Q&A with Nancy Thayer

  

Photo by Kit Noble

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Thayer is the author of the new novel Nantucket Christmas Stroll. Her many other books include Let It Snow. She lives on Nantucket. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Nantucket Christmas Stroll?

 

A: I love Christmas!

 

My birthday is in December, and I’ve always been grateful for the days of celebration during the darkest days of the year. Christmas is all about nurturing the soul. The birth of a new baby is always a miracle.

 

Composers have written glorious Christmas music. Writers like Charles Dickens, Dylan Thomas, Chris Van Allsburg, and Clement Clarke Moore have written classic stories and poems celebrating the spirit of Christmas. And the fragrances of pine and cinnamon and gingerbread---and hot chocolate!—warm our bodies and our hearts.

 

Plus, presents! Scientists will one day prove that buying and giving and getting presents releases all the good chemicals our brains need to be happy. I’ve already written three Nantucket Christmas novels. The third one, Let It Snow, is a Hallmark movie called Nantucket Noel.

 

Q: How did you create the Parsons family, and how would you describe the dynamic among the family members?

 

A: Honestly, I think I wrote this book because I miss my children and my sister, who was a nurse and who always sent dozens of presents to us every year. She lived in Kansas City and because of her I have Patrick Mahomes knee-high socks and T-shirt (red, very festive). She always brought laughter to our Christmas.

 

We used to hold a large Christmas party at our home every year when our two children were teenagers, continuing when they were college graduates starting their new lives.

 

When they were young and at home, I had cookie cutters shaped like Santa and stars and bells, and I made a baked Alaska which I brought flaming to the table for Christmas dinner. For several years, the kids and I made gingerbread houses.

 

A word to the wise—it’s a lot of work to make a gingerbread house from scratch and don’t even try to keep the peaked roof on the walls with icing. It never works. Use Elmer’s Glue instead. It’s white and no one will know the difference.

 

And punch!  Decades ago, a friend gave me the recipe that’s used in Nantucket Christmas Stroll. It is perfect for parties, but not for just two people.

 

Our children are grown now. My son and his husband live far away. My daughter and her husband have six children and they live in the same state, but still a day’s trip away. They now give an annual Christmas party which Charley and I travel to. Many of our friends have moved away to Florida for the winter. Yes, we’re that old. I wrote this book to relive and keep the Christmas party tradition.

 

But I wanted to make the party realistic, so I needed to have some drama and surprises and difficulties, but what holiday—what day—is ever perfect? I love romance, and I’ve lived in Wisconsin and in Finland, so I drew on those memories.

 

As for the characters—the first person I wanted to write about was a male nurse. I think we need more male nurses and Lucas was the first person who arrived on the page. I knew right away that his father would be upset that his son, who was supposed to take over the family business, wanted to be a nurse.

 

As I was putting the family together, my daughter, at the age of 42, gave birth to her sixth very adorable child. I know that more women are having babies later in life.

 

A minor character is Beatrice, an older woman like me, who causes a crisis and does it with style. The mother Jane is probably a lot like me. If you throw a party, things are bound to go wrong. Just go with it.

 

One year we had 12 people for Christmas dinner and I roasted two geese. I’d never cooked a goose before and I didn’t know how much fat they had. When I took the pan out of the oven, some of the goose fat spilled onto my foot. It hurt SO much, and I had to keep smiling as I put the damned geese on the platter. My advice—don’t cook a goose unless you’re wearing boots.

 

Q: What do you think is special about Nantucket during the holiday season?

 

A: Nantucket is an island, and that makes the season special. The Coast Guards hang an enormous Christmas wreath on the Brant Point Lighthouse, the first sight you see on arriving.

 

The shop windows are cleverly, beautifully decorated, and best of all, during the Stroll, Santa Claus and his wife come by boat! They are taken across the water by a Coast Guard cutter and met at Straight Wharf by a cheering crowd.

