ALIX HAWLEY
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Name Is a Knife
    • All True Not a Lie in It
    • The Old Familiar
  • More Writing
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Storybrain
  • News

The Interview: Elizabeth Hay

10/4/2015

0 Comments

 
When the Shuswap BookFest organizers asked me if I would interview Elizabeth Hay onstage on October 2, I said yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
Without really thinking. Though I love doing the Storybrain interviews here on the blog, I've never done a live performance. But hey! Elizabeth Hay, CanLit superstar, whose work I've admired since I stumbled on her story collection, Small Change, years ago. I figured I'd wing it.
Until I was knocked sideways by a ghastly bug and lost my voice for more than a week. I lay around and read her new novel, His Whole Life, which centres on a small family moving between New York City and a summer cabin in Ontario against the backdrop of the 1995 Quebec referendum, and reread earlier ones. Still croaky but on my feet, I went to the first night of the festival to hear Eleanor Wachtel, Queen of the CBC, talk about her 25 years of interviewing on Writers and Company and Wachtel on the Arts. Talk about tough acts to follow. When Eleanor said she has at least 20 pages of questions and prompts for a one-hour radio interview, and how much more difficult and unpredictable live interviews are, my heart sank. I went home and looked over my three pages, and didn't sleep much.
I should have slept better. As it turned out,  and in spite of germs and rain, Elizabeth makes live interviewing very easy. She's warm, funny, and very generous in her talk, letting us into her writing process and her thoughts on fate, politics, parenthood, and envy. I didn't look much at my notes--our conversation took its own turns, from writing difficult and unpleasant characters (Janet the Jerk, I'm talking about you), to Pierre and Justin Trudeau as Shakespearian figures. The hour flashed by, and the terrific audience had plenty of smart questions afterwards. Shuswap BookFest, I'm inviting myself back for 2016.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    ALIX HAWLEY

    I'm the author of My Name is a Knife, All True Not a Lie In It,  and The Old Familiar. 

    Archives

    February 2021
    September 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    July 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


    Find Alix on Facebook:
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Name Is a Knife
    • All True Not a Lie in It
    • The Old Familiar
  • More Writing
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Storybrain
  • News