The Journey Prize Stories 24 (28 page)

Trevor Corkum
’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in
The Malahat Review, Grain, Event, The Antigonish Review
, and
Prairie Fire
. “You Were Loved” is part of a manuscript of short fiction completed under the tutelage of story magician Zsuzsi Gartner through the University of British Columbia’s Optional-Residency MFA Program. He currently lives in Halifax.

Nancy Jo Cullen
is the fourth recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an Emerging Gay Writer. She is the author of three collections of poetry with Calgary’s Frontenac House Press and has been shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Writers Guild of Alberta’s Stephan G. Stephansson Award, and the W.O. Mitchell Calgary Book Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph-Humber. Her fiction has appeared in
The Puritan, Grain
, and
filling Station
. Her short story collection,
Canary
, is forthcoming from Biblioasis in the spring of 2013. She is at work on a novel.

Kevin Hardcastle
is a fiction writer from Simcoe County, Ontario. His short stories have been published in
Word Riot, subTerrain Magazine
, and
The Malahat Review
. An excerpt from a novel-in-progress was recently published in
Noir Nation: International Journal of Crime Fiction
. He has studied writing at the University of Toronto and at Cardiff University.

Andrew Hood
is the author of the short story collections
Pardon Our Monsters
(Véhicule Press, 2007) and, most recently,
The Cloaca
(Invisible Publishing, 2012). He has lived in Guelph,
Montreal, and Halifax, and may currently be living in any one of these places.

Grace O’Connell
is the author of
Magnified World
(Random House Canada, 2012). She is the Contributing Editor for Open Book: Toronto and the books columnist for
This Magazine
, and her work has appeared in various publications, including
The Walrus, Quill & Quire
, and
EYE Weekly
. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing. “The Many Faces of Montgomery Clift” has also been nominated for a National Magazine Award. Grace lives in Toronto.

Jasmina Odor
is a fiction writer and an instructor of English and Creative Writing at Concordia University College in Edmonton. Her stories have appeared in
The Fiddlehead, Coming Attractions: 05
, and
The New Quarterly
, which first published “Barcelona.” She has recently completed a collection of short stories and is now working on a set of stories about empathy – empathy in its relationship to justice and in its potential to lessen the suffering of others.

Alex Pugsley
is a writer and filmmaker from Nova Scotia. As a screenwriter, he has written for performers such as Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Dan Aykroyd, Seán Cullen, and Michael Cera. He is the co-author of the novel
Kay Darling
, and his fiction has appeared in
Brick, Descant, The Dalhousie Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, This Magazine, The Queen Street Quarterly
, and other periodicals. “Crisis on Earth-X” is the fifth published story in a narrative series about the McKee and Mair families, set in twentieth-century Halifax.

Eliza Robertson
studied creative writing and political science at the University of Victoria. She is now pursuing her Masters in Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia, England, where she received the 2011–12 Man Booker Scholarship. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including
The Journey Prize Stories 22
and the Willesden Herald Prize’s
New Short Stories 6
. She is writing a novel and gathering stories for her first collection.

Martin West
’s work has published in magazines across Canada. “My Daughter of the Dead Reeds” is part of a larger collection-in-process about the Red Deer River Badlands in Alberta, some of which has appeared in
PRISM international, The Fiddlehead, Grain, and Front & Centre
. Another story from that collection, “Cretacea,” was shortlisted for the Journey Prize in 2006.

What is the best advice you’ve received about writing?

Kathleen Winter:
My short story editor, John Metcalf, told me I did not know how to write an ending. He told me to pretend I was sitting in a theatre, watching my story onstage, from the beginning to the penultimate scene. Then what happens? Watch and see. That’s what he said, and that’s what I do now. It’s great. I get a lot of surprises.

Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer:
I was given the advice early on that to write a story (a novel or a short story) one must have an idea captivating enough to sustain the project for the duration it might take to finish. I always ask myself before beginning whether the thrust of a story truly interests me. The idea needs to feel energetically urgent.

Michael Christie:
For me, the idea that I often cling to, perhaps as one would a life raft, is this: Write what you like to read. Of course encoded within this comes the sneakier statement, which is: Like to read. It’s terrifying to know that there are aspiring writers out there who don’t actually love to read. This seems like a terrific waste of time to me. There are plenty of rewarding things to do out there other than write. But for me, it’s the naked awe that I feel in the presence of a great book that impels me to attempt it myself.

Trevor Corkum:
Best advice for any writer is to write the stories only you can tell. We’re all hungry for stories that reflect the truth of what we know personally about the world, based on our own particular histories and desires and regrets. Write the story that really terrifies you or moves you or embarrasses you or obsesses you in some way. Good writing always has some element of emotional risk, something at stake.

Eliza Robertson:
Talent will only get you so far – you need to work your ass off.

Kevin Hardcastle:
That you have to put in work, put in hours like you would at any job, and keep producing. There are a few rare moments when you feel like you are really creating something special, when you are in a kind of zone, but in my experience that all comes from sitting in front of a computer or typewriter for an extended amount of time and churning out pages. If you can put in hours like that you not only sharpen all your tools and produce better work, but you also tend to become more objective and less precious about your writing.

Jasmina Odor:
About writing in general, as a life practice: to care about the craft and the integrity of the writing first and everything else related to writing second.

