Guelph author explores grief and a family's unresolved trauma in latest novel

CBC

6 days ago

Guelph author Adam Lindsay Honsinger has a new book called Giving Up The Ghost that tells the story of a family and each member's journey with unresolved trauma.
He has also written Ophelia, a collection of short stories called Somewhere North of Normal, and his debut novel was Gracelessland. Along with being a writer, he's also musician and illustrator. He will be at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival next month.
He spoke with CBC K-W's Craig Norris, host of The Morning Edition, about his latest book and his creative process.
The following interview has been edited for clarity.
Audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.
Craig Norris: Tell us more about Giving Up The Ghost. Who do we meet in this story?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: It essentially begins with the death of a young soldier, Danny Stone, who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan.
Reverberations of that explosion disrupt the foundation of this family's comfortable, seemingly comfortable, life. So we end up following primarily through the whole novel the immediate family members: The father of Danny, the mother, Danny's sister and his grandparents.
Craig Norris: Where did the inspiration for this story come from?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: My process for writing is kind of a process of exploration. So the actual plot around focusing on a deceased person and then following what that grieving process looks like was not initially the intention.
I started writing characters in a context in a situation and then they sort of led me to what their concerns were, which turned out to be a grief-centred plot.
Craig Norris: You also teach creative writing. What impact does that have on the way you approach writing yourself?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: I would say it's more that my approach to writing impacts how I teach as opposed to teaching, informing the writing so much because you're really getting at the craft and bringing to the table as an instructor your knowledge about how you can teach craft but then also bringing your experience towards things like approaching writer's block, just incentivizing students, really focusing on things like revision. It's more the other way around, I guess.
Craig Norris: Do you find that you also learn from the students?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: Oh absolutely. I mean,you learn from students in the same way I think that I learned from just reading other authors in general.
Craig Norris: As I mentioned there in the intro, you're also a musician and an illustrator. How do you decide where you express that creativity?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: It's almost like a process of intention. I consider myself primarily a fiction writer. That's sort of the medium that I feel the most compelled toward, the one that gives me the most meaning and the most interest.
So the other two things, writing music and illustration, I tend to go toward when I'm taking a break from the writing. So then it's a very specific thing because in a way, they're sort of triggered by different things.
For example, when I'm writing a novel, I'm sort of very much building a world, an environment of setting characters, etc. whereas when I'm illustrating, it's a very particular subject matter and it's sort of a meditation on that subject that doesn't necessarily have a broad reaching narrative.
So there's something kind of relaxing and a relief or a break from the complexities of novel writing.
Craig Norris: You're going to be at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival next month. What's it like to be part of a festival like that?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: It's a great festival. My experience has been that it was really well organized. The hosts were wonderful. You get to meet all kinds of fantastic writers. The setting is gorgeous. Most of the stages are outdoors and this beautiful hamlet of Eden Mills. So it's just a wonderful kind of environment as well as it is rich with literary talent.
Craig Norris: You were also recently featured on the Giller Prize Facebook page, reading part of Giving Up the Ghost. What was that like?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: We were asked to do a recording, an introduction and a reading. And it's always a bit of a challenge for me, the performance part of writing. I'm most comfortable in the creative process.
Then we have to sort of step out and put on that hat and promote the book, do readings, that's always a bit more of a challenge for me.
Craig Norris: Is it the same thing for a musician then as well? I mean, do you ever perform live as a musician?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: I do perform live once in a while, but there's something — I perform with another person who plays another instrument and does harmonies, and there's something about the accompaniment, of having an instrument and another person with you that sort of takes the edge off, you know?
Craig Norris: What's next for you? What else are you working on?
Adam Lindsay Honsinger: I am presently working on a literary western. I started a couple years ago.
There's usually a period in the writing of a novel, because it takes me about five years from beginning to end, that there's a point where the plot is pretty solid, the characters are all developed, and then I'm just working for a considerable amount of time and just honing the actual prose, developing scenes a little bit further, working on things, the details of dialogue, that I start thinking about another story.
So there's a bit of overlap there each time. So I'm very close to actually finishing this new novel, and I'm actually in the process of thinking about what's after that.