Writers Talking (review)

Owing to the local or political marginality of small presses, their authors are not always nominated for major awards. As Frank Davey argues, awards may only measure the mediocrity of mass appeal. Thus the goal of John Metcalf and Claire Wilkshire in Writers Talking is poignant: to profile significant short-story writers in Canada that 'were curiously invisible.' In order to showcase these writers, Metcalf and Wilkshire include an interview, a short story, and an analysis of the story from the following writers: Michael Winter, Lisa Moore, Steven Heighton, Mary Borsky, K.D. Miller, Terry Griggs, Elise Levine, and Annabel Lyon. While the forced interview structure raises problems of coherence, the range of writers defies a particular politics or poetics, and the anthology profiles some brilliant work.

Perhaps because 'the interviews were conducted by mail,' most of the authors address issues that seem formulaic and irrelevant. With the exception of Wilkshire's interview with Winter (which often repeats rather than elucidates), the excision of the interview questions seems geared to obscure the failure to particularize the issues for each writer. Information about family background, places of residence, education, first books read, influential writers, and artistic development is important for interviews, but the material often seems irrelevant. The most egregious example pairs Heighton's lengthy discussion of the cultural influence of Toronto, northern and Loyalist Ontario, Old Norse, and the Beat writers with a story that highlights Japanese culture. Since many of the authors are hesitant to analyse their work in the commentaries, specifically focused interview questions would bring out the strength of the writers more effectively.

The most productive interviews are those that the authors make their own. For instance, Levine's radical lack of fidelity to the format develops concise insight. While Levine omits the poststructural theory that informs each of her contributions, she notes the principles that push against the 'limitations of narrative and language': 'emotional cross-currents,' opera and punk music, expansive subjectivity, defiance of self/other opposition, multiple perspectives, and excavation of character. Similarly, under various creative headings, Moore discusses the way drawing, painting, video, surrealism, minimalism, and over-saturation influence her as writer. Drawing on Norman Levine, Marshall McLuhan, minimalism, and an active audience, she argues for the power of ambiguity in the word to revive literature. 'Chaos theory,' the influence of Bergman, and surreal dislocation lead Moore to infuse minimalism with 'contrary impulses' of 'hot' narration, desire, psychology, and politics. Significantly, the interviews by these two writers who refuse to conform to the generic format are the only ones that assist analysis, although Griggs's commentary provides insight as well.

Strategically, the stories in the anthology cover a wide range of poetics and issues. Winter deconstructs the violent and heroic construction of masculinity. Moore's surrealism attacks sedentary value in love and subjectivity. Heighton criticizes Western neo-colonization in Japan in a (self-conscious? unconscious?) narrative (see problems of the interview) framed by works of major Western artists. Borsky's realism reveals complex dynamics in domestic and ethnocentric oppression. Miller investigates corrupt self-elevation, love, AIDS, mortality, and spirituality with humorous postmodern self-consciousness and intertextuality. Griggs balances points and counterpoints of 'visceral' and 'other-worldly' language about women torn 'between individual desire ... community demand' and the 'male-female divide.' Levine deconstructs character and subjectivity as three perspectives intersect in the life of a woman trapped within and trying to escape the self/other dynamic. Lyon thematically continues Levine's investigation of self/other with a realist story about love that subjectively connects (or should connect) individuals. With such a diverse mixture, the anthology should appeal to a wide range of readers, although all will likely be disgruntled with some of the selections. Nonetheless, the stunning work by Levine and Moore, the potential promise of Winter's story (he needs to control the editorialization), and the intriguing stories by Miller and Griggs make the collection worthwhile.

What do these works have in common? Each author was edited by Metcalf and acknowledges a debt of gratitude to his encouragement and...