7Th Week Fall 2010 Issue
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The Seventh Week clarion west writers workshop · fall 2010 INTERVIEW: native English speaker would say, “I’m standing at the waterfall, looking Minister Faust: out at the mountains.” Why choose a bizarre, distancing, formal phrase when Writing is not a a down-to-earth one is so convenient and immediate? I recommend to all performance art young writers, whether it’s dialogue or narration, to write like people actually By Nisi Shawl ’92 speak. And if you have a character who Minister Faust is the nom de guerre of speaks in a truly formal fashion, even in Malcolm Azania, an acclaimed African- narration, then draw attention to that, Canadian activist and radio personality, since such behavior points to a strange and the author of Coyote Kings of the personality or frame of mind. Space-Age Bachelor Pad and From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain. Both novels In a recent interview you named a were Philip K. Dick Award nominees; wide-ranging list of authors who’ve the second received the Carl Brandon influenced you: Philip K. Dick, Society’s Parallax Award. Faust is currently Frank Herbert, and Daniel Keyes, working on The Alchemists of Kush, in the SF genre; Alan Moore, Kevin “the story of two Sudanese boys orphaned O’Neill, and Frank Miller in comics; helpful lessons I’ve learned from doing by war and forced to wander through Ralph Ellison, John Gardner, Richard so much performance (which also violence, fear, and deprivation, until Wright, John Steinbeck, and J.D. includes giving scores of speeches and they encounter mystic mentors who try to Salinger in mainstream fiction; having taught public school for ten transform them into leaders. One of those Seamus Heaney, the Last Poets, boys lives today in inner-city Edmonton. years) is how to be clear and concise. When we write, it’s easy to get carried Claude McKay, and Linton Kwesi The other lived 7,000 years ago: Horus, Johnson in poetry. Gender Police son of Osiris.” away, to fall in love with our own endless descriptions of whatever we Person wants to know if any women Minister Faust will teach the fourth authors interest you. week of the Clarion West Writers personally think is amazing: sunsets, The absence of women on my list Workshop’s 2011 session. He was flowers, action, aliens, guns, food, sex, points to a major flaw in my early interviewed by Nisi Shawl ’92. shoes…. But when you read your work aloud and discover you’ve spent five reading history, when a writer was You’re a radio announcer and a minutes on something, no matter how much more likely to influence my spoken word artist, the former pretty the words are you have to realize own approach. But I’d definitely say member of a hip hop group, and an you’ve gone long. I’m profoundly impressed by Nalo acclaimed participant in live poetry Another major benefit of that much Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring), readings. How does performance experience speaking and performing Eden Robinson (Traplines), Hiromi influence your written work? is that I aim for naturalistic phrasing. Goto (The Kappa Child), Danzy Senna I can’t stress enough how important I get irked by passages such as, “I (Caucasia), Laura Esquivel (Like Water it is for writers to read their own work stand at the waterfall. I gaze out at for Chocolate), and Jan Wong (Red aloud to themselves. One of the most the mountains,” since in real life, a China Blues). THE SEVENTH WEEK |FALL 2010 | PAGE 1 As a writer you set yourself daily goals You’ve described yourself as “Kenyan- Clarion West students on how to of hundreds, sometimes thousands of Canadian left-wing writer.” Can approach the week they’ll be spending words. Do you revise as you go? readers perceive your politics through with you next summer? When I’m working on a novel your work? Do you think your writing Be open. Together we’ll try to help manuscript, I try to write a minimum can achieve political gains? everyone improve their weakest skills of four pages a day (2,000 words). If readers don’t perceive my politics, and investigate their own deepest fears, Revising can be a helpful way to get the they aren’t paying much attention. That pains, hopes, and joys, which I believe momentum to do the day’s work, but said, some people think they know are the sources of our greatest writing. for me, revising at that stage is mostly my convictions and proceed to make a proofreading with minor additions and variety of claims about them. They’re If you could go back in time and tell subtractions. Some people are quite frequently speaking more about their your younger self anything, what comfortable killing whole sections of own fears and prejudices than anything would it be? a manuscript in progress, but I grieve having to do with me. 1. Buy Google stock. losses on that scale. As far as political gains, I think that 2. Bad things will go away. Good To avoid having to delete large barring a few people—such as Ralph things will get better. sections, I do extensive planning for Nader, whose books have brought major 3. Spend more time with friends every novel manuscript. My notes for improvements to the lives of hundreds and family. my unpublished megabooks sometimes of millions of his fellow citizens—the total a few hundred pages. They’re at best most writers can hope for is to least 100 pages for my latest manuscript, make a lot of people feel less alone The Alchemists of Kush, which when (because someone, somewhere has published will be about 350 pages long. shared their experiences and published Not everyone likes extensive planning, them), and to inspire a few ambitious and Stephen King says it’s for hacks. people to turn fictional versions of Writing is not a performance art, aspects of a better life into reality. though—it’s a results-oriented art. The only people who truly care how you You mentioned in an interview a few wrote your book are certain types of years back that Canadian SF writer fans, and writers seeking to learn from Robert Sawyer predicted the death of your methods. All television writers and SF publishing within our lifetimes. most film writers do extensive planning; Do you believe that will happen? Do a story might be up to half the length of you see SF as a ghetto to escape from? the finished script. I think SF publishing for adults is in a tough spot right now based on What’s good about writing for games? what various people tell me. The best What’s not so great about it? hope for SF adult publishing is SF YA The most satisfying part of writing for publishing, which apparently outsells video games is seeing artists and level adult SF by a ratio of two-to-one. The designers turn my ideas into visuals. more young people we can bring into For ten years (ages 10 - 20), I aimed at SF, the more will become adults who being a comic book artist and writer, so continue to read in the genre. And seeing people put in hours and years to many of them will become literature bring my ideas to simulated 3D life is teachers and professors who will assign deeply rewarding. SF novels. The part that’s not so great is, SF isn’t a “bad neighborhood” from ironically, also the most valuable: having which to escape; some of the finest my work constantly subjected to many, novels in English are SF: Jonathan many people’s changes. It’s hard to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, really the take because it means that whatever earliest Star Trek, exploring strange new I love can be (and most of the time worlds and seeking out new lifeforms is) killed almost immediately. That’s and new civilizations, complete with beneficial because I’ve learned a great political commentary; George Orwell’s deal about what “average folks” either 1984; Philip K. Dick’s VALIS. Our are entertained by or think they’ll be biggest barrier is the prejudice of people entertained by. So lessons from writing who think they’re too good for SF. for video games will be useful in some of the YA series I’m planning right now. Do you have any advice for 2011 THE SEVENTH WEEK |FALL 2010 | PAGE 2 From the Chair THE POWER OF IMAGINATION BY KELLEY ESKRIDGE As I write this, Halloween approaches. and the possibility of transformation slate of upcoming instructors: Paul I’m looking forward to neighborhood it offers—would not be possible. Your Park, Nancy Kress, Margo Lanagan, kids showing up at my door in donations helped us meet our $25,000 Minister Faust, L. Timmel Duchamp, costumes, transformed for a night into challenge grant from Amazon.com, and and Charles Stross. We’ll begin superheroes and monsters, pirates and your continued support will make the accepting applications on January 1, fairies. I’m thinking about the power of workshop possible for a crop of new 2011. If you’re an emerging writer imagination. students in 2011. Thank you all for of speculative fiction, please imagine Imagination is the engine that drives helping us turn imagination into reality yourself at Clarion West and send us writers and readers. Every daydream for students every year. Speculative your application. Because imagination is and every private fantasy, every moment fiction is better because you do. Because powerful.