Leslie Vryenhoek is a writer, poet and communication consultant based out of Newfoundland. Her work has appeared in various Canadian and international publications. Leslie has received numerous awards for her poetry, fiction and memoirs including the Winston-Collins Descant Best Canadian Poem 2010 prize, two provincial Arts and Letters Awards, the Eden Mills Festival Literary Competition and the Dalton Camp Award. Her two books Scrabble Lessons (fiction) and Gulf (poetry), both published by Oolichan Books, received a great deal of praise from the literary community. We recently spoke with Leslie about her work, literary contests, and the idea of plot versus character.

This Magazine: You took second place in our Great Canadian Literary Hunt back in 2009 as well as third in 2006, how has that helped your career?

Leslie Vryenhoek: The 2006 showing was one of my first published poems, so it was a real shot in the arm. Both poems—Stuck and My Parents’ Past—were published last year in a collection called Gulf (Oolichan Books).

LV: Since Gulf was published, I’ve been working on finishing and revising a novel—my first attempt at the interminable form—but I keep getting distracted by ideas for screenplays that keep appearing out of nowhere. So a lot of sketching out ideas, and then wading back in to wrestle the beast I’ve tentatively titled Doubtful Accounts.

LV: At the very least, they usually come with a subscription to a good publication, which it is important to read. And maybe if you win, a few bucks. But most importantly, literary contests have deadlines—they make you finish something. Also, they help up and coming writers get used to soul-crushing disappointment. It’s never too soon to start on those callouses.

LV: Write the best thing you can write, not what you think the judges might want. That said, read the damn rules and follow them.

LV: Whoa, that’s like asking What’s more important: arms or legs, love or sex, coffee or vodka … Character is essential for driving a plot, but the things that happen, plotwise. necessarily develop the character. They are equally crucial.

Lynn Cunningham will be judging our creative non-fiction category this year.

This Magazine is happy to announce Lynn Cunningham as one of our creative non-fiction judges for this year’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Lynn is an associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism. She is well known throughout the magazine industry, holding senior editorial positions at Canadian Business, Quest and Toronto Life. In 1999, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the National Magazine Awards. We recently sat down with Lynn to discuss creative non-fiction and judging the Great Canadian Lit Hunt.

This: We’ve had a lot of questions surrounding our new category, creative non-fiction. Could you share your thoughts about what it exactly is?

Lynn Cunningham: My book club only reads creative non-fiction. When we first met, we spent some time clarifying what we meant by that term. We agreed that this genre is characterized by true stories, with emphasis on both “true” and “story,” that employ techniques of fiction–plot, dialogue, strong characters, effective scenes. But my favourite part of our definition is that a book has to be a “ripping good read.”

This: As one of our judges this year for creative non-fiction, what will you be looking for in a winner?

LC: See above, particularly the ripping good read part.

This: What value do literary contests have for new writers?

LC: It’s often hard for beginning writers to get much validation, or even to get someone outside their immediate family to read their work. A contest is sort of like what an open-mike night is for musicians—a chance to show their chops. And if they win, they have a great clip and a bit of dough to put toward the garret rent.

This: Where can people find examples of creative non-fiction?

LC: There are usually some tucked into the bestseller lists. One current example is In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson; another is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot . Frequently, the winner of the Governor General’s award for non-fiction qualifies. One of the titles my club read this year was The Golden Spruce, by John Vaillant, which received the 2005 GG. Its subtitle alone is enticing: “A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed.” How could you not want to read that? Goodreads offers a lot of excellent suggestions, though I’d quibble with a few (Eat, Pray, Love? Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim?) and caution that some of the authors—Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’s John Berendt, for one—have copped to being a little too creative with the verite.

This: Is there a place for creative non-fiction in mainstream media?

LC: If you consider book publishing part of the MSM, as I do, certainly. Of course, a lot of magazines—and not just the obvious ones, like The Walrus or The New Yorker—regularly publish articles that qualify. Download some of the winners of this year’s National Magazine Awards for a sample. As newspapers move away from the inverted pyramid tradition, particularly in features, you can encounter examples of this genre in their pages as well. Think of Ian Brown’s affecting meditation on his dad and loss published this past Father’s Day in The Globe and Mail.

Jennifer and her bird Antonia

Jennifer Lovegrove is the author of two collections of poetry, I Should Have Never Fired the Sentinel (2005) and The Dagger Between Her Teeth (2002). Her work has been featured in a number of Canadian publications including Taddle Creek, The Fiddlehead, Sub-Terrain and This Magazine. We recently sat down with the former Great Canadian Literary Hunt judge to discuss her work, writing contest and workshops.

