Carole Giangrande on characters shaped by real-world politics and social upheaval

Carole Giangrande has worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio, a Writer-in-Residence and as a teacher of journalism and political science, and she's given readings at Harbourfront, Hart House, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her newest collection of poetry is This May Be the Year, published by Ianna Press.

Author and poet Carole Giangrande

Carole's fiction, articles and reviews have appeared in Grain, New Quarterly, Descant, Canadian Forum, Matrix, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and Books in Canada. Her poetry has been published in Queens Quarterly, Grain, Spiritus, The New Quarterly, Braided Way, Mudlark and Prairie Fire. Her essays have appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, EcoTheo Review and The Antigonish Review. She's married and lives in Toronto where she enjoys birding and photography. Carole explores how her writing was strengthened by being a broadcast journalist, and how her characters shaped by real-world politics and social upheaval

From poetry to broadcast journalism: how Carole Giangrande found her voice

OCW: Has your writing evolved over the years? If so, how? Through writing experience? Reading a lot? Writing courses or communities? A combination, or something else?

CG: My writing’s taken many twists and turns. I was writing and publishing poetry when I was quite young, but I needed to earn a living and I moved into broadcast journalism.

CBC Radio was a wonderful writing teacher! Through interviewing, I learned to listen both to how people spoke – great training for dialogue -- and what was being left unsaid. In time, I got up the nerve to write short fiction, and I took two writing courses at U of T which were a great help. I read stacks of novels and absorbed a lot about structure and storytelling.

In time, I began my first novel, and in writing descriptive passages, I found my way back to poetry. This has been a very exciting discovery!

Characters shaped by real-world politics and social upheaval

OCW: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

CB: I notice that most of my prose – novels, novellas, short stories – involves a backdrop of what I call “the great world,” meaning the subtle (and not-so-subtle) effects of politics and social upheaval on my characters. This isn’t blatant or “tacked on.” It just seems to emerge as a by-product of personalities, their interactions, and the stories they have to tell. So I’m not surprised when this same awareness shows up in my poetry, too.

OCW: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read? 

CG: I love Virginia Woolf. Her novels have a way of re-creating the immediate sense of life as it’s lived, fragmentary thoughts that come and go, an expression of consciousness itself. To The Lighthouse is one of my all-time favourites. I loved British author Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and works by the American writer Percival Everett. I really like it when writers like Shiela Heti take chances with the typical novel form. Close to home, I’ve enjoyed Michael Ondaatje, Dawn Promislow, Carol Bruneau – we have such a great crop of Canadian authors to choose from. I think my reading tastes are pretty broad and often depend on whether I’m in the mood for language-driven prose-poetry or a page-turning old-fashioned story.

OCW: Are you a plotter or a pantser? (For writers or short stories and novels).

CG: I’m both! I start out with a rough outline, and if my characters have any life in them, they kick it apart in no time! That’s when the fun starts – when the characters take over and start surprising you. Sometimes, I’ll revise the outline, but it usually gets wrecked at some point. It’s all good.

Advice for writers: resiliance, community, and curisity

OCW: What advice/guidance would you give to writers?

CG: Don’t give up! After forty years, I still get a ton of rejections. So does everyone else. Remember that writing is something you do because you’re crazy in love with characters and language, because words and images obsess you. Find at least a small portion of time each day, and write. If it suits you, find a writing group and/or take courses; it’s good to build friendships when you have a solitary calling.

Be careful how you share your work. Your best friend or partner is probably not your best reader; likewise, anyone who doesn’t understand that your fictional characters have nothing to do with them. Don’t make yourself more  vulnerable than necessary. Read books of every kind (online, too). Love life, stay open to the everyday pleasures of the world.