Bruce Hunter: Education and experience shape writer's themes

Writer Bruce Hunter

Writer Bruce Hunter

Bruce Hunter is a writer, editor, speaker, and mentor. His award-winning novel, In the Bear’s House, is re-released by Frontenac House. Last year, the book was released in Italy as Nella casa dell’orso, (In the House of the Bear), published by iQdB edizioni. His poetry collection, Galestro, was published in Italy in 2023, following the release of A Life in Poetry, Poesie scelteda Two O’clock Creek in 2022, also by iQdB edizioni. Bruce's memoir essay, “This is the Place I Come to in My Dreams” about the writing of In the Bear’s House was shortlisted for the Alberta Magazine Publishers’ Awards in 2021. His eco-poem “Dark Water” from Galestro won the gold prize for poetry for the Alberta Magazine Publishers’ Awards in 2024.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, on Treaty Seven lands, Bruce was deafened as an infant and afflicted with low vision much of his adult life. He grew up on in working-class Ogden near Esso’s Imperial Oil Refinery and Canadian Pacific Railway’s Ogden Shops. After high school, Bruce did various jobs and in his late 20s his poetry earned him a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts to study with novelist W.O. Mitchell and poet Irving Layton. He went onto York University to study the humanities and taught in the creative writing department before landing a position at Seneca College. Now retired, Bruce's poetry, fiction, reviews, interviews, and creative nonfiction have appeared in more than 90 blogs, journals, and anthologies internationally. Discover Bruce here: Brucehunter.ca.

Finding richness in diverse education and life experiences

On Creative Writing: What life experiences have shaped your writing style?

Bruce Hunter: I’ve been blessed with diverse education and experience. I grew up in working class Calgary on Treaty 7 lands. I sent part of my childhood in the Bighorn wildness of west-central Alberta on Kootenay Plains adjacent to the Stoney-Nakoda peoples. I attended agricultural college where I studied horticulture and later took W.O. Mitchell’s Freefall writing course at the Banff School of Fine Arts. I went to university in my late twenties and studied film and the humanities.

Inspired by American novelist Wallace Stegner

On Creative Writing: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read?

Bruce Hunter: In relation to my current rereleased novel In the Bear’s House, it would be Wallace Stegner’s memoir Wolf Willow, about his boyhood in Saskatchewan with his rum-runner father in the Prohibition Era. Also, I’d include his novel, Big Rock Candy Mountain, an inspiring epic, a Western sprawler about his youth in Utah. Stegner is considered one of the great American writers of the 20th century and was a founding member of the Sierra Club. He was a revered teacher of writing whose students include: Wendell Berry, Larry McMurtry, Thomas McGuane, Raymond Carver, Ken Kesey, Edward Abbey, and U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Haas.

On Creative Writing: Do you use social media to engage readers, writers, or publishers and, if so, which platforms?

Bruce Hunter:  Social media is a terrific tool to connect with like-minded people everywhere. A simple Facebook conversation with a young Italian translator l5 years ago led to three of my books being translated and published in Italy with a fourth on the way. I treat social media connections the same as I do any in-place friends, with reciprocity and respect. It’s “social” media after all. So I keep my friends’ base fairly small, sincere and cordial. I ‘ve made friends I now visit and vice versa. It’s opened my own community and shrank the distance between us.

On Creative Writing: What advice/guidance would you give to writers?

Poet and novelist Bruce Hunter:  Stay fit and have fun. Most of us have day jobs, kids or grandkids and other responsibilities. Writing can be draining work. Keeping fit is key to a healthy heart and creative brain. Celebrate your wins and embrace your losses. Consider rejection as part of learning. As in baseball, often there are way more outs than home runs. Try to seek advice and use the opportunity to do better. Learn to laugh at yourself. We can get overwrought and stressed but maintaining a healthy work/life balance is key to staying at it in the long run. I do enjoy the work but cherish my grandchildren. They teach me to see the world with fresh new eyes.

On Creative Writing: Do you see generative AI as a threat or benefit to writers?

Bruce Hunter: It’s a tool. I’ve used various hearing devices, for over sixty years, phones and other tools that use AI in part or whole. Don’t fear your tools. Learn how they work, what they can and cannot do. AI is here to stay.

Rewriting means readers can trust the worlds a writer creates

On Creative Writing: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

Bruce Hunter: I’m a compulsive rewriter. I reimagine, revise in a circular pattern, and I’m a hard-nosed fact checker of words, my choice phrases, titles and more. I want my readers to trust the worlds I invite them into.

Thanks to Riverstreetwriting.com for co-ordinating this interview!