This Magazine: You recently had a couple poems published in This Magazine (Jan/Feb 2012), what else have you been working on lately?

Jennifer Lovegrove: Yes, This Magazine recently published my poems “Squall” and “Stove,” which was an honour; This is my favourite magazine and has been for a long time. Those two are from a batch of poems that I’ve been working on for the last year or so. It didn’t start out as a series or anything, but I see some thematic and aesthetic links in the poems now, and now I’d say they’re part of a manuscript in progress. My novel – Watch How We Walk – is coming out next year, and I’m on the verge of another rewrite – the last one before I hand it over to my editor. I promise! There are a few other bits and pieces of projects that may or may not evolve into other forms; too soon to say. Also, I am resurrecting my lit-zine dig. – 2013 will see its thirteenth issue, so writers, send me your poems and stories.

JL: Well, it was a few years ago, so I don’t remember all the details, but yes, it was tough, but an enjoyable challenge. My fellow judges (David O’Meara and Mark Truscott) and I narrowed it down to a shortlist we agreed upon and then via email, we discussed and debated the top few and eventually settled on winners. We had great discussions about our poetic values and priorities and preoccupations and how these fit into the process.

Terence Young in Ciutadella

Terence Young was the poetry winner in our first ever Great Canadian Literary Hunt back in 1996. Since then, he has gone on to publish a number of boo,ks and poetry including The Island in Winter which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry in 1999. Currently living in Victoria B.C., Young teaches English and creative writing at St. Michaels University School. He is also the co-founder of the Clearmont Review, an international literary journal for young writers. We recently spoke with Terence about literary contests, teaching and the Canadian literary scene.

This Magazine: It has been awhile since you were featured in This Magazine, so could you let us know what you’ve been up to recently?

Terence Young:It’s only natural to look at the fate of the music industry (why would anyone ever put those two words together?) and apply it to issues current in publishing. Books are going the way of the CD, some say. There are ongoing cuts to periodicals – witness the changes to the Canadian Magazine Fund – and, while e-books are really handy, their links to large corporate distributors also represent a threat to independent book stores and, consequently, to small presses whose works probably don’t appear as e-books.  Recently, author Seth Godin advised new writers not to expect to make a living as a writer, that they had no right to, not unless they were prepared to market themselves and their books seriously in a variety of social media, even to the point of giving their books away for free. So, we’re in for some interestingly rough weather, I think, in the coming decade, in Canada and elsewhere, while we all try to sort these things out. That doesn’t mean there aren’t talented, ambitious Canadian writers, dedicated to their craft and eager to find readers. I’d name a few, but I just know I would neglect some people in my list, and I would hate them to think I didn’t consider them among the vanguard of new voices. That said, the real test of most committed writers is whether they allow all the gloom and doom to discourage them, or learn to ignore it and just get about doing the business they love, which is to write. In that regard, the Canadian literary scene is doing fine, in BC, the prairies and in the East. Just pick up a copy of The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review Event, The New Quarterly, Grain, Prism, This Magazine, or any of a dozen other journals to see how vibrant and vital Canadian writing is.

This: You were the winner of the first annual Great Canadian Literary Hunt for poetry in 1996, what did that do for your career?

TY: I don’t really have a “career,” or at least not one as a writer who supports himself from his work. But winning the contest for poetry certainly inspired me to continue assembling my first collection of poems, which I submitted the following year to Signal Editions in Montreal. I was happy to see it nominated for the Governor General’s award in 1999, but it’s always nice to remember that This Magazine saw merit in my writing a few years before. This Magazine’s enthusiasm for the poem I submitted, and later for my fiction, is a strong contributing factor to my confidence as a writer and my faith that, every once in a while, I can get it right.

This: I understand you teach English and creative writing, what advice do you give to students trying to find their way onto the literary scene?

TY: Times are changing for young writers these days. Now, there are many good online literary magazines like Dragnetmag.net, to which they can send there work, as well as to the veterans of the publishing scene like This Magazine and even my own periodical, The Claremont Review, now in its 21^st year. These venues are vital to cultivating the “farm league” of writers, who will become Canada’s literary establishment in the years to come. So, my best piece of advice to young writers is to study the periodicals to which they want to send their work and to read widely and voraciously as well. The only really consistently strong writing teacher is the literature itself, and any aspiring writer who isn’t interested in reading other writers is probably not going to be successful.

This: What’s your take on the current literary scene in Canada?