 

Nantucket is a very small town. You can walk off a ferry and two steps later, there you are, with the town just a few more steps away. A chorus wearing Victorian costumes strolls along, singing holiday songs. Christmas trees line the streets and a very large tree covered in lights stands at the top of Main Street, just a short walk from the ferry. (I’ve heard rumors that the tree talks to children.)

 

And Mitchell’s Book Corner on Main and Orange has many wonderful books to buy, including quite a few about the Christmas Stroll.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Hope is the word, isn’t it? Christmas is all about hope, about new life and joy, about light in the darkness. I hope my readers laugh while reading my book, and I hope they find people in the book who are a lot like they are. . .and they love them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My 2027 novel, Seaside Romance, comes out next May. Mandy Meriweather is 24 and an agent wants to see the novel she’s writing. Mandy goes to Nantucket to stay with her fabulous Great Aunt Violet for the summer to finish her novel. But more people arrive and the beautiful old Victorian house needs repairs and life is complicated. And some people fall in love.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’ve always wanted to write about “normal” women and families. I’m not sure I qualify as “normal” anymore, but I’m not sure anyone does. I love my readers so very much and I’m grateful to you for reading my novels.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Nancy Thayer. 

Q&A with Jeff Fearnside

  

 

 

Jeff Fearnside is the author of the new poetry collection Lake: Love Poems. His other books include A Husband and Wife Are One Satan. Also an educator, he lives in Oregon. 

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the poems in your new collection?

 

A: This has been one of the longest writing projects of my career so far. The oldest poems in the collection were written while I was still living in Kazakhstan, which was more than 20 years ago.

 

One reason for this is that the collection has grown and my concept of it has changed over time. I originally envisioned a collection of poems focused solely on Central Asia, and in fact, I did end up with enough for such, for Lake is actually two books in one: each of its two main parts, one titled “Central Asia,” the other titled “Oregon,” is the length of a regular full-length collection.

 

When I realized that the main theme of each part was related to love—both love of my life partner Valentina and love of place—it only made sense for me to pair them together.

 

I wanted that long-term arc, to have the juxtaposition of our initial romance with our later married life, which mirrors the juxtaposition of Central Asia to Oregon. I think of it as being a memoir-in-poems, as well as a poetry travelogue in how it moves through the places in our lives.

 

The other reason is that sometimes certain ideas simply take a long time to ferment. For example, the central poem in the Central Asia section—and in the entire book—is the nine-part, 17-page poem “The Love Song of Central Asia.” I had the original idea for it back in 2003. Like the collection as a whole, the concept grew and changed over time.

 

I wrote bits and pieces of it here and there, but it really only became clear to me relatively recently in putting together the book. I needed all that time to process my experiences and what they meant to me and figure out how to articulate that.

 

Q: The poet Allan Peterson said of the book, “The scope is large, and Jeff’s lines sing with passion and authenticity.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I like it! Allan is a poet I respect a lot. I was thrilled he agreed to read my collection beforehand and offer some words on it.

 

The scope of this book is large, and that’s something I intended, as I just suggested. As to authenticity, there’s authenticity of feeling and authenticity of fact. I aimed to nail both in this book. I feel I did.

 

I was honest, even about things that were hard, and though the book is based on my own experience, I was careful in making sure to double-check the facts with research. My wife also acted as a cultural sensitivity reader, and she helped me make sure my depictions of Central Asia were accurate and fair.

 

Ultimately, of course, the final product is fully my responsibility. But yes, I hope what Allan said all comes through to readers: the large scope, the passion, and the authenticity.

 

Q: What do you think the collection says about love?

 

A: Primarily, I hope it shows love from many angles beyond the standard greeting-card variety.

 

I wanted to show some of the heat of initial romantic attraction, and I also didn’t want to shy away from the realities of making a relationship work over a long period of time. That’s romantic love, love of another human, a life partner, with all its joys and challenges.

 

I also wanted to show how important love of place and love of nature is in our lives. All of these are connected. We love people not in vacuums but in particular times and places, and all of it shapes who we are. Nature, of course, is what we come from. We must love that if we are to love ourselves.

