The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
The Questionless Books Interview: Novelist and Giller Prize nominee Kathleen Winter
Submitted by gmurray on November 8, 2010 - 9:43am
Inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, The Questionless Books Interview gets a host of lit-types (authors, editors, publishers, publicists, designers, booksellers, readers, bloggers, journalists, etc.) to finish a bunch of statements about the state of literature and the "future of books".
Kathleen Winter has written dramatic and documentary scripts for Sesame Street and CBC Television. Her first collection of short stories, boYs, was the winner of both the Winterset Award and the 2006 Metcalfe-Rooke Award. A long-time resident of St. John's, Newfoundland, she now lives in Montreal.
Kathleen's books:
I am... newly into pedicures
I am known to... wear the same clothes every day
I do this in... Montreal
I do this because... I have a lot of woolly bits and bobs that I crocheted and that keep the wind out
I do this when I... feel the slightest threat of a draft
The way I do this is... methodical and somewhat obsessive
At its core, a Writer is... someone who collects secrets and sifts them surreptitiously
As opposed to an Author, who is... surprised at the new availability of hotel rooms and plane rides
A Writer is responsible for... doing her own laundry
As opposed to an Author, who is responsible for... remembering that without readers she is nothing
At its core, Publishing is... a crazy act of faith
As opposed to Editing, which is... a religious exercise
A Publisher should always... get the book out in fine form
As opposed to an Editor, who should always... pummel the writer into submitting better than her best work
A Manuscript that's ready to be read by others is... quivering and vulnerable
As opposed to a Book that's ready to be ready by others, which is... unapologetic
A Manuscript should always... have lots of spaces and margins
As opposed to a Book, which should always... have slightly smaller spaces and margins
At its core, Bookselling is... best done by nice people who respect readers
As opposed to Book Marketing, which is... best done by beautifully dressed killer sharks
The smallest unit of narrative is... the space between sentences
To be a Book a thing must be... distilled and filled with humility
The biggest reason to be scared of the future is... the triumph of soulless materialism
The biggest reason to anticipate the future is... the persistence of our longing for connection
In the future we will all... know more clearly the relationship between the substance of thought and the substance of matter
At his/her core, a Reader is... looking for the door of heaven
Lovely, funny, wise. A pleasure to read this.
(And especially nice to know I'm not alone in the same-clothes-every-day camp!)
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