TY: It’s only natural to look at the fate of the music industry (why would anyone ever put those two words together?) and apply it to issues current in publishing. Books are going the way of the CD, some say. There are ongoing cuts to periodicals—witness the changes to the Canadian Magazine Fund—and, while e-books are really handy, their links to large corporate distributors also represent a threat to independent book stores and, consequently, to small presses whose works probably don’t appear as e-books.

Recently, author Seth Godin advised new writers not to expect to make a living as a writer, that they had no right to, not unless they were prepared to market themselves and their books seriously in a variety of social media, even to the point of giving their books away for free. So, we’re in for some interestingly rough weather, I think, in the coming decade, in Canada and elsewhere, while we all try to sort these things out.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t talented, ambitious Canadian writers, dedicated to their craft and eager to find readers. I’d name a few, but I just know I would neglect some people in my list, and I would hate them to think I didn’t consider them among the vanguard of new voices. That said, the real test of most committed writers is whether they allow all the gloom and doom to discourage them, or learn to ignore it and just get about doing the business they love, which is to write. In that regard, the Canadian literary scene is doing fine, in B.C., the prairies and in the East. Just pick up a copy of The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review Event, The New Quarterly, Grain, Prism, This Magazine, or any of a dozen other journals to see how vibrant and vital Canadian writing is.

This: What value do you put on literary contest for young writers?

TY: I’m all for contests, especially now that the revenues generated from many contests help to support our community of small magazines. I know from my own experience with The Claremont Review that a contest is indispensable with regard to our survival. Contests also generate a buzz about writing, and, especially if the contest is genuinely “blind,” they can bring to light new voices. Every contest is a kind of yardstick, one that conforms to the tastes and aesthetic preferences of the judges, but it is my experience from having judged a few contests, myself, that serious consideration is always given to the quality of the writing, no matter what style it is written in.

Photo credit: Chris Buck

Sheila Heti currently has five books to her name. Most recently, she released How Should A Person Be?: A Novel from Life in 2012. Last year, her novel  The Chairs Are Where the People Go, was selected by The New Yorker as one of its Best Books of 2011. Aside from writing novels, Heti works as the interviews editor with the Believer and has had her work featured in a number of publications including, The New York Times, n+1 and Mcsweeney’s. We recently caught up with Sheila Heti to talk about her work and get some insight into what it takes to be a writer.

This Magazine: It’s been a while since you were featured in This Magazine, could you let our readers know what you’ve been up to lately?

Sheila Heti: I’ve been writing and living in Toronto. Over the past seven years I worked on three books, one with my friend Misha Glouberman—sort of spoken essays— and a novel, and a children’s book. These past two years much my time was taken up with publishing them—publishing takes up a lot of time. I’ve also been working at The Believer as its interviews editor, and conducting interviews with writers and artists.

This: You’ve had your work featured in some amazing publications such as McSweeney’s, Geist, Maisonneuve and The New York Times—just to name a few. What’s the secret to getting published?

SH: I don’t think there’s a secret. But I think it’s useful to keep in mind what people who get what they want look like. For instance, think about people who want to get married. Those who approach it with a kind of all-or-nothing desperation, tend to not end up married, or if they do, it doesn’t look quite right. But those who know what they want but are preoccupied with other things—who want what they want but are also able to leave it alone—those end up being the people to whom desired things come. Nothing and no one likes being hunted. At the same time, don’t be shy. I accept pitches from unpublished or unknown writers all the time at The Believer. And don’t get bitter about rejections, ever. Transform whatever bad feelings you might have into useful feelings; you should never feel ashamed about a rejection.

This: What is your take on the current literary scene here in Canada?

SH: I have no answer. I haven’t been paying that much attention. My reading is all over the place, not centered on contemporary Canadian writing, and I don’t follow what’s happening with the book prizes or book gossip.

This: What advice would you give to the young writers out there trying to make it in such a tough industry?

First of all, the industry is none of your business. If someone starts talking about the book business, walk away. Focus your attention on reading and writing. And be serious about it. It’s not such a tough industry that no books are being published.

Also, a writer doesn’t need fifty editors to like their stuff—so don’t go around frantically collecting supporters. It’s almost better if you can find one or two or three editors who are genuinely passionate about you and your work. Then, if you find those people, hang on to those relationships. Even if it’s the editor of a tiny magazine that no one really reads, if that’s an intelligent person, either one day people will read that magazine, or that person will end up working somewhere where they can publish your work to a bigger audience. Take care of these relationships—don’t always be looking over their shoulder like you’re at a party. If a few times a year, these people tell you that your work is meaningful and good, that can go a long way, and these people can push you to write better. It’s beneficial for them, too, to be able to feel like they nurtured you. That’s something editors want to do.

