Writer’s Block: Alexandra Leggat

Alexandra Leggat, author of the Trillium nominated short story collection Animal, will soon be releasing her debut novel from Anvil Press this February. In anticipation of The Incomparables, Alexandra kindly answered a few of our questions!

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Which writers have influenced you or had the most impact on your own writing?
I’d say Marguerite Duras, Virginia Woolf, Dostoyevsky, Samuel Beckett, Janet Frame, Sylvia Plath, Arthur Miller and Albert Camus.

What’s one book you always recommend?
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

What’s the most surprising thing about being a writer?
The most surprising thing about being a writer is how it doesn’t get any easier and home much age effects the process.

What was your most rewarding moment as a writer?
My first acceptance letter.

Who is your favourite fictional character?
Sherlock Holmes

Have you ever experienced writer’s block?
Yes, after my book Meet Me in the Parking Lot. It was awful. What helped me break out of it was writing a Haiku a day for 365 days. The tapping out of the syllables, the finite structure helped me concentrate which freed up my creativity, my Imagination. It was the best medicine.

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I live by the water, in the Beach, the East end of Toronto. My bread and butter job is teaching Creative Writing Classes at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. I live in an apartment for now with my two dogs, an Alaskan Malamute and an Inuit Sled Dog. They eat raw food and my favourite foods are Tex-Mex and Indian. I love all sorts of music but a few of my favourite musicians are JS Bach, David Bowie, T-Rex, Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, Joy Division, Radio Head, Velvet Underground, Sun Volt, Burton Cummings, the Beauties, Alun Piggins and Lowest of the Low. If I could live or be anywhere else it would be the Yukon or Paris.
 
My previous books include This is me since yesterday, a poetry collection published by Coach House Books (2000), and three short story collections, Pull Gently, Tear Here (Insomniac Press, 2001), Meet Me In the Parking Lot (Insomniac Press, 2004), and Animal (Anvil Press, 2008).
 
I blog at alexandraleggat.blogpost.com, and you can find me on Facebook and Twitter.
 

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Thank you Alexandra and Anvil Press!

_______Edited from the original post, published on the LPG blog