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Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

The shortlist is in for this prestigious award. We asked the finalists to share everything from their hidden talents to the songs they like to sing when nobody's listening.
Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

Author Carrie Snyder. Photo Nancy Forde.

Rogers Writers Trust

Author: Carrie Snyder

Where did you grow up?Short answer: Canada, Germany, the United States, and Nicaragua. Long answer: I was born in Hamilton, Ont.; my dad was doing his doctorate at McMaster. When I was three, we lived in West Germany for a year, then moved back to my great-grandmother’s former house in Kitchener, Ont., until Dad found work at a college in a small Ohio town. We lived there until I was nine, when we moved to Managua, Nicaragua, where my parents worked as peace activists for 14 months, an experience I fictionalized in my previous book, The Juliet Stories.When did you know you wanted to be a writer?I wanted to be a writer almost immediately after becoming a reader. I loved words! I loved stories! I would bring chapter books to kindergarten, as the classroom selection was limited to picture books. At age seven, I discovered to my great upset that the youngest published author was a four-year-old poet (thank you, Guinness Book of World Records). It was already too late for me to be a record-breaking prodigy! In all seriousness, becoming a writer was something I worked toward from childhood onward, with focus, determination, and the belief that I could pull it off.Why did this particular book demand to be written?Two reasons: one, the voice of Aganetha Smart called out strongly to exist; two, Girl Runner brings to life a forgotten struggle for equality in Canada’s history.What is your favourite book of all time?Can’t. Answer. Question. Too. Hard.OK. If I were stranded on a desert island, I’d choose Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It’s fat enough, and full of fun and adventure, tears, wrong turns, and lively characters who would distract me from the plight of having to choose only one favourite book, ever.What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?I don’t seem to retain brisk-and-pithy-advice. I keep no inspirational quotes on sticky notes beside the mirror, and instinctively distrust the short and the sweet. Life’s too long, deep, broad, and complicated to be helped along by a pat answer. (This may explain why I write novels.) That said, I still refer back to advice given by my Grade 6 teacher, who taught us the KISS rule, and it really does apply to everything: Keep It Simple, Stupid.What is your hidden talent?Listening with all my heart. (Oh boy, that sounds cheesy. Scratch that.) Optionally: Writing and singing songs on the piano. Or: Baking bread. Or: Successfully evangelizing friends to join early morning exercise classes with me. Or: Playing the ukulele. Or: Having funny conversations with children.Who do you admire most?My kids. They brave the world every day with open minds, curiosity, and an enormous capacity to learn. Actually, my husband, too. He’s just like them.What song do you sing when nobody's listening?Johnny Cash, “Ring of Fire.”Carrie Snyder, Girl Runner, $30.

Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

Author: K.D. Miller

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?It took me a while to realize that I did. I was distracted for years by my theatre ambitions. Finally, I realized that while I was not getting parts in plays, I was starting to get published. So it took some time, but I’m glad things worked out the way they did. Why did this particular book demand to be written?It started as two stories, “Still Dark” and “Ecce Cor Meum,” that were strongly linked. Then Dan Wells, publisher of Biblioasis, asked for “more Anglican stories.” So I started to think about the people who might rub shoulders, however lightly, with a small, struggling urban church.  The characters started to show up after that — Simon the rector, Kelly the long-time parishioner, Alice the mass murderess who used to teach Sunday School…  What is your favourite book of all time?You’ve got to be kidding! How can I pick just one? OK. I’m going to name the first “big girl” book I ever read all by myself all the way through (I think I was eight). Ready? Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty. A lifetime of reading came of that experience. What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?The word “sorry” is a waste of breath. The trick is not to do or say the thing in the first place. What is your hidden talent?I make the best martini on earth. My friends refer to it as The Silver Bullet. Who do you admire most?It would have to be my father, Robert Edgar Miller. He had a very hard life, one disaster after another, yet he never complained or put anybody down.   What song do you sing when nobody's listening?“Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer.”K.D. Miller, All Saints, $20.

Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

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Author: Steven Galloway

Where did you grow up?I grew up in Kamloops, B.C. Our town mascot was Kami the Trout, a rainbow trout with a ten-gallon hat and a set of six guns, holstered in such a way that his tiny fins could never draw them. It's a metaphor.When did you know you wanted to be a writer?When I arrived at UBC and took a creative writing class, I saw a bunch of other people who wanted to be writers, and that clued me in to the fact that being a writer was a thing a person could be, at which point I became a person who wanted to be a writer.Why did this particular book demand to be written?I wrote this particular book because I was obsessed with the connection between magic and memory, and wanted to explore that.What is your favourite book of all time?A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?Pay your taxes on time.What is your hidden talent?I am pretty good at setting up saltwater fish tanks.Who do you admire most?This year? Miriam Toews. What song do you sing when nobody's listening?“The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.”Steven Galloway, The Confabulist, $30.

Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

Author: Miriam Toews

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?Consciously, sometime in my twenties. Unconsciously, when I was six.Why did this particular book demand to be written?Because books are like fevers. They have to come out.What is your favourite book of all time?Amos and Boris by William Steig.What is your hidden talent?I’m really good at catching things, like peanuts, in my mouth.Who do you admire most?My mother.What song do you sing when nobody's listening?“You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate.Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows, $30.

Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

Author: André Alexis

Where did you grow up?I grew up in Ottawa and in Petrolia, Ont. Both places, city and country, left their mark on me, but I was born in Trinidad and moved to Canada when I was four. So, the influence of Trinidad on my sensibility is also fairly strong.When did you know you wanted to be a writer?Some time around the age of 12 or 13, the idea of being a writer seemed right to me, somehow. In fact, I started to write somewhere around then. Not seriously, but tentatively, to see what I could do.Why did this particular book demand to be written?It’s possible to answer this question about most of my books, but not Pastoral. Pastoral overcame me, if you know what I mean. I wrote it in three months while I was staying at a friend’s home in London, England. I didn’t really have time to think about it. The novel simply came. And when the first draft was finished, I was surprised by it.What is your favourite book of all time?I have four: Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable), Raymond Queneau’s Le Chiendent, and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. I couldn’t possibly choose among them and they have each influenced me deeply.What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?It wasn’t given to me personally. It was said to Graeme Gibson by Mordecai Richler. I’m paraphrasing, but Richler suggested that perseverance is what makes a writer. I think this is true of any profession, but it’s important to remember if you practice an Art. Writers aren’t always thanked or encouraged for the work they do. They’re as often discouraged or derided. You’ve got to keep going, despite all that. What is your hidden talent?A hidden talent? Hmmm. I believe I have a great capacity to love. If loving is a talent, then I think I’m good at it. (But then, I’m also good at hating.)Who do you admire most?In my personal life: my mother. In my professional life: Harry Mathews. He has been a constant inspiration and true friend.What song do you sing when nobody's listening?Having had my own radio show for a while — and having started out wanting to be a musician — it’s difficult to narrow down. It’s easier to say what song I sing to myself these days: “Am I Wrong?” by Nico and Vinz.André Alexis, Pastoral, $18.

Meet the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction finalists of 2014!

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