3 books that explore the novelty of writing about writers
2024 CBC Short Story Prize juror and actor Kudakwashe Rutendo recommends her recent reads on The Next Chapter
Past Canada Reads panellist and actor Kudakwashe Rutendo is fascinated by the craft behind writing fiction. As a voracious reader, she set out to curate a list of novels of writers writing about writers.
On The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing, Rutendo said that in the process of reading she found that, "to have a book written in the perspective of someone whose creed it is to make the ordinary extraordinary is very powerful."
Rutendo's also bringing her love of close reading back to the CBC as a juror for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize alongside authors Conor Kerr and Michael Christie.
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 have their work published on CBC Books.
The Prize recognizes original, unpublished fiction that is up to 2,500 words in length. Submissions are open until Nov. 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
Keep reading for three of her literary recommendations.
My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig
My Nemesis follows the tumultuous affairs of both the minds and hearts of two married couples: Tessa and Milton and Wah and Charlie. Tessa is a white woman and writer who is intrigued by Charlie's scholarly work. Wah is a mixed-race Asian woman who is devoted to being a wife and mother. As their ideas about feminism and intellect clash, Tessa and Wah's rivalry grows more and more complicated.
Charmaine Craig is a L.A.-based writer and former actor. She also is a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. She is best known for her novels Miss Burma, which was on the longlist for the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction, My Nemesis and The Good Men.
Kudakwashe Rutendo says: "It was very relatable. If you're female-presenting or a woman, at some point in your life you're going to be asked if you're having kids and if not, why? If you are, when? This idea of motherhood, there's so many different ways that it can come into one's life."
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept is a novel of prose poetry, and is widely considered to be one of the form's most influential works. A fictionalized account of Elizabeth Smart's affair with British poet George Barker, the book is rhapsodic and intensely lyrical in celebrating a great love — and expressing the anguish of losing it.
Smart was an Ottawa-born writer renowned for her prose and poetry in the Canadian literary landscape of the 20th century. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept was first published in 1945
She manages to capture the dreamer's dream of love.- Kudakwashe Rutendo
Kudakwashe Rutendo says: "I think what Elizabeth Smart does, she manages to capture the dreamer's dream of love. It's like this all consuming, polarizing emotion. I don't think it's the healthiest, I don't think it's the kind of love that we interact with on the day-to-day. But in writing, it's kind of magical to see."
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Following the tragic love between Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood, In Memoriam is a love story set against the backdrop of the First World War. After meeting at a boarding school in the English countryside, both young men contend with the emotions they feel for one another which they mistakenly believe are not reciprocated. When both men see each other again on the battlefield, questions of art, purpose and love are confronted.
Alice Winn is an Irish American writer raised in Paris and a graduate of Oxford University. In Memoriam is her first novel.
Kudakwashe Rutendo says: "What really sets the stakes for it is the way the author captures the interpersonal relationships between men. Not only that, you have these stakes of two people being in love, but then also they have completely different stances on what war is."
Kudakwashe Rutendo's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
