INTERVIEW: WILL JOHNSON TALKS TO PRISM WRITER D.W. WILSON

B.C. writer publishes debut collection

By Will Johnson

When D.W. Wilson first decided he wanted to be a writer, he didn’t plan to write about his hometown. He started out with science fiction and fantasy inspired by J.R.R Tolkien. But partway through university, he decided to take the old adage “write what you know” seriously.

“I remember joking with my professor that I was going to write about the Kootenays because nobody else had, that it was unexplored territory,” says Wilson, who was born and raised in small towns throughout the Interior. “Incidentally, that line has served me well on grant applications.”

Wilson recently released his first collection of short stories, Once You Break a Knuckle. All of the action takes place in Invermere, a town largely untouched by Canadian literature. According to Wilson, his target audience is the people he grew up with.

“My goal before I ever started university was to create a piece of work that `regular Joe’, for lack of anything else to call him, would read and enjoy. Which isn’t to say that trades-types don’t read, more that I wanted the stories themselves to be the kind of stories those guys would like to read,” says Wilson.

Wilson’s stories are occasionally violent, and often deal with the darker side of humanity. In one story two adolescents sabotage a rope swing with tragic results. In another, a heartbroken youth refuses to warn his friend about an incoming car.

But Wilson’s story also reveal a dignity in his characters’ day-to-day lives.

Wilson says he admires B.C. writer Bill Gaston’s work, and that both Richard Ford and Raymond Carver have had a large influence on his writing. But his favorite author is Tim Winton, an Australian novelist and short story writer.

“If I subconsciously am emulating anyone (since I don’t think a writer should actively strive to emulate another writer)…it’s him, for his use of setting and the musicality of his sentences,” says Wilson.

Wilson has been on a roll in recent years, receiving nods in literary contests and getting nominated for numerous National Magazine awards. His second book, a novel titled Ballistics, is due out in 2012. And he partially credits his success to the Canadian literary scene.

“I’d never have been able to launch myself with a short story collection in either the U.S. or the U.K.,” he said.

“Canada punches above it’s weight, basically. Even after all the arts cuts and people death-knelling culture and literature, if you look at what’s going on south of the border or across the Atlantic you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to be a writer,” he said.

And though he has spent much of the last few years studying in the U.K., where he is currently pursuing a PhD at University of East Anglia, Wilson still considers himself a proud Canadian.

When asked about his plans for the future, Wilson’s answer was simple.

“Write another book.”