Trevor Cole, a Hamilton novelist whose most recent work of fiction, Practical Jean, got a great review in the New York Times in November, runs a website called Authors Aloud. It’s dedicated to an understanding of the oral nature of a writer’s work: the sound of sentences, the rhythm and beat of lines, the staying nature of images. He has interviewed hundreds of authors and posted audio of them reading short passages of their work and insights into the writing process.
You can find his most recent posting — moi — at www.authorsaloud.com. In it, I read a passage from the middle of the first chapter, Verse: Beaupré, in which the protagonist, Michel, 14 at the time, attends the 1976 national day concert on Mont-Royal, then deals with the consequences of staying out late when he returns home. The “insight” is me talking about the autobiographical elements of the novel for about a minute.
Enjoy!
