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The following is excerpted from the Open Book interview with George Fetherling.
George Fetherling has played so many important roles in Canadian books and publishing it’s hard to pick a headline. First full-time employee at House of Anansi Press? Writer and editor of more than 50 books? Massey College writer in residence?
You can decide for yourself by reading George’s new memoir The Writing Life: Journals 1975-2005 (McGill-Queen’s University Press). A veritable goldmine for CanLit junkies, the volume contains stories of George’s literary adventures. Many familiar names pop up in these pages, from Conrad Black to “Peggy” Atwood to legendary publisher Jack McClelland.
Today we speak with George about the mechanics of editing 30 years of experiences, one particular night of epic literary output and Canada’s changing literary culture.
Tell us about your book, The Writing Life.
I started keeping a daily journal in 1975 when I was 26. By that time I’d been struggling for 10 years to find a place for myself as a writer. Today, four decades later, I still keep the journal and I’m still struggling. In effect, The Writing Life, which Brian Busby put together by selecting stuff from the journals up to the end of 2005, is this story. But in another sense it’s a narrative of Canadian writing and culture more generally. With a cast of, if not thousands, then certainly hundreds. Someone pointed out that people who feature in the book run alphabetically from Margaret Atwood to Moses Znaimer.
Why is this the right time for this book?
This seemed the right moment because the book looks back on a writing and publishing environment that’s now been almost totally supplanted by the one we see around us today. It was a time when serious publishers and independent bookshops were plentiful and books sales were generated by reviews rather than award nominations. Why stop in 2005? Well, 30 years seemed a nice round number.
Join us April 19th at Ben McNally, Toronto for The Writing Life book launch. Click here for more info.
To learn more about The Writing Life, or to order online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP publicist Jacqui Davis.
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