Writer in Residence - Allan Stratton

It’s been a wonderful month at the library. Following the Meet ‘n’ Greet and the Young Writers conference, I met with the public on October 28th to discuss writing Fact-Based Fiction. In particular, people were interested to hear about the people I met in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi and Zambia in writing my novels Chanda’s Secrets and Chanda’s Wars; and of the friends, teachers and teens from subSahara who’ve vetted the works. The more I travel, the more I’ve come to understand our human commonalities not as abstractions but as visceral realities. Cultural expressions differ, but the heartbeat behind them is the same. To imagine oneself as the Other, and the Other as oneself is one of the great challenges of life; in pursuit of that goal literature serves as a bridge across centuries and continents for readers and writers alike. We laugh and weep as we read patterns of ink on paper, abstract shapes that create bonds across divides.

Then, this past Saturday, I was part of the inaugural Human Library, organized by Ab Velasco and other of the imaginative and hardworking library staff across the system. Approximately sixty people from all walks of life offered themselves as ‘human books’ that could be ‘borrowed’ by interested library patrons for one-on-one chats. What a fun and novel idea.

Throughout the month, too, I’ve been meeting one-on-one with writers at all levels of development. The talent and commitment of all those who’ve submitted work is humbling. I wish I had the time to see everyone who submitted — not getting an appointment has in no way been a comment on wonderful work — but those sessions I’ve been able to schedule have been among my happiest times at North York Central.

Oh — a little reminder — this Saturday, November 13 between 1:00 and 4:00, I’ll be doing a workshop on character creation. The workshop uses theatre techniques like visualization and ‘hot seat’ improv to help writers to create charcaters from inside their characters heads. Space permitting, I hope to see you there!