Grace O’Connell:
Lisa Moore, who was my mentor during my graduate work, once told me she was having trouble getting a character to the store, where she needed him to be. A friend said to her, “Why don’t you just start at the store?” I think that’s good advice for writing – a lot of times, the problems you
encounter exist because you’re stuck in thinking one particular way. When I come across sagging scenes, I ask myself, “Can I just start at the store?”

Martin West:
Tell your own story and tell the truth. Anything less serves the art form poorly.

Shashi Bhat:
One of my former professors said a short story can’t take place on just any day; it has to be the day that everything changed forever.

Nancy Jo Cullen:
As hokey as it sounds, all stories have to be about some kind of journey, they have to move forward in space or time, or else they are simply description and feel somewhat static.

Andrew Hood:
Trevor Ferguson once told me that, in the current climate, it’s against all odds that anyone will ever read anything you write, let alone like or understand it, so you can feel free to write your goddamn heart out. He said it with a few more flowers, though.

Astrid Blodgett:
Keep writing.

What advice do you have for someone looking to publish a story in a literary magazine?

Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer:
I would advise new writers to try to get to know people in the industry as well as getting to
know the different approaches to writing each journal takes. The best advice is to send your best work to the magazines and journals publishing authors alongside whom you would like to be published.

Michael Christie:
Some helpful rules of thumb: Don’t send something off before you’ve had a fresh go or two at it. Pick your literary magazine carefully according to the style or subject matter of the story. Take rejection seriously, but don’t take it personally. Try to write about anything other than the things you think you ought to be writing about. Look at a story that you find amazing, then look at your story – see any difference? Also, don’t make fun of your characters. Also, brilliant stories get rejected all the time, but so do terrible ones. Also, don’t be cryptic. Also, don’t be uselessly clever. Also, don’t be boring. Okay, I’ll leave it there.

Kathleen Winter:
Get the thing into the best possible shape. Then put it away for two to four weeks. Then take it out and fix all the things that have mysteriously come to the surface to mock you. Then send it out. Don’t let a day go by when you don’t have a piece out there. Always have bait in the ice-fishing hole.

Jasmina Odor:
Care about every word of the writing, about the story as a living thing. If it is living, someone will recognize it. The more practical advice is to read the magazines, a bunch of them. Set a high tolerance for rejection letters, and send out regularly, diligently; don’t shelve a good story because one or two magazines have rejected it.

Martin West:
Find a magazine that suits your style. The Canadian literary scene is small and very conservative, so submit like an eagle; circle before you strike.

Trevor Corkum:
Be persistent, and send only your best work. Rejection doesn’t mean your story sucks. It may just not be right for a particular publication. Also, rejection may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, because it may also be a sign that the story still needs some tender loving care, more time to ferment. The goal should be to publish excellent work, not just to be published.

Nancy Jo Cullen:
Read literary magazines. Send your stories to magazines you like. And try not to take it personally when your story is rejected. There are so many stories being read by editors, if your story is rejected it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s not a good story. Send it out again. And if you’re lucky enough to get advice or comments on your story, consider it carefully. If you can make your story better, then do so.

Shashi Bhat:
Don’t forget your SASE. Create a spreadsheet to keep track of all your stories and where you’ve submitted them. Read lots of stories, or don’t expect other people to read yours.

Kevin Hardcastle:
The best bet is to always be writing and submitting while you are waiting for responses to recent submissions. Waiting for things to happen without having some new work on the burner is a real good way to end up disappointed and disheartened. Getting interest from a publisher or
an agent is never a guarantee that you will see your work in print anytime soon, so you have to keep writing and submitting whenever you find yourself in a holding pattern.

Eliza Robertson:
Submit, submit, submit, submit! Simultaneously, if the magazines let you. Also, contests. The fees add up, but the turnaround time is quick. My first three publications were through contests.

Kris Bertin:
Don’t be a baby.

What is your favourite short story or short fiction collection, and why?

Michael Christie:
I have many favourites, but one of those is
Jesus’ Son
by Denis Johnson. The compression, the immoral daring, the surprising bursts of sheer lyrical beauty, the pathos, the dead-on description – this book does everything right. I’ve read that except for a few errant sentences,
Jesus’ Son
is as close to a perfect book as a human being is ever going to get. But I don’t agree. I’ve yet to find those bad sentences.

Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer:
I don’t have a favourite. I love the short stories of Chris Adrian, Ian McEwan, Flannery O’Connor, Deborah Eisenberg, Bill Gaston, Yoko Ogawa, John McGahern, Kenzeburo Oë, Grace Paley, and Annie Proulx. Lately, I’ve been reading stories by Selena Anderson, whom I discovered through the journal
Glimmer Train
. She’s one to watch. I can’t wait until she publishes her first book.

Eliza Robertson:
Lorrie Moore’s
Birds of America
. I’ve never laughed aloud so often. Every few pages I had to find someone to whom I could recite the funny dialogue or passage. But her stories also have a way of grabbing you by the throat.

Grace O’Connell:
I love Alice Munro, but for a best single collection I think I would say
Open
by Lisa Moore.

Kevin Hardcastle:
I covet all of Ernest Hemingway’s short fiction and can’t really choose one collection outright. Of his individual stories, though, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is the one that had the most impact on me. It is one of the best short stories ever put to paper. Another perfect story is Alistair MacLeod’s “The Boat” from
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
. I gravitate toward fiction about working-class men and women, especially those in rural places who have trades or ways of life that are being threatened but still endure. I also need something to be at stake in a narrative I’m reading. I believe Cormac McCarthy said that he has no interest in writing that doesn’t trade in issues of life and death, and I tend to agree with him.