Getting 2 Know Fred Stenson

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made, and why?

It may seem odd but I think the best “writing” decision I ever made was to stay in Alberta for the past two decades: to work at my fiction from the place in which I grew up. I don’t think all writers should make such a decision, but it was important for me because of what I wanted to write. I wanted to drill down through the layers of western Canadian history, trying to build up detail and atmosphere so that there would be a mood and a tone in the fiction that echoed more than the present. I made that decision about 1985, and the result has been a trio of historical novels that come close to being what I dreamt of writing way back when. I don’t believe it could have happened without the ability to walk out into that physical landscape every time I wanted. Just for the record, I also love to travel.

Question: Has anything interesting been going on in your life of late?

Answer: I’m in Cape Town nearing the end of a great tour in SA. So amazing. It began with an invite to a book festival in the Karoo. I gambled mightily by accepting before I had funding and before I knew how to get books into the country, but it all worked out and the Canadian High Commission was super and arranged much of my publicity schedule for me. The result is that Random House SA is now distributing the Canadian edition of The Great Karoo in SA. The book sold out at its first launch in Melrose, Joburg. A very nice affair. It also won a fiction prize at the Richmond Karoo festival. So things have been very interesting of late.