On the heels of the publication of her latest book last month, Capital of Dreams (HarperCollins) – a fantastical coming-of-age story, set in the made-up European country of Elysia, following fourteen-year-old protagonist Sofia Bottom (read my full review in the Scout Book Club, Vol. 15) – and ahead of her stint at this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest (October 21st to 27th), we pose a series of questions to Montreal author, Heather O’Neill…

O’Neill will be taking to the stage three times at the Writers Fest: for a one-on-one Conversation with Shaena Lambert (Oct. 24th); chatting about the concept of “joy” with a panel including seven diverse authors, hosted by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, called A Grand Opening: Finding Joy Amid Turmoil (Oct. 21st); and as one of four authors expounding on the sacrifices of a writer’s life, in What I’ve Done For Writing (Oct. 24th).

You’re participating in a trio of different events at this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest. When you aren’t deep in discussion or speaking in front of a rapt audience of book-lovers, what are you most looking forward to doing in the city? Any spots that you’re planning to hit up while you’re in town?

I just want to walk around the city. I’m always on Granville Island or on a campus. I feel like I’ve never seen the heart of Vancouver. I don’t know where the people are.

“Of course one should be terrified to go on stage. An audience can turn against you. It’s like asking to parlay with pirates. As much as you think you can trust an audience, they are sneaky and unpredictable.”

You’re quite a prolific (and entertaining, witty and whip-smart) speaker and interviewee! What inspires you to get up on the stage, put yourself out there, and participate in events like the Writers Fest? Why do you think that events like this are important – both for readers and the writers involved?

I love being on stage and talking about books. It makes me feel like a fictional character too. There is something magical about any stage. If you take a box and climb up onto it, you are in a different realm where the laws of physics are different. I like that feeling. And I like how what I say will change according to the audience’s temperament. And how some audiences are really funny and some are melancholic. It’s a nice way to experience the ways in which my writing affects readers.

It’s surprisingly terrifying. A writer who had just published her first book asked if it ever gets any easier to go on stage. I said, “Absolutely not.” Of course one should be terrified to go on stage. An audience can turn against you. It’s like asking to parlay with pirates. As much as you think you can trust an audience, they are sneaky and unpredictable.

Your writing style is a very distinct hybrid of historical and fantastical fiction – always with a healthy portion of feminism/girl power thrown into the mix. What first drew you to this style – any literary influences in particular or other experiences have any especially big impact on you?

I love young girls in literature. I have never found any subject more lovely, more full of sadness. The young girl inspires so much contempt and abuse. I recall always being arrested by the image of young girls or women who were unprotected by their families. The Lover by Marguerite Duras. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen. Alice in Wonderland. The short stories of Mavis Gallant. The early writing of Marie-Claire Blais. Qiu Miaojin and Jean Rhys.

“To be a writer is to be in the circus your whole life.”

Fantasy, sci-fi, fairy tales and genres of the like are often avenues for communicating subversive messages – a device, I think, that you play into brilliantly. Do you enter your writing process with a particular underlying message in mind, or does it just come out of you naturally/subconsciously?

I usually come to an idea intuitively. Something both beautiful and grotesque that fascinates me. Then there is the part of me that writes and begins to figure out why it is subversive, why it is calling to me to express it. What is the beauty in the grotesque part.

I love the topic of discussion for the What I’ve Done for Writing event (what it means to write honestly and the sacrifices involved in doing so). What do you think is the biggest misconception about being a fiction writer? And why do you think that it’s important for writers (and/or artists in general) to share their processes and personal experiences/struggles with readers, and add this extra layer of context?

I think people expect writers to have ordinary lives, like middle class family stuff. It’s impossible. It’s always been impossible. To be a writer is to be in the circus your whole life. Any artist really. We are hobos and grifters. That’s why artist biographies are fun. Is there any way not to have a chaotic life at the fringes if you are an artist? No, there is not. It’s like a drug addiction, really.

You’re quite a prominent figure on the Montreal literary scene! However, as far as I know, you only ever write in English…Is there anything in particular about that language that appeals to you as the best way to communicate your stories?

I’ll sometimes write an essay in French, but I do mostly write in English. But I read so many books in French as a child that there is something about the French language that is embedded in the way I write in English anyways. The idea of staging an image, or words having their meaning from their placement in the text, is very French. And I did love the Quebec writers we discovered in class.

How has your experience of the Anglo literature scene/community been, overall? What makes this particular community of voices so special?

I really came up in the Montreal Anglo scene in the late 90s. It was focused around readings and publishing zines. It was wonderful and we really created our voices in response to one another’s. It was a very DIY scene. We were completely unsupported by any press or institution.

Why do you choose to continue to stay in Montreal?

I chose to stay in Montreal because it was ideally suited towards being an artist. The rents were cheap, people were progressive, life was very laissez-faire. That Montreal doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve been considering building a traveling theatre in a truck and just driving around and living in it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I saw some Fellini films at the repertory cinema.

There’s a quote in the description for Heather O’Neill in Conversation that says that your “language has been described as “delicious as cake.”” Since Scout is primarily a F&B publication, I can’t help but hone in on this comparison…First of all, do you agree with the analogy and why is (or isn’t) it a good descriptor of your style of writing?

Well this all started when I went to France and wanted to eat the palace of Versailles. When I wrote When We Lost Our Heads (HarperCollins Canada, 2022), I was writing a character who dressed like and had the sweetness of cake. I was so famished during the writing of that book. I would get a cake and eat it at midnight with my fingers.

What’s your favourite kind of cake?

I like this rose flavoured cake that a [Montreal] bakery named Cocoa Locale makes. There are rose petals thrown on top of the cake too. It tastes like you are eating perfume.

Lastly, if you had to liken Capital of Dreams to a particular type of cake, what flavour would it be? Please entice us!

Capital of Dreams is a cake that tastes like flowers, but an unnameable flower. One that only grows in Elysia.