s work through her 2019 memoir My Brilliant Friends, a rare, richly detailed, and intensely captivating retrospective of what she describes as her lifesaving friendships with three fellow scholars: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor. Her book found me in a time of need.… Read More »“I did not think I was following any kind of path”: Nancy K. Miller on her career as a writer and professor
“I resisted my own dreams”: Sheila Liming on her career as a writer and professor September 5, 2023 Editor’s note Although I’ve been following Sheila’s work for some time now, discovering her latest book was a revelation. In Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time, she offers an extensively researched examination of how the world in which we now find ourselves living is one that is “increasingly hostile” to experiences of “connection, intimacy, and… Read More »“I resisted my own dreams”: Sheila Liming on her career as a writer and professor
“I started to connect the dots”: Charlene SanJenko on her career as an Indigenous storyteller and social impact entrepreneur August 15, 2023 Editor’s note I had the great pleasure of working with Charlene in 2019 on 500 Days in the Wild, a documentary by indie filmmaker Dianne Whelan. As Dianne traversed the 24,000-kilometre-long Great Trail, Charlene was behind the scenes doing what she does best: making the sorts of connections that amplify the voices of… Read More »“I started to connect the dots”: Charlene SanJenko on her career as an Indigenous storyteller and social impact entrepreneur
“I believed, from the start, in hard work”: Beth Kephart on her career as a writer July 25, 2023 Editor’s note Katrina Kenison describes Beth Kephart’s writing as suffused with “infectious passion and hard-won wisdom,” and Diana Abu-Jaber insists that Beth’s words “will linger with readers long after the final page.” Echoing their statements, a Kirkus review highlights the “rich vocabulary, lyricism, and careful word choices” that characterize Beth’s work. Through my own encounters with… Read More »“I believed, from the start, in hard work”: Beth Kephart on her career as a writer
“How did the path unfold? Oh, it didn’t unfold at all. No — it zigzagged, and there were lightning strikes, and literal tornadoes which I came within a whisker of having to withstand when I was first teaching in Oklahoma in 1998. No, there was nothing that unfolded about it, nothing at all. My life has been a series of zigzag lightning strikes and… well, drama, along the way. And a lot of really uncomfortable transitions. Nothing in the nature of a gradually unfolding pathway.”
“I always feel like I’m racing against the clock”: Kasia Van Schaik on her career as a writer and poet June 20, 2023 Editor’s note When I first met Kasia, we were fellow McGillians whose paths would occasionally cross at poetry readings around the city. I looked up to her for a number of reasons, including the fact that she was doing so many of the things I aspired to do: teaching at a top… Read More »“I always feel like I’m racing against the clock”: Kasia Van Schaik on her career as a writer and poet
“I discovered that regular jobs made me miserable”: Candace Savage on her career as a writer June 6, 2023 Editor’s note When I first met Candace, it was through her work in the environmental conservation world. She’s a brilliant communicator, and when she uses her authorial voice to tell the stories of those who cannot speak for themselves she draws her readers into a world where the environment is sacred, and it is up to… Read More »“I discovered that regular jobs made me miserable”: Candace Savage on her career as a writer