Ottawa writer Frances Boyle’s first collection of short stories has been shortlisted for two awards in this pandemic year. Such success is a rare thing and worth acknowledging. To that end she answered some questions about her collection and her journey as a writer. As a bit of background she is the author of a novella (Tower, Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018), two books of poetry, (This White Nest, Quattro Books, 2019 and Light-carved Passages, BuschekBooks, 2014).
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I grew up on the prairies, mostly in Regina, spent a few years in Montreal for university, then more than a decade in Vancouver before settling In Ottawa. For many years I worked as a lawyer, not the courtroom kind, but rather the words-on-pages kind. My partner is an academic, and we have two daughters. I’ve been happily ensconced in Ottawa for a long time, and love being part of the literary community here.
Tell me about your passion for writing.
I’ve been making stories for as long as I can remember. There is family lore about my kindergarten teacher writing the story of each student’s drawing on the back of their paper. My story was so long that the teacher had to paste an additional piece of paper to the bottom to fit it all.
I was a shy kid, so, whenever I could get away with it, I’d hide out during recess to write my “books,” which emulated books I loved about ordinary kids encountering magic. I also loved comic books, which I shared with my best friend, Sheila. High school brought angst-y poems, but I always kept attempting fiction, even though I rarely finished anything and certainly never consider submitting.
I was always a big reader, which carried me through some relatively long stretches when I didn’t write much more than journal entries, including at law school, and then with a big law firm in Vancouver and raising young kids. There was not much time for writing, but the move to Ottawa, a few years of consulting then a more flexible legal job allowed me to finally put in the time that I’d long intended. I was lucky to meet some other aspiring writers and to join some workshops which was exactly the incentive and foundation I needed. I started writing more, began submitting and collecting rejections, until some acceptances started to come along. Four books later, rejections are still part of the process, but luckily there are enough successes to make it feel worthwhile.
My partner and I both recently retired and our daughters are grown so I now (at least theoretically) have all the time in the world for writing.
Your first collection of short stories is called Seeking Shade. Tel me about it.
There are 14 stories in Seeking Shade, including one very short one. Several have contemporary or recent-historical settings, but one is speculative fiction and a couple are set in the earlier part of the 20th century. One thread or theme that runs through is the way that the arts – everything from music and dance, theatre and cinema, literature and visual art — shape the way my characters view the world and their place in it. Another commonality among the stories is relationships: between lovers, among friends and colleagues, between parent (or parent surrogate) and child, including how any of these can go wrong. And, as in my Rapunzel-infused novella Tower, as well as much of my poetry, there is a healthy dose of myth and fairy tale.
Give me a little history about this collection of stories.
Like many debut collections, Seeking Shade brings together stories I wrote (and rewrote) over a lengthy period. It includes stories that I published as early as 2001, but the genesis of many of the others goes back even further. I started to focus on putting them together as a collection shortly after my first book of poetry came out in 2014.
I had a number of linked short stories, which I reworked as a novella based on advice from a wise mentor, Isabel Huggan, and the collection was originally to consist of the novella “and other stories.” When the novella was in good shape but some of the stories still needed work, I submitted the novella to a new press I’d heard of, Fish Gotta Swim Editions.
I was thrilled that they accepted Tower and made a beautiful book of it. But this good news left me with a novella-sized hole in the short story manuscript. As a result, it was a while longer before the collection was ready. I revisited some drafts that hadn’t originally been part of the manuscript, and revised them to the point where I was satisfied they belonged. A couple of new stories came to be thanks to Sarah Selecki’s writing program. And all the writing benefited immeasurably from input by Stephanie Small, my editor at The Porcupine’s Quill, once the press had accepted my manuscript.
You are experiencing success with this book. Tell me about the prizes for which you are shortlisted.
I was dumbfounded and delighted to have Seeking Shade appear on the shortlist for not one but two awards in the same week. The first was the 2021 ReLit Award for short stories. The ReLit awards honour books from Canadian independent publishers (including The Porcupine’s Quill, who published Seeking Shade). There are no monetary prizes although the winners receive an amazing ring, which I’ve long coveted. The 2021 short story winner, Stoop City by Kristyn Dunnion has already been announced. There are some stellar writers whose books are on the short list, and I’ve placed several on hold at the Ottawa Public Library.
The other short list is for the Danuta Gleed Award, which The Writers Union of Canada administers. The $10,000 prize is given for the best debut book of short stories. The winner and two runners up will be announced at an online ceremony May 27. Again, there is tremendous star-power on the list (including winners of the Griffin and Giller Prizes), and I’m honoured and thrilled to see my book alongside the other four titles.
I’m curious: Who was Danuta Gleed?
Danuta Gleed was an Ottawa writer who died in 1996, not long after I had moved to town. I didn’t have the chance to know her, but I’ve heard from many who did that she was a one-of-a-kind personality, in addition to being an extremely promising writer whose short stories had won prizes and been published throughout Canada. Although our lives were very different (she was of Polish background and grew up in refugee camps in Africa then in the U.K.), I like to think of her as a kindred spirit and, indeed, an inspiration. Like me, she didn’t publish until somewhat later in life and we in fact shared a publisher: Ottawa-based BuschekBooks published both Danuta’s posthumous short story collection, One of the Chosen and my first book, Light-carved Passages. Her stories are perceptive, beautiful and often sad. The prize in Danuta’s honour is possible because of a donation by Danuta’s husband, John Gleed, and I am very grateful to have this additional tie with her via the short list.
If you won and actually had a chance at appearing at a real award event who would you credit for inspiring you to become a writer.
I’m not entirely sure where my stubbornly-held notion that I could be a writer came from, since it certainly wasn’t encouraged in my family or even at school. I do have a memory of being amazed and inspired on finding a library book (British) written by two girls not much older than me. I don’t recall the authors’ names, the title or any of the plot, just the realization that it was possible for someone like me to write a book. Later, a university prof, Joan Givner, read and gave me some strong and positive feedback on an early short story. And, just before I moved away from Regina, I took part in a fiction workshop at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts (the precursor to Sage Hill). The instructor, Jack Hodgins, accepted me for the “advanced” group even though I really belonged in the introductory level. I remember being largely silent, just soaking in the presence of the talented other writers. These encouraging teachers, and the good company I’ve been lucky enough to keep (including my writing group friends, and the writers on the current shortlists) are definitely inspirational.
