Writing her way home
Marion Engel Award winner Sandra Birdsell, Giller Prize recipient David Bergen and Gemini Award winner Jordan Wheeler have each served as Winnipeg Public Library’s writer-in-residence since the position was introduced in 1985.
Susie Moloney, who takes over as WPL’s new writer-in-residence this week, concedes those are big shoes to fill. That could explain why the bestselling author and Michael Van Rooy Award winner for genre fiction showed up for a scheduled interview at an Osborne Village taqueria sporting a pair of jet-black vegan-leather kicks that would make even a certain Rocket Man green with envy.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS As writer-in-residence, Susie Moloney’s job is to mentor writers in all genres.
“They are nearly five-inch platform Demonia-brand Stomps, purchased online via the proudly Canadian company ShoeFreaks,” Moloney says, raising her right leg from the floor to properly show off the shoe adorning her tootsies. “So yeah — good luck to the next writer-in-res.”
Footwear aside, Moloney, who grew up in Elmwood and who has fond memories of visiting that neighbourhood’s Munroe Library as a grade schooler, would already be a hard act to follow.
Her debut novel, the supernatural thriller Bastion Falls, drew comparisons to Stephen King following its release in 1995. The film rights for her spooky sophomore effort, 1997’s A Dry Spell, fetched a reported $1 million from a production company owned by Tom Cruise. (She may have spoken to the star actor on the phone once or twice but “who can keep it straight?” she deadpans.)
And while The Dwelling (2003) and The Thirteen (2011) cemented the mother of two as Canada’s so-called horror queen, since 2015, Moloney, the first novelist to grace the cover of Chatelaine magazine, has largely been turning her attention to the big screen.
She penned 2020’s Bright Hill Road, currently available for viewing on Prime Video. Her latest film, Romi, described online as a “disturbing story of a young woman on the run,” will be front and centre at next month’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival in Toronto.
In the interests of full disclosure…
Susie Moloney and this writer have been chums for years.
In December 2005, I was throwing together a feature on the Exchange District’s Red River Book Shop, and because it was one of Moloney’s favourite haunts, I invited her along.
At one point, the two of us spotted a used copy of A Dry Spell, her 1997 bestseller, on a shelf there. Leafing through it, I jokingly asked…
Susie Moloney and this writer have been chums for years.
In December 2005, I was throwing together a feature on the Exchange District’s Red River Book Shop, and because it was one of Moloney’s favourite haunts, I invited her along.
At one point, the two of us spotted a used copy of A Dry Spell, her 1997 bestseller, on a shelf there. Leafing through it, I jokingly asked Moloney if she ever thought of me while she was writing.
“For sure,” she retorted, turning to a blank page just past the foreword. “See? I was thinking of you right there.”
Well, how’s this for righting a wrong? When Moloney’s The Thirteen hit store shelves in 2011, one of the characters carried the name Sanderson. (In a review of the bewitching tome, the Free Press’s Alison Gillmor phrased Sanderson as “a dreamboat guy who looks good in work clothes.”)
Although Moloney offs Sanderson/me in an early chapter, I didn’t take it personally. Pals or not, what else would you expect from a horror queen?
Toss in the fact that Moloney, who married Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen (Einstein’s Gift) in 2013, is currently teaching advanced screenwriting at the University of Winnipeg, and it’s a wonder that she even has time for lunch — she went with the beef brisket burrito, extra cilantro — let alone a writer-in-residence gig.
“I only teach on Fridays, so besides Tuesday-night guitar lessons and walking Scrappy, my blind, 16-year-old Shih-Tzu, I guess I felt I wasn’t quite busy enough,” says Moloney, who moved back to Winnipeg from Edmonton in September 2022, after Thiessen was hired as education director at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.
“Also, I served as writer-in-residence for Edmonton Public Library in 2020 and enjoyed the experience so much — despite COVID — that I applied for the Winnipeg (Public Library) position in the spring, almost as soon as it was posted.”
Moloney expects anything and everything to cross her desk between now and the end of April 2024, when her seven-month term comes to a close.
One of her favourite memories from Edmonton involves a woman who nervously entered her office clutching a binder filled with hand-written poems. She told Moloney she’d long been afraid she was going to lose or misplace them; before that occurred, she wanted to read them aloud to somebody, as if to record them for posterity.
“I had things as practical as cover letters and scholarship applications,” she continues, counting off examples on her right hand. “I had people sharing memoirs that nobody in their immediate circle was interested in reading.
“I got porn. It was all in block form and the way I wriggled out of that was by pointing out there was no punctuation and that the paragraphs needed to be indented.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Susie Moloney stresses that, to her way of thinking, the role of a writer-in-residence is all about constructive criticism.
Further to that, Moloney stresses that, to her way of thinking, the role of a writer-in-residence is all about constructive criticism, trying to find nuggets of greatness on every page, no matter what the content might entail.
“Not everything has to be art,” she continues, pausing to take a bite of her meal. “If they’re getting pleasure out of their writing and they enjoy doing it, power to ‘em.”
Danielle Pilon is head librarian for the readers-services department at Millennium Library. Having ties to the city is paramount for the writer-in-residence position, she explains, but equally important is being supportive of the local writing community.
“There have been a lot of success stories through the years,” Pilon says, when reached at her downtown office. “For example, when (Five Wives author) Joan Thomas successfully applied for the position in 2012, she mentioned how years earlier she had consulted one of our writers-in-residence and how much they had helped her at the time.”
“Not everything has to be art… If they’re getting pleasure out of their writing and they enjoy doing it, power to ‘em.”–Susie Moloney
Pilon adds that in addition to mentoring up-and-coming writers, the position also affords the writer-in-residence an opportunity to work on a project of their choosing during their tenure.
When Order of Manitoba member Miriam Toews served in that capacity in 2003, she used part of her schedule to write what eventually became The Flying Troutmans, which was awarded the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2008, Pilon says.
“We do stipulate that the writer-in-res program isn’t designed for students that need help with their homework or people doing business writing,” she points out. “That said, submissions can be fiction or non-fiction; they can be plays, poetry … you name it.
“The last few years there’s been somebody working on an opera who’s been presenting their lyrics to the writer-in-residence, which to me is so great.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Susie Moloney expects anything and everything to cross her desk between now and the end of April 2024, when her seven-month term comes to a close.
During her term, Moloney plans to tackle a new set of short stories based on the year her mother died. She chuckles, noting it will be luxurious to have a quiet place to work, now that her 28-year-old son Michael is living with them again and has seemingly forgotten how to read.
“There’s a sign I hang on my office door when I’m writing that reads ‘NO’ but he’ll be like, ‘This won’t take a long, I just have a couple of questions,’” she says.
While allowing that she and Thiessen are “adventurous types” who spent the last dozen years bouncing among Winnipeg, Edmonton and New York City, Moloney says she doesn’t have another move in her any time soon and is more than happy to be “home.”
“I know everybody makes fun of Winnipeg but this is a truly great city,” she says, mentioning her intention is to walk to Millennium Library — she figures it’s about a 25-minute hike from their place — so long as the temperature isn’t “minus bazillion.”
“I know everybody makes fun of Winnipeg but this is a truly great city.”–Susie Moloney
“When I was telling acquaintances in Edmonton we were moving here there was a lot of kidding, to which I shot back that there is a real film industry here, not to mention a vibrant theatre community…
“Heck, there are actual (here she winks) novelists living here.”
(According to the Winnipeg Public Library website, the Writer-in-Residence program provides free consultation by email or phone. Manuscripts and/or examples of writing can be submitted by email or by mail. Go to winnipeg.ca/writerinres for more information.)
Credit: Writing her way home
