The Dirty Dozen, with Dani Couture

Dani Couture is the author of Algoma (Invisible Publishing), as well as two collections of poetry, Sweet and Good Meat.

Algoma tells the story of Ferd, who attempts to lure his brother home via a campaign of letters — with only the small difficulty that Leo, his brother, has fallen through the ice and died. The book also follows Algoma, mother to the boys, who finds Ferd's letters around the house.

Dani gamely agreed to participate in our newest interview series, The Dirty Dozen, where authors share 12 unexpected facts about themselves. Read on to hear from Dani about port-wine birthmarks, life on the porch and her surprising favourite possession.

1. I have a large port-wine stain in the middle of my back. It’s the same kind of birthmark Mikhail Gorbachev has on his head, except that where his is the size of an apple, mine is the size of a honeydew melon. Not-so-coincidentally, port-wine stains have showed up in all three of my books. I suspect they will show up in every book.
2. I’m a sucker for a good origin myth.
3. My family almost exclusively calls me “Boo,” a nickname I’ve had since I was two because I’m so accident prone (ie I have a “boo boo”).
4. While I was in university, I paid $150 a month to live on an enclosed porch for half a year.
5. My favourite possession, the thing I would take with me to the ends of the earth, is my cast iron pan.
6. When I was in grade school, I wrote Sidney Sheldon a fan letter. He responded on the thickest, most beautiful card stock I had ever seen. In his letter, he thanked me for my letter, and said I was too young to be reading this books...
7. I’m 33 and I still have a baby tooth. My right canine never came in.
8. My favourite books of all time are Margaret Atwood’s True Stories, John Berryman’s Dream Songs, and David McGimpsey’s Li’l Bastard.
9. When I was about six years old, I pushed my right winter boot down an ice fishing hole on Lake Nippissing just to see what would happen. I had to sit in the ice shack for the rest of the day with several pairs of socks on my bootless foot.
10. If there is a banjo around, I will play it and sing. I don’t know how to play the banjo, nor can I sing.
11. I am extremely afraid of pressure cracks and deep water. Oh, and bears.
12. My name is Danielle.

Dani Couture is the author of two collections of poetry: Good Meat (Pedlar Press) and Sweet, (Pedlar Press). Sweet was nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and won the ReLit Award. Couture also received an Honour of Distinction from The Writers’ Trust’s Dayne Ogilvie Grant in 2011. She resides in Toronto. Visit her online at her website.

For more information about Algoma please visit the Invisible Publishing website.

Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.