 

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would appear in the book?

 

A: A general, though not strict, chronological order seemed to make the most sense because I wanted to track my relationship with my wife over time, which also tracks my relationship to place, since we’ve lived together in the same places.

 

Once I came to that conclusion, the rest was relatively easy to sort out. “The Love Song of Central Asia” was always going to be its own section, and the somonka were always going to form their own section as well.

 

So the order at that point really came down to the order of the sections. I wanted to introduce Central Asia before introducing my romantic love, and I knew “Love Song” was meant to act as the hinge of the entire book, its center of gravity, so that set those sections in Part One.

 

Similarly, in Part Two, I wanted to introduce Oregon first through the somonka before moving on to the sections of married life in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: It’s hard to say definitely because I don’t tend to work on one project a time before moving on—I prefer to have several projects in various stages of progress. And obviously, I’m drawn to writing in multiple genres. I can’t seem to help it; it’s part of who I am.

 

My chapbook A Husband and Wife Are One Satan, which was published by Orison Books as winner of the Orison Chapbook Prize in 2021, was always meant to be the beginning of a full-length collection of stories set in Kazakhstan.

 

I’ve had an outline to that collection, notes to all the stories, and various stages of drafts in my hands this whole time; it’s just a matter of finishing them.

 

But I’m actually much closer to finishing a different short-story collection. One can never know these things exactly ahead of time, but based on what I’ve completed so far and how the book seems to be shaping up, I believe I need to finish only three more stories to complete that collection. I already know what they are. Given how close I am on that, that’s probably my highest priority.

 

I’m also always writing new poems.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Lake is the first of what I think of as a kind of triptych of poetry books. I wrote them concurrently over roughly the same period of time, and over the years I saw three distinct themes emerge as well as styles, which is how I ended up sorting them out.

 

The first was the theme of love in the poems that came together as Lake. The poems in this group are the most direct and confessional; as I mentioned earlier, they essentially form a kind of memoir-in-poems. There are no personas in these; the speaker is me.

 

The second theme centered around observations of contemporary life by the poems’ various speakers, often through a sociohistorical lens. The feeling of these poems is a little edgier, and while I’m not an experimental poet, there’s probably a little more exploration of form in these. As a teaser, I have some news about this manuscript that I’m not ready to reveal just yet!

 

The third theme was strongly ecopoetic, and these poems are all set in the Pacific Northwest, which further bound them together. This manuscript has gotten some encouraging attention so far—making the final judging round at a very good press, and being named a semifinalist and honorable mention in two other national contests—and so I have high hopes for it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jeff Fearnside. 

Q&A with Lygia Day Peñaflor

  

 

 

Lygia Day Peñaflor is the author of the new novel Beautiful to See You (Again). Her other books include Creep: A Love Story. She lives on Long Island.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Beautiful to See You (Again), and how did you create your character Tia?

 

A: It’s hard to pinpoint a single inspiration because so many different factors came together in order to write this. I’d been wanting to write a then/now timeline, and maybe I’d always wondered if I could pull off a story with time travel (I’d never written magical realism before).

 

Tia was a character I thought about on and off for years. Every so often, I would imagine a girl walking through Central Park, missing her first love. Somehow, I decided to combine all of these thoughts together. 

 

I think Tia originally came about because I went to Columbia Teachers College. The setting, and its proximity to Central Park North, stuck with me.

 

Tia’s character was interesting to write and develop because her personality changed so much throughout the novel. She was happy, fun, and innocent at first. But all of that disappeared when tragedy struck the summer after high school graduation.

 

Her personality changed again after she dropped out of Columbia. There’s a different version of Tia in each section of the book.  

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Tia and Natty?

 

A: Aww, Tia and Natty, I just love them so much. I love them individually. And I love them together, which is what I think makes a great couple in real life as well as in fiction.

 

Their friendship starts sweetly with a bit of a spark. It grows naturally through shared moments and getting to know each other more deeply. There’s so much warmth and mutual admiration between them. It’s a first love that’s very pure, light, and full of promise.

