On Thursday, May 5th, I had the pleasure of seeing and meeting two great Canadian authors, Elizabeth Hay and Miriam Toews.
Elizabeth Hay started off the evening talking about her latest book, Alone in the Classroom and doing a reading from it. The idea for the story came from a time when her mother reminisced about high school. She had a principal who seemed to be disturbed and a classmate who was murdered in 1937. From there she went to the library to find out about the girl who was killed in 1937 and found a transcript of the court case, that helped with the book. Elizabeth said that we all contain our grand parents and parents in us and she wanted to explore how we carry the past with us.
When asked about the actual writing of her novels, she said, “the beginning of a book is hard but the ending is the worse part. You don’t want a pat ending but it has to mean something.” She also said, “if the main character is too much like a real person, it doesn’t take off.”
Next, Miriam Toews took the stage and did a reading and talked about her latest book, Irma Voth. Irma was a 19 year old Mennonite girl living in Mexico with her family. She was forbidden from dating Mexican boys but met one and fell in love. They got married and then went to tell her parents. Miriam knew a Mennonite woman who married a Mexican in real life and that was the inspiration for the book.
When she first starts to write a new book she thinks to herself, “I can always be a taxi driver if it doesn’t work out. I have a drivers license and I can drive, so I qualify.”
I asked Miriam this question: Most of your books have a common theme of a Mennonite woman being cast out of the community, Have you experienced this or know people who have? Miriam answered: “It hasn’t happened to me but I know people who have been excommunicated. It’s devistating to the person and their family. It still happens today.”
I haven’t had the chance to read either Alone in the Classroom or Irma Voth but they are high up on my TBR. Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air is a favorite book of mine, see my review here. I also really liked Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness, which I read before I started blogging.
Thanks to the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival for making this awesome author event happen! If you live in the Vancouver area or find yourself here, be sure to look up the festival. Besides the festival every October, the writers festival hosts author events throughout the year. 
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.