Gina Leola Woolsey explores grief and the power of self-acceptance in her first book
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1
Gina Leola Woolsey's first book, Fifteen Thousand Pieces, shares a historical account of Dr. John Butt, who was the chief medical examiner of the Shearwater military base back in 1998. It was in that year Butt faced the most challenging job of his career: going through the dismembered body parts of the 229 people who died in the Swissair Flight 111 tragedy that crashed on the coast of Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998.
Throughout this gruesome process, it leaves him transformed as it starts his journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance as a gay man.
This story inspired Woolsey. She left her corporate career mid-life to pursue an education in creative writing, earning a BFA from the University of British Columbia and an MFA from the University of King's College. Soon after making this career change, while still in school, she was named the winner of the 2010-2011 CBC Nonfiction Prize for My Best Friend. Woolsey is currently at work on her next book, which is set to include her winning piece.
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET. You can submit original, unpublished nonfiction that is up to 2,000 words in length. Nonfiction includes memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles.
The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will have their work published on CBC Books.
Woolsey spoke to CBC Books about how she wrote Fifteen Thousand Pieces.
Telling someone else's story
"I was drawn to this story because human nature is my muse. This is really a book about a man who struggled most of his life to like himself — and worked very hard to prove himself to his family, his community and most of all to himself. Because of that, he built a stunning career and did some exceptional things in the midst of very challenging circumstances.
I was drawn to this story because human nature is my muse.- Gina Leola Woolsey
"I wanted to dig into that and find out the backstory of his struggle; I could tell when I met him that he was kind of a tortured soul. The fact that he wanted to open up to me and talk about it just made us a perfect pair. He was willing to share that delicate inner story with me. It's such a beautiful contrast to what was going on around him and the work that he did, and what a strong image he had to put out there of himself. The book is about this man's struggle to accept himself — and his very late coming-of-age and accepting himself later in life."
Organizing the story
"I have some fun pictures of my desk that I took — and then I have all these transcribed interviews printed off the side. And then because nobody speaks linearly or stays on track, I went through all of these interviews. Once I planned out the narrative, I cut the physical pages into chunks that related to each chapter. So for each chapter, I had a file of bits of interviews printed and then colour-coded sticky notes all over everything."
"This is my first book, the first time telling of a long story where I couldn't hold it in my head. I needed to create a kind of trapeze for me to fly around on; I needed an apparatus and so it was the chalkboard and the sticky notes and the cut up little bits of interviews.
"When I first took a writing class, I can remember sitting in that first classroom and we had to submit a short story. And I was overwhelmed with the thought of writing 3,000 words. Back then I remember thinking, 'How does anyone write a whole book? Like how do you even do it? Never mind holding a story that's that long in your mind. How do you actually write that many words?'
When I figured out a scene that I wanted to write, I would start with that — and then I would build the chapter around it a lot of times.- Gina Leola Woolsey
"Each chapter is kind of like a story unto itself. That was how I approached it: I wrote it chapter-by-chapter, not necessarily chronologically. When I figured out a scene that I wanted to write, I would start with that — and then I would build the chapter around it a lot of times.
"There was a lot of moving the chapters around to see what worked best."
Writing about death
"I think death is a very interesting subject. It's one that we don't deal with very well in the West. We've lost a lot of the ability to process and interact with death, even though it is an everyday occurrence. So I was intrigued: what makes someone go to medical school, to do all that work to potentially save people — and then decide he's going to just work with the deceased. I was curious about that.
We've lost a lot of the ability to process and interact with death, even though it is an everyday occurrence.- Gina Leola Woolsey
"When I met him, I wanted to know more about his profession. But as I talked to him, what he wanted to talk about was his tender heart and not about the death investigation aspect. That was boring to him.
"That's kind of how the story evolved. When I realized there was this whole tortured man behind this facade of professionalism, I realized there was something more to investigate.
"One of the poignant things that I've talked about quite a bit is how, as I was writing this book, that it's almost like the setting of this book is death; it's the backdrop of a lot of scenes. There's a lot of poignancy that's brought to the stories because of death and how it's educating the characters in the book."
A personal journey
"At the same time, I was getting an education because my husband had been diagnosed with cancer. Shortly after he was diagnosed, we knew that it was terminal. We didn't know how long he had. So for the duration of me writing this book — and interviewing people about their loved ones that they lost and what the experience was like — I was thinking to myself, I'm gonna be on the other side of this. That made it hard because it was hitting me in the face.
"Talking about other people's grief was me questioning: What's this grief gonna be like for me? Because it looks awful, there was so much sadness, but it was also a blessing in that I saw a lot of grace from people. I saw how people were made better by the grief that they went through. If it didn't take them down, they usually became more compassionate or they would grab life more, they would let go of things easier. So I saw that there was a lot of grace to be had on the other side. I think that's the thing that isn't anywhere in the book, but it was a very profound part of me writing this book was that I was dealing with a personal grief journey myself.
Talking about other people's grief was me questioning what's this grief gonna be like for me?- Gina Leola Woolsey
"I would like readers to come away with that understanding or appreciation for the fact that I think it's human nature — that we create a persona to present to the world and then we have our inner selves and everybody's inner self. The people who struggle the most are the ones whose inner self is the most different from the persona that they've created.
"There's that appreciation that even when you see someone who looks like they've got their act together — who's having a stunning career, who's in a very powerful position, whatever it may be — you still need to have compassion for them and see them as human.
"You don't know what that inner persona is going through."
Gina Leola Woolsey's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