 

Q: The author Jeff Zentner said of the book, “If time is the fourth dimension, Beautiful to See You (Again) makes a compelling argument for love as a fifth dimension; a force more powerful than time itself.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: First of all, to have a quote from Jeff is incredible! I’ve admired his writing since The Serpent King. And this quote is so good—the concept of love as a fifth dimension is really powerful. It rings true for me and certainly for Tia and Natty.

 

Time could never lessen the love they shared. Their love is a dimension that exists on its own. No matter how many years pass, it will never fade. Tia can revisit that feeling whenever she wants, either through time travel or simply in her memory. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I knew the ending from the very start, yes! I always know the ending when I draft a book, and I like to write the beginning and the ending first. This gives me a roadmap to follow so that I don’t waste time writing aimlessly.

 

I think of each chapter, each scene, each paragraph as a funnel. If a scene doesn’t somehow feed toward that final moment, I know it’s not necessary.

 

The first and last scenes of Beautiful to See You (Again) are very much the same as they were in my first draft! I had a very clear vision. I’m not one of those writers who can just go with the flow. I’d rather not write at all until I know exactly where I’m going.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I don’t know! I haven’t decided yet. I’m trying to be okay with this, trying not to stress so that maybe the right idea will come naturally.

 

I can force myself to write—to put hours into drafting, revising, or editing. But I can’t force myself to think of an idea. I just have to trust that the right character will come to me when she’s good and ready. Then I can put in the work.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes! I would love to crash some book clubs. If your book club reads Beautiful to See You (Again), let me know (email through my website), and I’ll Zoom in for a Q&A!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Elana Rubinstein

  

 

Elana Rubinstein is the author of the new middle grade novel The Big Hatch. She also has written the Saralee Siegel series. She lives in Northern Virginia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Big Hatch, and how did you create your character Della?

 

A: The idea of a fancy, sparkly pink dinosaur came to me one day at school, back when I was a pre-K teacher. I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but I couldn't stop thinking about it because I found it so funny. A few days later, I came up with the Design Your Own Dinosaur kit.

 

Della's character took much longer to figure out. At first, I thought I might write about a super genius girl who invented the Design Your Own Dinosaur technology herself. But I soon realized that I wanted to write a more realistic character, one that readers could see themselves in. I think Della's struggle to quell her anxiety and find her place at school is something many kids can relate to.

 

Q: What do you think Alexandra Bye’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: I love Alexandra's illustrations! She did a wonderful job of bringing Glam, Della, and Avery to life, and I especially love the back cover with all the fancy foods. She struck a great balance between the sci fi elements and the fancy ones, which was just what I was hoping for.

 

Q: You’ve said that you first came up with the idea for this book five years ago--can you describe its journey to publication?

 

A: It was a very long journey! I wrote the book in 2021 and 2022, in between writing books in my Saralee Siegel chapter book series. I did not have a literary agent at the time, so I spent a few months querying.

 

I was so happy to find Kara from 3 Seas Literary Agency. She is a teacher as well, and she immediately understood the book and what I was trying to do with it. We really connected!

 

From there, it took about two years to actually sell the book, but I was determined to be patient and keep trying no matter what. Thankfully, the story found a perfect home at Godwin Books.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: I hope readers come away with a sense of excitement for dinosaurs, science, technology, and all things paleontology, AND with the feeling that they can relate to Della and all she goes through in the story. Fifth grade is a wonderful time of life, but it is also full of so much change, and that can be really difficult.

 

My goal was to write an engaging story with lots of twists, turns, and fun while still staying true to what it feels like to be 10 years old. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on book eight of my Saralee chapter book series, and I am very excited that book seven will come out in May of 2027! I am also a mom to a toddler and a baby, so these days most of my time is happily spent with my two little ones.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I just want to share how much I enjoyed writing The Big Hatch. I truly had a wonderful time with it, even when I got stuck and had to rewrite major sections over and over again. This story will always hold a special place in my heart, and I hope you will give it a try!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Elana Rubinstein. 

