Alexis brings thoughts on writing, criticism to writer-in-residence post

 

An immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, the 53-year-old Alexis continues to struggle with finding a sense of belonging in Canada. “Writing has allowed me to go towards a feeling of belonging. I’m a writer who is published in Canada. Canadians know me. Does that mean I am Canadian?” he asks. “It’s important to both belong and not belong. I like not belonging because I am used to it.

“Writing is both making the place in front of you both familiar and strange at the same time.”
 
The Toronto writer has been named the 2010-11 writer-in-residence in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at The University of Western Ontario. “I’m at the point now where I’ve actually been writing for a long time and I probably do have a certain amount of just sheer knowledge based on having written for a while,” says the first-time writer-in-residence. “I suppose there are things I could tell people who are starting out that might be helpful.”
 
A novelist, playwright, short story and children’s writer, Alexis has worked in a variety of mediums, also adding radio to his repertoire.

Growing up in Ottawa and Petrolia left a significant impression on Alexis and landscapes of his childhood have since become the backdrop for some of his works, including “Childhood,” his first novel; “Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa,” a collection of short stories; and “Lambton, Kent and Other Vista,” a play.
 
“When I first came to Canada, it was the differences between Trinidad (Port-au-Spain where I was born) and Ottawa. Ottawa I was reborn in and it became my place. It was horrible and it was good. I learned to be Canadian through Ottawa,” says the author who draws inspiration from Samuel Beckett, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka, among others. “When we moved to Petrolia, it was the other side of Canada, the rural side. That was almost as much a shock as going from Trinidad to Ottawa, going from Ottawa to Petrolia.”
 
In the late 1950s, Alexis's parents left for Canada, leaving Alexis and his younger sister with their grandmother in Port-au-Spain. The children were later reunited with their parents in 1961 when Alexis was 4 years old.
 
The “trauma” of immigrating to a country that is environmentally and culturally diverse from his homeland has served as creative inspiration for his writing. “I’m not so interested in my childhood,” he says. “But I am interested in the primal dilemma or trauma of my childhood, which is the confrontation with a new culture and new place.
 
“That trauma that first happened when I was a kid is something that has had repercussions through my life.”
 
This summer, Alexis turned heads in the literary world for a seemingly biting commentary on the role of newspaper literary critics.

The Walrus magazine reprinted Alexis’ “The Long Decline,” adapted from “Beauty and Sadness,” an upcoming book to be published in September. His comments suggesting literary critics at the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star only celebrate popular writers and don’t provide adequate critiques stirred controversy.

“You have a lot of snide people with English degrees saying snide things,” says Alexis, defending the point he was trying to make. “Someone spends a couple hours with a book that has taken somebody else years to write. They are nasty about it – that’s OK. Are they insightful about it? That’s the interesting thing.
 
“You can be nasty and uninsightful, or you can be pleasant and uninsightful, and those are one and the same thing. It’s not that I object to tone, it’s that I object to lack of insight.”
 
In “Beauty and Sadness,” Alexis explores whether he wants to continue to be a writer. The excerpt is part of his lament about what he describes as a culture that is less sensitive to literature and what words mean. He was hoping to provoke a discussion about principles rather than discussions about literary critics attacked in the piece.
 
Instead, the excerpt sparked a different kind of dialogue, namely those jumping to the defence of the critics.
 
“I kind-of have a bit of a problem with people who I don’t think are all that insightful talking about books of literature because I’m just not convinced by them. I just don’t find a lot of the writers who are in newspapers all that convincing as literary thinkers,” he says.
 
Alexis will hold office hours Mondays and Tuesdays, beginning on Sept. 20. He is looking forward to the position because he will be able to mentor young writers and revisit writing basics. “I like being around people who are just going through the front door because some of the questions from people who are starting out are crucial and it’s nice to remember them,” he says.
 
His affection for the arts comes naturally. If Alexis wasn’t a writer, he would have chosen a career in music, he says, noting he plays the guitar.
 
“(Writing) fulfills psychic needs,” he says. “This exploration of self and world is done pretty efficiently through writing. Even if I don’t want to be a writer because I don’t like the society and the things around writing, I love writing itself.”

Andre Alexis, “The Long Decline: Canada used to have a vibrant arts culture. What happened?” The Walrus, July/August 2010. To read Alexis’ comments in The Walrus, visit http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.07-criticism-the-long-decline/.