Her short stories and poetry have been published in Barren Magazine, New South Journal, Ellipsis Zine, ottawater, and elsewhere. She received a Best of the Net nomination for a story published in Atlas & Alice, and a Pushcart Prize nomination for a story published in Milk Candy Review.
She is a 2021 graduate of the University of Ottawa, where she studied English with a minor in Theatre. She lives in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I was born in Ottawa and have lived here all my life. I like really do like it here, especially now that I’ve moved from Barrhaven to downtown. Nothing against Barrhaven, but it just didn’t feel like the right spot for me. I stayed in Ottawa for university, and I just graduated from the University of Ottawa where I studied English and Theatre.
I don’t subscribe to the idea that Ottawa’s “the city that fun forgot”--there’s so much to discover and explore. I like that there’s nature and wildlife around every corner. There’s also so many little shops that I love here, from record stores like Vertigo Records and Compact Music, to vintage stores like Darling Vintage and Bellwethers Vintage, to independent bookstores like Perfect Books and Books on Beechwood.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
It’s an annoying cliché when people say they’ve “always been a writer”, but I think it rings true for me despite its banality. I wrote from elementary school onwards. My first hint that I should take writing seriously came in eighth grade, when I turned a two-page short story assignment into a ten-page tale about a middle-aged conspiracy theorist who threw his life away because he thought he was about to be abducted by aliens. The aliens never arrived, the ending of the story was dark and melancholy, and I got an A minus.
The first time I got genuine enthusiasm for my writing (from someone other than my mother, who’s always been immediately supportive) came in eleventh grade, when I took a Writer’s Craft class in school. My teacher, Ms. Jennifer Simpson, taught with passion and intensity. She let us write whatever spoke to us, and it was in that class that I found confidence with my style. My writing in that class was ambitious, moody, and weird, and she received it all with adoration. It was in that class that I realized I could actually be a writer.
I’ve been publishing short stories and poetry since my second year of university, but I’m not sure I’m “part” of the writing community of Ottawa in any way but on a technicality. I’ve been to a few poetry readings and workshops (I took one last year in university with Rawi Hage, who was a dream to work with), but I’m still working on finding my footing in the community.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
Like I mentioned, I don’t really consider myself part of the “community” although I would like to be! Aside from following folks on Twitter and engaging there, most of my participation has been observatory, on the sidelines. That’s something I’d really like to amend—I’m planning on getting more involved once life returns to something resembling normalcy.
While I’m not part of the writing community per se, I’m still surrounded by artists who I find endlessly inspirational. My friends are all creative types, who make music, make punk zines, shoot photos and videos, make clothing, and do visual art. The diversity of interests I see in them helps me explore new methods and styles in my writing. I’ve always found a lot of inspiration in art and music--it’s no coincidence that my novel deals so heavily with music culture--so seeing these things created in front of me has been a thrill.
Knowing other artists has helped me feel like my writing is art, more than a hobby. Having people engage with it and ask questions with genuine interest has been heartening and a little shocking. Writing is often such a solitary act that when others show interest in it, it always feels like a welcome surprise.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
I don’t think people outside of Ottawa realize how into writing—especially poetry—Ottawa actually is. When I take walks around the neighborhood, I see poems pinned to electric posts. Bookstores always have tables full of Ottawa authors. There’s a pride and fervor for poetry in Ottawa that always brings me joy. Maybe Ottawa’s interest in poetry comes from a rejection of the “government town” label. A place so bureaucratic needs to be balanced with something artistic.
Ottawa’s setting is also so conductive to writing. In one block, you can go from midrise, dense apartments to sprawling parkland and water. The ease of a change of scene makes it simple to find inspiration and clear my head, which is an essential part of my writing ritual.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
I don’t think any of my work is inspired by Ottawa specifically, but all my work of course stems from my own experiences, which are necessarily colored by the city. Some of my short stories and poetry are based extremely loosely on my own experiences in elementary and high school in Ottawa. I don’t want to suggest any of them are autobiographical—they're absolutely not—but when I picture them, I picture them in my own schools. My poem “Immortals, Afterwards” (published in ottawater’s 16th issue), is inspired by a friend I had in high school in Barrhaven who ate nothing but candy, and my poem “Sugarvomit” (published in Rookie Mag) is mostly based on a really gross frat-adjacent party I went to. Ah, youth.
Q: What are you working on now?
A lot! I’m deep in edits on my debut novel Groupies which is tentatively coming out next summer from William Morrow, a HarperCollins imprint. My brilliant editor Asante Simons has been a dream to work with so far, and I’m so happy to be working on this complicated, intense book with her. My incredible agent, Mariah Stovall at Howland Literary, took a chance on me and my manuscript that I’ll always be thankful for.
I’m
also working on the first draft of a new manuscript which is going well so far!
