Open Book is pleased to introduce our IFOA: Ontario interview series.
IFOA: Ontario is the International Festival of Authors' touring component, bringing authors from IFOA’s roster of the best contemporary writers from around the globe to a number of Ontario locations.
Kicking off the series is Madeleine Thien, author of Dogs at the Perimeter (McClelland & Stewart).
Open Book:
Tell us about the book from which you will be reading at IFOA Ontario.
Madeleine Thien:
I'll be reading from Dogs at the Perimeter, which is about a woman who, driven by the loss of her mentor and closest friend, tries to make a story that will hold those that she loves — the survivors and the disappeared of the Khmer Rouge genocide. It's a novel of friendship, about how we might disappear and yet survive, in best way that we can.
OB:
To what aspect of the IFOA: Ontario are you most looking forward?
MT:
I feel lucky to be going to Midland, Parry Sound, and Owen Sound — all places I've never visited before — and seeing Georgian Bay. I love the idea of the festival journeying to its readers and spreading out like a giant tree. IFOA Ontario is the last string of Canadian events that I'll be doing for my novel and, after five challenging years of researching, imagining, and writing, it's very moving to me to see where the story might find its listener.
OB:
Tell us about a favourite spot or area in Ontario.
MT:
A beloved friend, the artist Carol Hudgins, used to live outside of Waterloo. One of my best memories is of Carol taking me for a long walk in the area around her cottage. It was the last time that I saw her before she passed away in 2003. She showed me a part of the home she loved, a place that was personal, wild, and utterly beautiful.
OB:
What is your favourite part of touring?
MT:
Seeing the world, meeting people. The questions and observations from readers that allow me re-examine my own work. The great, sometimes chaotic, exchange of ideas. I feel fortunate to have the chance to be taken out of my own space, to see things from a different vantage point.
OB:
What were some of your early experiences with public readings? Is there a learning curve to reading in public?
MT:
I think so! At least, for me there was, and is. At one of my first readings, when I was twenty-five, my voice started quavering, and it took an enormous effort (and some luck) to make it stop. I'm not a performer (though, long ago, I was a dancer) and, as my writing life continues, I try to resist taking refuge behind a public self. What I love about the writing realm is that it allows us to engage, individual to individual. This honesty is something I try to protect.
OB:
Tell us about a favourite book set in Ontario.
MT:
One of my favourite books is Martha Baillie's The Incident Report, set in a place called Allen Gardens Public Library, in Toronto. I've taught excerpts of this novel in various places, from Muenster, Germany, to Kowloon, Hong Kong, and seen how it resonates with people. I think it's a risky, brilliant novel that breaks form and succeeds in deeply intelligent and moving ways. Her evocation of the public library system is as relevant as ever: this place where people, from all parts of society, share space.
OB:
What is your writing environment like?
MT:
It is anywhere I can find one! At this moment, it's a cafe in the Kreuzberg neighbourhoood in Berlin. Most of the time, though, it's somewhere much quieter, at home at the dining table. My boyfriend tells me that, when I'm working, I have incredible skill at blocking out sounds and people.
OB:
What are you reading right now?
MT:
I'm reading three books, James Gleick's The Information, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Memories of the Future, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts' Harlem is Nowhere. They couldn't be more different from each other, but they are all breathtaking.
OB:
What can you tell us about your next project?
MT:
I'm collaborating with Montreal photographer Aislinn Leggett on a conceptual art/fiction project, which deeply involves Canada Post! And, also, I'm writing stories and imagining a novel.
Madeleine Thien's first book of fiction, Simple Recipes, won four awards in Canada, was a finalist for a regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and was named a notable book by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. Originally from Vancouver, Thien recently moved to Quebec City.
For more information about Dogs at the Perimeter please visit the McClelland & Stewart website.
Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
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