Meet McMaster’s 2016/17 Writer-in-Residence

Though she’s written numerous books, acclaimed author Christine Pountney, says she’s not a bookworm.

“I’ve never been a voracious reader,” she says. I’ve been deeply affected by books, and at times guided by books, but it’s different from being buried in a book all the time. I’m interested in being out in the world. To have an experience as a human being and to write about it, that’s my interest.”

Christine Pountney will hold office hours at McMaster on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in CNH 312 until the end of April 2017.

To contact Christine, email englwir@mcmaster.ca

Pountney, whose novel Last Chance Texaco was long-listed for the UK’s prestigious Orange Prize, is the 2016-17 Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence, a program co-sponsored by McMaster’s Department of English and Cultural Studies and the Hamilton Public Library.

As Writer-in-Residence, Pountney works one-on-one with aspiring writers in the McMaster and Hamilton Communities and is now on campus, ready to provide mentorship, feedback, or talk about any aspect of the writing process.

Pountney recently sat down with the Daily News to talk about her role as Writer-in-Residence, when she knew she wanted to be a writer, and to offer her thoughts on how to get started:

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

One day I wrote a poem about being a disillusioned teenager. My teacher came around to read what the students were writing. She came to my desk, read this little poem and she started to cry. I was like, ‘Wow, I have this elegant teacher whom I admire, and I just moved her.’ That experience, and the recognition that I had an ability to move somebody with words was really powerful.

What do you say to writers who are trying to get started?

Write privately. Preserve your privacy. I think the most interesting writing emerges at some risk to the author of exposing some vulnerability of theirs. If you don’t go out on a limb, for me it’s going to be less interesting. The only way to do that – especially with a first draft of something – is to maintain that space of not being interrupted and not comparing yourself to other books and other writers.

Is there anything writers should avoid?

 Creative writing is so different from academic writing. Academic writing is for marks, you’re encouraged to impress, so we go towards complex sentences, we go toward Latin words. In creative writing you want to pare it down. I want sentences to mean something.

I often read sentences from students and I stop them and say, what do you really mean? Not because I can’t guess, but because they aren’t nailing it and they aren’t nailing it because they’re trying to be more clever, more lyrical, more flowery that it needs to be. Those are the moments when you have to question, am I sacrificing the meaning to something that is ornate that doesn’t need to be there?

How have you enjoyed your Writer-in-Residence experience so far?

I’ve enjoyed meeting people from the community. It’s very exciting to meet people who are writing stuff that’s interesting but they’re not sure it’s of any interest to anyone. I read three of four pieces of writing last term that I thought was really interesting stuff, and to genuinely be able to say that to them and encourage them to get excited about it. That was a really satisfying experience.

As Writer-in-Residence, who should come and meet with you?

Anybody from the Hamilton area or from McMaster can contact me with a request. Generally people have written things they want feedback on. Some people come in just to talk about writing. I have someone who has finished a novel and wants to know what the next step is.

I’ll look at any piece of fiction or non-fiction from any genre – I’m not restricted. I’m here. I hope people take advantage of me. I’m happy to look at anything anybody wants to show me.

Watch video with Christine on how stories can be surprising:

More about Christine:

Christine Pountney is a mother, writer, teacher, and editor, whose work has been published to great critical acclaim in Canada and the UK. Pountney studied English Literature at McGill University and at University College Dublin, and has a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She published her first novel, Last Chance Texaco, with Faber and Faber, and was long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2000. She has since published two more novels, The Best Way You Know How and Sweet Jesus – which both Irvine Welsh and Barbara Gowdy chose as one of their Best Books of 2012. Pountney has written for The Erotic Review, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Elle, Flare, Nuvo, The New Quarterly, Brick, and Hazlitt Magazine. She is also a recent graduate of the 2015 Screenwriters’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre.