Featured Writer: Alison Gadsby
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing! It’s my great pleasure to feature author Alison Gadsby in today’s issue of Women Writing.
About the author…
Alison Gadsby is the author of Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive (Guernica Editions). Other short fiction appears in Blank Spaces, The Temz Review, The Ex-Puritan, Blue Lake Review, and many other literary journals in Canada and abroad. She holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia, and a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from York University. She is the host of Junction Reads, a prose reading series which she founded in 2014. She lives in Tkaronto/Toronto in a multigenerational home that includes several dogs. You can find out more about her at www.alisongadsby.ca and more information about Junction Reads at www.junctionreads.ca.
On a writing routine …
Routine requires organization, which for my entire life, I have lacked. When I have a deadline, I am fiercely dedicated to completing tasks, which is why I set deadlines for myself. For example, each year I set aside money for a CBC Short Story Prize donation scheme, which allows me to write, revise and submit story ideas that have been swimming in my mind. It often only ends up that I submit one or two stories, but this year, I have submitted 5 stories (on my way to completing another collection). I am certain they will never choose my dark and weird stories, but it helps my mind to know that they’re done and “out there” so I can focus on other writing. I also set deadline for reading and have included reviews as part of my routine. Having to read up to six books each month for Junction Reads, it is necessary for me to carve out time and to get it done in that time. Reading widely makes for better writing, so I strongly urge people to read outside their usual style and genre. I also go away with a writing friend every few months, which ends up being a 12 hour a day writing marathon and sometimes, 50K words in four days.
On writing spaces …
I have a chair tucked into a space in my bedroom. I am surrounded by books and have a large patio door in front of me that allows me to get distracted by birds and the neighbours shouting in the backyard behind us. It is my favourite place to be and I can spend butt-numbing hours there. I have a vintage radio that plays classical music or oldies radio—whatever I can’t hear, but reminds me that I am present in a world beyond the page.
On writing communities …
I founded and host Junction Reads, a prose series in the west end of Toronto. I started this in 2014 as a way to build community for a writers’ workshop I’d started in 2012. It has become my world and I wouldn’t give up any of the hours I spend promoting other authors and the small presses who produce their books. Volunteering your time to promote other authors and other books is an essential tool for writers. While this little CanLit world is full of those filled with envy and fear that they won’t get their work published, it is almost certain an emerging writer won’t succeed if they don’t build a little community. We’re all in this together and another writer’s success means that I stand a greater chance.
Write for you. Write what you want to read and even if you don’t want to read it, have fun writing it. Don’t try and be something you’re not because you’re worried your weird won’t get published. Be weird.
On challenges …
I have three children, and for some reason (likely as I mentioned above about how capable I am of getting work done when their is zero time) I went to school full time when my youngest was three years old. He also had multiple health conditions that required regular hospital and clinical interventions. All three kids were also competitive swimmers, which provided both ample time to read and study (in a hot pool gallery) and less time because we carpooled six times a week. I guess, what might appear as a challenge to some ended up being an ideal situation for me and my neuro-curved brain. I am also 16 months not drinking, which might feel like oversharing here, but there is no greater challenge to writing than waking up at noon and trying to hydrate away a hangover. Rising at 7:00am, clear headed and less anxious, makes for a better writing day.
On the best writing advice …
100 words or 10000 words, regardless of what you produce, each and every second you write is valuable. So even if you have an hour, sit down and read or write something because no matter what you’re feeding the creative mind. This isn’t advice I’ve received, but learned.
On the worst writing advice …
A writer in a workshop once said that she didn’t think my weird, dark, trauma-fuelled fiction would get published and that I should consider being more funny because she really liked my funny stories. It made me want to tell her that her sexual fantasy-fuelled fairy tales bored the snot out of me, but I didn’t. To each his own. There is a reader for everyone. I keep writing the weird because I am weird and I don’t think anyone should write what is not in their creative hearts.
On advice from personal experiences …
Write for you. Write what you want to read and even if you don’t want to read it, have fun writing it. Don’t try and be something you’re not because you’re worried your weird won’t get published. Be weird.
On rekindling creativity …
Music. Full stop. When I am stuck, I crank up the songs and dance around my bedroom. Or I go for a walk with the music in my ears. I also have very good writer friends and when we sit and talk about writing, I feel like I just ate at an all you can eat buffet full of my favourite food.
On a recent publication …
Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive (A collection coming March 1, 2026, Guernica Editions). I have a novella on submission, and a novel on submission now that explores facial and body differences, from the view point of a mother and her facially different daughter, circa 1963. I am working on a collection of weird little crime stories and a speculative fiction novel.
Alison’s online spaces …
📚 Women Writing Circle
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Get a sneak peek at Hygge and Homicide, Book 1 in the Hygge House Cozy Mystery Series. Download the first three chapters here!
Happy writing!
I love the advice to be weird. That’s real wisdom. Suits me fine!
Thank you. I love these wonderful interviews. What great advice