This: We are currently running our 16^th annual Great Canadian Literary Contest. What value would you put on literary contests for a young writer?

SH: Probably it doesn’t hurt and may bring you money and some attention. But it’s much more important to cultivate relationships with a few people who are really smart, who can be honest and kind and critical of your work.

To learn more about Sheila Heti and her work you can check out her website at www.sheilaheti.net.

Billie Livingston author of the upcoming novel One Good Hustle . Photo by Braden Haggerty.

Billie Livingston, award winning Canadian author and poet, is set to release her latest novel, One Good Hustle, which follows the life of Sammie Bell—a young woman who fears she may spend her life as a hustler, like her parents. Livingston has lived all around the world from Toronto and Vancouver to Japan, Germany, England and the U.S. She was also won the fiction category of our Great Literary Hunt contest in 2000.

Her other books include Greedy Little Eyes, Cease To Blush, Going Down Swinging, The Chick at the Back of the Church and The Trouble with Marlene.

Livingston has been shortlisted for the Journey Prize for fiction and the Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Her recent story collection, Greedy Little Eyes, was cited by the Globe and Mail as one of 2010’s best books and subsequently won the CBC’s Bookie Award as well as the Danuta Gleed Literary Awardfor Best Short Story Collection. Her YA novella,The Trouble with Marlene has been optioned for a feature film by director, Ana Valine of Rodeo Queen Pictures.

Livingston has been published in many of Canada’s top magazines, including the Walrus, Toronto Life, Giest, sub-TERRAIN and our very own This Magazine.

We recently spoke to Livingston about her upcoming novel, This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt, and what it takes to make it in the literary world.

This Magazine: Your new book One Good Hustle is due out July 24th. What can readers expect to find when they pick it up?

Billie Livingston: French flaps and profanity! The story is about a child of con artists trying to figure out if she is genetically doomed to be a hustler. We all worry that we’ll end up like our parents but it’s that much worse when you have a sly streak and the people in charge are a couple of crooks.

This: What is more important in a story, plot or character?

BL:For me the two are intrinsically linked. Tangible details and actions are what make a character real and alive. Characterization is merely the observable qualities of a person, but essential character is revealed in the choices a person makes under pressure. Those choices make a plot. Character and plot are necessarily enmeshed.

This: Sammie Bell, the heroin in the story has been compared to Holden Caulfield. Is that a fair assessment of the character?

BL: It’s a great compliment, though probably an unavoidable comparison when a book has a teenaged narrator. Holden came from a privileged New York background whereas Sammie Bell is a young hustler from a criminal family— Both Sammie and Holden question the validity of class distinctions, but from opposite sides of the tracks. Someone recently compared Sammie Bell to Collin Smith, the narrator of Alan Sillitoe’s, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Collin is a petty criminal from a blue-collar neighborhood in Nottingham who ends up in a juvenile detention facility. I think Sammie’s got the larceny-sense and anger of a Collin Smith juxtaposed with the skeptical hope of a Holden Caulfied.

This: You’re a former winner of the This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. How did that help your career?

BL: I’m a great believer in the possibility offered by contests. I love short stories but the difficulty is that few markets can afford to pay for the work that goes into writing them. With a contest there is at least the potential to receive a fair pay cheque for your work. The rent isn’t going to pay itself! Another pleasure that came with publishing in This Magazine was its broad range—arts, culture, politics—I was able to connect with a wider readership than I might with a literary journal.

From This, the story was subsequently chosen for the Journey Prize Anthology, which was a follow-up thrill for me. Writing is solitary and you have no idea if what you’re doing in that little room is making sense to anyone. Winning the Literary Hunt, and from there being chosen for the Journey Prize Anthology gave me the confidence to keep forging ahead.

This: What kind of advice would you give to someone trying to break onto the literary scene?

BL: Read your brains out. Read broadly from classic to contemporary and don’t worry about what others think of your literary choices.

— Live with the unfamiliar. Travel, talk to strangers, open yourself up to the world. Those are the things that help you become the essential you, that help you know what you believe. Your beliefs and passions will come through in your work.

— Write fearlessly. If you have sorted out your beliefs, this will come more easily

— Revise and persevere. It’s the revision that counts, the perseverance in all things whether revising your work or resubmitting it to yet another magazine after it’s been rejected ten or twenty or thirty times.

Livingston's book One Good Hustle is due out July 24th.