Writers Charlotte Gill and Marcello di Cintio.
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Engineered Air Theatre
Thursday, September 17 - Thursday, September 17
More in: Literary
Arriving a little early, I walk into Marcello di Cintio’s office on the 11th floor of the social sciences building at the University of Calgary. I’m here to meet di Cintio — three weeks into his role as the 2009-10 U of C Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence — and his predecessor Charlotte Gill.
As a Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence, Gill, and now di Cintio, are expected to split their days between consulting local writers and their manuscripts, public appearances and working on a project. Gill finished Spade Life, her memoir of tree planting, during her residency. Di Cintio is writing his exploration of communities of people across the world living in proximity to “hard” barriers such as walls and fences.
“We’re based in the English department,” says Gill, “so most people assume it is students from the university who come, but it’s mostly people from the community who come.”
She describes how, in her view, the university students tend to be so busy producing work for their classes that the last thing they look for is more feedback. As writers-in-residence, their jobs extend just as much, if not more, out into the community to those people who have no connection to the university.
“Someone coming from, say Marda Loop, may have nobody that they know who is a writer or they may have no connection with the writing life or the world of writing,” says Gill. “They may have never been to a literary reading or know where to go in the [university’s] library to find books. This would be one of the only places where they get to know about what’s available to them as a resource.”
As the new writer-in-residence, di Cintio expresses a certain amount of trepidation about the consultancy role of the job. He says he hasn’t had a lot of experience on either side of the desk, as a consultant or as one seeking consultation. He admits to being a little anxious about what to expect.
However, Gill points out, not everyone is interested in simply getting feedback on their writing. Sometimes people who visit are confused about the resident’s role and expect the writer-in-residence to help them get published, which is not something Gill nor di Cintio feel comfortable about.
“That’s why I’m nervous,” says di Cintio. “When people are not here to ask about writing, but about publishing. Quite frankly, I don’t know. I don’t know how to get the book I’m working on right now published. There’s no course to take to tell you how it works. Everyone’s publication story is different. A lot of people come with the idea that these are the five steps I need to do to publish a book. Not to write it, but to publish it and sell it. I hate those conversations.”
Gill echoes that final sentiment. She says that people sometimes go too far in expecting what the writer-in-residence is supposed to do.
“It’s really quite pedestrian,” says Gill. “I’d break it down for them and show them that they could potentially work on a book for five years and get paid nothing and it may never see publication.”
“When I tell people that [Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa] was rejected 29 times,” adds di Cintio, “they can’t believe it. This is something they didn’t prepare themselves for when they come to me asking how they get their own book published. When the 30th publisher took it, he gave me an advance of $500.”
However, when writers come in looking for writing advice, Gill advises di Cintio, the requirement is really quite simple.
“People just want really basic things,” she says. “You don’t need to give them some kind of PhD dissertation on their work; they want to know how to make it better and that’s an hour. I always approach the consultation like I’m going to assume you’re going to do another five drafts. That’s what I assume with everyone that walks through the door.”
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