Our guest this week is Susan Wadds (What the Living Do, Regal House Publishing, March 2024). Susan describes her biggest writing challenge as taking all the disparate pieces of her story and organizing/structuring them into a coherent whole and shares the various techniques she’s tried (including an atelier in France!). Later we delve into how cultivating dream agents can pay off and the one thing that’s most surprised her about the audience for her debut.

Resources mentioned in this interview: Amherst Writers & Artists

Winner of the 2024 Canadian Book Club Award for her debut novel and the 2016 Writer's Union of Canada's Prose Contest, Susan Wadds' work has appeared in various publications, including carteblance, The Blood Pudding, Room, and Waterwheel Review. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers and a proud member of The Writers Union of Canada and The Canadian Authors Association, Susan is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) workshop facilitator. She grew up in Toronto, Montreal, and London Ontario, and has lived in British Columbia, Oregon, India, France, and Italy. She's sort of settled down and currently lives on a quiet river in traditional Anishinaabe territory with an odd assortment of human and cats.

To learn more about Susan, click here.