Oct. 12

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 12, 1908: Ann Petry born.

Q&A with Yoojin Grace Wuertz

  

 

 

Yoojin Grace Wuertz is the author of the new children's picture book Habbi's Treasures. She also has written the novel Everything Belongs to Us. She was born in South Korea, and she lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Habbi’s Treasures?

 

A: Sometimes a story is like a gift that falls into your lap. That’s how it was with Habbi. The book was inspired by a conversation between my dad and my son, Emmett, a week or two before the first day of school. He was 6 years old at the time and I had just picked up some new clothes for him and asked him to try them on.

 

Emmett was playing with my dad, known as Habbi (a shortened version of harabeoji, the Korean word for grandfather), and he was emphatically not interested in trying on the clothes. In fact, he pitched a bit of a tantrum.

 

My dad, who has always loved clothes, eyed what I’d bought and said, “Wow, Emmett, you’re so lucky. Look at all these new clothes you have. Look at these new pants. When I was a boy, I never had so many new clothes. In fact, I had one pair of pants– the pants from my school uniform. I wore those same pants proudly every day.”

 

That statement surprised Emmett and me so much that we stopped thinking about Emmett’s clothes and started asking my dad about his clothes—why did he only have one pair of pants?

 

That’s when we heard about how his childhood and youth following the Korean War was materially tough, but still held so many treasured memories. That’s when I realized I could tell a version of a life story with just the clothes that represented milestones in my dad’s life.

 

A 6-year-old might not have been able to understand these milestones in the abstract, but the memories came alive with the clothes, which were accessible entry points for a young child’s imagination.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your character Caleb and his grandfather?

 

A: I think they delight in each other. On the title page, you see Caleb packing his backpack in anticipation to spend time with Habbi. He’s prepared a picture that he drew of himself with Habbi. He also has fish food to treat Habbi’s tropical fish, and their favorite game to play together (the Korean folk game, yutnori, which is like the American boardgame, Trouble or Sorry, but instead of dice you throw rods that tell you what moves you’ve earned.)

 

Habbi is just as excited to spend time with Caleb. He’s playful and actively involved in Caleb’s world. He plays hide and seek (peeking a bit through his fingers as he counts), plays soccer in the backyard even when it’s raining, dances with Caleb, and gets down on the sidewalk to draw with chalk. Habbi says his favorite stories are from time spent with Caleb, and you can see he really means it.

 

Q: What do you think Dung Ho’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: I’ve admired Dung’s art since Eyes that Kiss in the Corners and the Mindy Kim series. She has such a talent for capturing the love and affection between characters with rich specificity that grounds these connections.

 

For Habbi’s Treasures, I deeply appreciated how closely she researched Korean artifacts to make sure that Habbi’s house truly reflected his culture. The fabric on the throw pillow has modern Korean saekdong, which is a traditional patchwork pattern using a colorful palette. There’s a stone hareubang figure emblematic of Jeju island, which is as ubiquitous as a little Eiffel Tower souvenir might be from Paris.

 

For the pages featuring Habbi’s memories, the images are so detailed and transporting while retaining her expressive signature style that draws children in. Dung’s luminous illustrations made the story’s intergenerational, cross-cultural connections feel effortless. It was a dream collaboration.   

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “delightful exploration of how stories can connect family across generations.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I loved it because it captured my hope for the book, which is for families to use Caleb and Habbi’s story as a springboard to share the treasured memories and stories in their lives.

 

When I share this book with groups of children at story times or school visits, I start by asking what special names kids have for their grandparents. The array of names, whether they’re completely unique to one family or are the common affectionate names from various languages, show me that this intergenerational relationship is so special and cherished across cultures.

 

I especially love how the common affectionate names for “grandmother” and “grandfather” across most languages are often cute words because they are adapted to very young children. Encouraging families to share their stories between generations really makes me happy.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have two books in the pipeline that I’m excited about. I have a YA novel, Welcome Home, Stranger, publishing from FSG Books for Young Readers in May 2027.

