About
Anne DeGrace is a writer, illustrator, and librarian living near Nelson, British Columbia.
Her first novel, Treading Water (McArthur & Company, 2005), was inspired by Renata, a tiny community that once flourished on Lower Arrow Lake in the B.C. interior before hydroelectric development flooded the town, leaving only its stories. Treading Water was chosen as a “Heather’s Pick” shortly after publication. The book made the top of W. P. Kinsella’s honourable mentions for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award shortlist. In 2010 it won the One Book, One Kootenay Librarian’s Choice Award.
Anne’s second novel, Wind Tails (McArthur, 2007) examines the points of departure and chance encounters that change the way we see the world, as told through the tales of the disparate travellers who pass through a roadside café on a mountain pass during one extraordinary, windy day. Wind Tails was shortlisted for the 2008 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. In 2009 Wind Tails was released in the U.S. by HarperCollins/Avon under the title Far From Home.
The story in Sounding Line, published by McArthur & Company in 2009, is drawn from Anne’s Nova Scotia roots. With a historical backdrop of a 1967 U.F.O. crash, the novel plays with themes of depth, space, and possibility, viewed through the lives of the residents of a fishing village. Sounding Line is also a “Heather’s Pick”.
In Flying with Amelia (McArthur, 2011), the descendents of an Irish immigrant family scatter across Canada, their stories taking readers over 100 years. From St. John’s Newfoundland to the Beaufort Sea, the story weaves the identity of a young country. The breadth and scope of Flying with Amelia demanded authenticity in terms of research, voice, and cultural nuance, a challenge Anne found engaging, and, if occasionally daunting, always exciting.
Anne has also co-authored four regional photographic books (Ward Creek Press) and illustrated seven children’s books for Polestar Press and for Bluefield books. She has worked as a journalist, writing features, news stories, and editorials, for more than twenty years. Short stories and essays have appeared in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, and Wascana Review.
Proust Questionnaire
This Proust Questionnaire was requested by the Vancouver International Writer’s Festival when Anne was a participant in the inCite reading series at the Vancouver Public Library in February, 2012. Find out more here about VIWF.
The Proust Questionnaire is believed to reveal an individual’s true nature. Mostly, it’s just fun to answer, and to sometimes get a little flippant…
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A sunny fall day—late afternoon, long shadows—walking in the woods with a few good dogs. There might be a crow in the top of a Douglas Fir, making chortling sounds.
What does your ideal day look like?
I think I just described it. You expected writing to figure into it, didn’t you?
What is your greatest extravagance?
I asked my partner. He said: “dogfood.” This might be true.
What possession would you be heartbroken if you lost?
My faculties. I’m in possession of them right now, but I’m terrified of losing them. But would I know enough to be heartbroken?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’ll never tell.
What childhood fear has followed you into adulthood?
The fear of looking foolish. The fear of losing my faculties came much later.
Do you take comfort in darkness or light?
Is this a trick question?
Do you remember your dreams?
In a whispy sort of way. The good ones involve dogs and forest walks; for information on the bad ones, see”childhood fear” question.
How do you collect snippets of observations and ideas that come to you unexpectedly?
Not trusting my faculties, I write them down on small pieces of paper. Then, if I’m smart, I transcribe them into a “miscellaneous ideas” file on my computer, because an hour after I handwrite anything, I can’t decipher it.
What emotions do you experience when you sit down to begin a new work?
That’s the other fear: that I won’t be equal to the task. This self-doubt continues throughout the writing process, which is why I find first draft so hard. Re-reading, the feeling is most often relief: it’s never as bad as I thought.
What is your favorite way to avoid writing?
I’m avoiding it right now, filling out this questionnaire. There are so many ways!
Does being in love propel or postpone your work?
In the first blush, postpone for sure. It’s a happy problem, though. Once things settle out, it’s business as usual.
How do you work under pressure?
Quite well, actually.
What published book do you secretly wish you had written?
Oh, my. There are so many. Franny and Zooey, maybe.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Franny.
If you were reincarnated as a person or a thing, who or what would you be?
Definitely a teapot.
Tell us one thing you can’t prove but believe is true…
Well, it’s not reincarnation (although I’d like to be a teapot). I believe in the capacity for kindness in all human beings. Dogs, too.