My Life as a Canadian Writer

My first short story, “The Provincial Fair,”
was rejected twenty-five times before
it found its home in The Muskoka Review.
From then on it’s all been pretty easy.

I learned the beauty of socialism
from writers so passionate they’d cry
when they didn’t get a grant. We’d go north
and laugh at the thought of Alden Nowlan.

Yes, I have been on the radio!
If you heard that segment of Canada Reads
where a guy recommends the novel version
of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun, that was me.

Now I live and work in Montreal.
All we do is sit in cafés and talk through
the one remaining question of literature:
is it available for free on the Internet?

This appeared in the July/August 2010 issue.

David McGimpsey

David McGimpsey just published Asbestos Heights, a collection.

Leanne Shapton

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