“What I tell my students is that, you know, when they publish someday and work with an editor, it'll be a breeze. Because if you spent two years or more workshopping your work creatively, where you've got 20 people telling you their opinions about it and what they like about it, what they didn't like about it—that's far harder. What they're doing in, in a creative writing class is far harder than working with an editor later, where you're just getting one person's opinion. And I tell them, at this point, I'm like, if somebody has a piece of advice that will make this thing better, I'm taking it. I don't have any anxiety over influence or anything like that.”

In this episode, Wayde Compton shares how he challenges conventional narrative structures and explains why it’s worth following your own particularities as a writer.

He discusses:

0:54 | How working with Betsy Warland shaped his own thinking about teaching creative writing and the importance of fostering connections between students

2:37 | Reading reference books as a child and how it influenced the development of his story collection The Outer Harbour

8:26 | His book of essays After Canaan and his work on preserving the memory of Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver

13:38 | Why having a “writing buddy” is more valuable, in the long run, than having a mentor

14:46 | Exploring woodworking through haptics and creating tactile art that complements his writing projects

17:03 | How you never know how people are going to receive your work or how it's going to be useful to them

21:33 | An exercise inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s work where he asks students to start a fiction project by drawing a map

Guest bio:

Wayde Compton is the author of four books: 49th Parallel Psalm (finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize); Performance Bond; After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award); and The Outer Harbour (winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award). He has also edited two anthologies: Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature and The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award). Compton is a co-founder of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, an organization formed to raise awareness about the history of Vancouver’s Black community. He lives in Vancouver and has recently joined the faculty of Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC.

 The music you heard on this episode was composed by Amadeo Ventura. You can hear more of his music at amadeoventura.weebly.com.

Visit TNQ.ca to access more of Wayde Compton’s writing and teaching tips, including web extras about reading local work and the importance of “finding your urgency.”

If you like our podcast, please leave a review—it really helps other listeners find our show! Thank you!

You can find Wayde’s work here:  

The Outer Harbour

After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region

Performance Bond; After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region

49th Parallel Psalm

Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature

 The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them 

The Blue Road