Jess Taylor

I first met Malcolm Sutton as the fiction editor at BookThug. We worked closely on my book of short stories, and I admired how much Malcolm strove to understand my worldview and the thinking that went into the book. He also designs the majority of BookThug’s fiction covers, and first became involved with them as a book designer.

Some of the best writers I know are relatively unpublished. They might have a story out here or there, or maybe write professionally in another genre, but they aren’t actively trying to pursue a publisher for a longer work. We all talk a lot about publishing -- it’s this thing that hangs over all writers, as either a goal, a reminder of our failures, perhaps a reminder of our successes, or an oppressive system we are trying to opt out of.

I posted the first half of my interview with four exciting writers-to-watch, Noor Naga, Sofia Mostaghimi, Kristel Jax, and Faith Arkorful, earlier today. We talked about writing into dark places, what their subject matter is, when these emerging writers first started to get serious about their writing, and life rage.

As I developed my writing over the years, I had many teachers and people in the community support my work and offer me encouragement. It’s always been important for me to give back and encourage talent in emerging writers as I see it. It’s why I started the Emerging Writers Reading Series, and it will always be part of my writing life -- giving back support to those who gave it to me and to those that need it.

Yesterday I posted the beginnings of my G-Chat conversation with Andrew F. Sullivan.

Andrew F.

In my last post, I discussed why I think we all (or at least me in particular) live, read, and write: to develop mutual understanding with other people.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about reading because I’ve rekindled that love. I go through phases with reading, as I guess most of do, usually dependent on how engrossed I am in my own projects. Lately, I’ve started to wonder about those reading cycles because I’ve been thinking more about my ethical responsibility to read as a writer.

Yesterday I posted Part One of my interview with Stephen Thomas about his book, The Jokes, out this March with BookThug. The Jokes is technically a book of short stories, but to call it a book of short stories simplifies the complexities of its form. Stephen and I talked more about the form yesterday, going into depth about the writing process and my response while reading. Today we get more into the content of The Jokes and where the concept began.

Jacqueline Valencia, a Toronto poet and critic, has been organizing the Toronto Poetry Talks on Racism and Sexism in poetry for about a year.

Yesterday I posted the first part of an interview with Emma Dolan and Catriona Wright, founders of Desert Pets Press.

Desert Pets Press is a brand new chapbook press that launched their first season in Fall 2015.

Well, hi. How’s it going? What you up to? Are you having a good evening?

I’m talking to you from Open Book: Toronto as the Writer-In-Residence for the month of February. I’ll be taking you through the month of love with some interviews, a few ideas that I’m turning over, and my ambitious reading program that will probably never be started or completed.