Alistair MacLeod:
Writer needed a bigger canvas for characters

By Natalie St-Denis

or a man world-renowned for his descriptive use of the English language, Alistair MacLeod finds it hard to describe how he develops a sense of rhythm in his works.

“ I don’t know where the rhythm comes from. I read each sentence aloud when writing and stop changing it around when I like the way it sounds.

“ There are two aspects to writing: what you have to say and how you say it. The back of a soup can tells you how to make the soup, it gives you the information you want, I’d like to do better than that,” says MacLeod.

MacLeod, who has been called “one of the great undiscovered writers of our time,” will spend the next month delving into writing at the University of Calgary as the Markin-Flanagan distinguished visiting writer.

At the age of 63, MacLeod published his first novel, No Great Mischief, which instantly gained him world acclaim and the world’s richest literary prize, The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2001.

MacLeod published his first short story, The Boat, in 1968 and went on to write a total of 14 short stories over three decades, which are published in a collection titled, Island: The Collected Stories. The demand for his short stories has grown tremendously since his novel gained so much attention. No Great Mischief has been translated into 15 languages and distributed around the world. “It feels good that people are reading my stories and enjoying them. I think it’s nice when you speak of a specific place and it travels all over the world. Writing is about communicating and the more you communicate the better it is,” says MacLeod.
MacLeod’s haunting yet charming stories compel readers to immerse themselves into the lives and memories of Cape Breton’s extended families of coal-miners, fishermen and farmers. MacLeod is a wonderful storyteller and the rhythm of his prose pulls the reader deeper into the character’s lives. “My characters are not based on anyone, I create them out of my imagination. I’m not an autobiographical writer – if you base your character on someone it limits you. I’m quite glad to be a fiction writer and very pleased when my characters are interpreted as real people,” he says.

MacLeod’s transition from writing short stories to writing a novel was a natural one. “The last short stories that I wrote were getting so long that I felt that I needed a bigger canvas, more space to create more characters,” says MacLeod. With a fulltime faculty position at the University of Windsor as professor of literature and creative writing, he would write his novel during summer and Christmas holidays. It took 13 years to complete. “It feels like I was working on the novel on and off for centuries. What I love about writing short stories is the intensity of it, like running the 100-yard-dash. I wasn’t sure if I could sustain that intensity for a whole marathon,” says MacLeod.

MacLeod will be in Calgary October 25 to November 26 participating in writing workshops and readings. He will also spend some time creating new short stories and will be available to local writers for free one-on-one manuscript consultations. “I am looking forward to my residency and when working with aspiring writers, my goal is to hopefully encourage them,” says MacLeod.

Join Alistair MacLeod for a free reading November 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the U of C’s Rozsa Centre. MacLeod will read from No Great Mischief. For more information visit www.markinflanagan.com