 

It’s about a family that has been estranged for two generations across the North/South Korean border, but becomes reunited when 15-year-old Ellie Kim, born and raised in Leonia, NJ, learns that her 17-year-old cousin, who escaped North Korea, is coming to live with her family for a year in New Jersey.

 

I also have a second picture book publishing in August 2027 from Rise x Penguin Workshop called Somi’s Star Student Day. Somi is a young girl who has just moved to the US from South Korea, and her kindergarten class is having a “Star Student Day” for each student to share their favorite things from home.

 

Somi has so many things she wants to tell the class about herself, but she doesn’t have the English yet to do so. She’s frustrated and nervous to try. This book shows how Somi figures out how to shine for her Star Student Day. This one is illustrated by the wonderful artist Skye Ali.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Please check out my website, www.yoojingracewuertz.com, for information about school visits, and for special resources, including fun activity sheets for Habbi’s Treasures. Thank you so much for having me! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Yoojin Grace Wuertz. 

Q&A with Ed Seaward

  

 

 

Ed Seaward is the author of the new novel London Gothic. His other work includes the novel Fair. He lives in Georgetown, Ontario.

 

Q: What inspired you to write London Gothic, and how did you create the Caine family?

 

A: A few years ago I stumbled across excerpts from an interview of Canadian novelist Timothy Findlay by Graeme Gibson (Margaret Atwood’s late husband), where Gibson said that Findlay’s first novel, Last of the Crazy People, reminded him of “Southern Gothic.” Findlay replied that it was – in fact it was Southern Ontario Gothic.

 

I had not heard the term before but I ruminated on it, especially since I was born and raised in the heart of Southwestern Ontario — London. When the image of a father and son burying a body late at night in a field came to me (as it does to one), I decided to pursue the image through this genre of Southern Ontario Gothic.

 

The Caine family evolved as I began to flesh out the story and made notes. I used my family structure as the basis — father, mother, brother and sister who are a decade apart in age — although none of the characters are based on family members.

 

Once I had the family structure I created characters based as I often do — both out of “whole cloth” and out of observations of people over the years. I assume choosing “Caine” as a surname is understood.

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: London Gothic appealed to me because it put “gothic” in the title — the fundamental reference to the seed of the novel, the concept of Southern Ontario Gothic. It is, of course, a double entendre — readers will assume some sort of “traditional gothic” tale in London, England. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I wrote the ending at the same time as I wrote the opening of the novel. I constructed a detailed outline that laid out every chapter with notes on plot, character and setting.

 

That said, once I turned the outline into the novel, changes occurred but the ending remained the same. The beginning and ending are — apologies for the pun — “book ends” which will be apparent to readers when they finish the novel.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I have been asked that question a few times now and I find it difficult to answer. I have not written an essay or a long-form nonfiction work that seeks to inform or instruct readers about a topic or topics.

 

I am a reader first, and a writer second. When I read fiction I want to be engaged in the world the author has created, so as a writer I hope that I engage readers. Engage them with the language, the characters, and the setting.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have finished a draft of new novel, The Apostate K. After leaving it sit for a few months I am about to go through the draft and polish it.

 

Here is the synopsis of The Apostate K: At the beginning of summer, a suburban man abandons his wife’s funeral, heads to downtown Toronto for one final bender, and returns home to rescue a runaway boy and help him escape to the freedom of California. On their road trip they discover the comedy in Kafka, happiness in the blues, and what it truly means to be 12 years old.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: London Gothic is published by DarkWinter Press, which is a new independent publisher founded by Suzanne Craig-Whytock. Over the course of a few years she created an online literary magazine, and then DarkWinter Press, and, recently, an imprint —Baxter House Editions — which brings back out-of-print books that she thinks deserve to have circulation.

 

In our ever-changing world where publishing is a challenge, I thinks it is important to recognize Suzanne for diving in and creating a new creative outlet focused on Canadian literature.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb