Its a one-word question that can lead to some pretty complex answers.
Why?
Why, for instance, would write a book about Aristotles daughter? Why would Linda Svendsen satisfy her fascination with the 2008 prorogation of Parliament by writing a novel about two powerful (but fictional) women who live on Sussex Drive? Why does find it easier to navigate her way through life using poetry as her compass?
WE Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»caught up with all three Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»writers last week at their Heritage Hall book signing and started each of the conversations with a simple why.
Fiction is a way to make a difficult man accessible, says Lyon, who always knew that her new novel, The Sweet Girl, about Aristotles daughter, would be a follow-up to her hugely successful first novel about Aristotle, The Golden Mean. (The Golden Mean was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor Generals Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.)
We all recognize the name Aristotle, but few of us can say much about him. Some of us might remember him as a student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great, but as a philosophy graduate, Lyon is acutely aware of how much hes contributed to way we think and understand the world.
Aristotle dies about a third of the way through The Sweet Girl, but Lyon uses the wishes he laid out in his will for his daughter Pythias, including who she would marry, to explore the life of an exceptional young woman in turbulent times.
Svendsen was transfixed by what happened when Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Governor General Michaelle Jean to prorogue parliament in December 2008.
I thought it was the most exciting political event in Canada since the referendum and October Crisis, she says. I was totally consumed by it. Id never seen Canada in such a pickle.
At first she started writing what she thought would be a short story. Then she pitched it at the Banff festival as a television series. (The UBC professor wrote the television adaptation of The Diviners as well as the miniseries Human Cargo and the television movie of Sue Rodriguezs life.) Thats when she realized she could explore the theme further and decided to write Sussex Drive. A fan of such books as The Ghost Writer and Primary Colours about American politics, she was hungry for a fictional, behind-the-scenes look at what happens here.
Thats when she created the factional characters of the Prime Ministers wife and female governor general, who live down the street from one another.
Rhea Tregebov worked her way through the joys and grief of watching her parents age by writing her seventh book of autobiographical poetry, All Souls. She also confronted her fears about the environment in a section called Land Claims. And yet theres also the joy she finds in making a cherry pie for her son.
I like the intensity of the writing experience, she says. You can just plunge in.
What would Antarctica look like if global warming melts the ice? She puts herself there through poetry. Its an act of the imagination.
Annabel Lyon is one of the featured presenters at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»International Writers Festival. Shes taking part in Past Times at 10am on Oct. 19 and The Interviews later that day at 1pm. Linda Svendsen is taking part in Humour With A Bite, Oct. 19 at 10am, and The Afernoon Tea, Oct. 21 at 3:30pm. For details go to
