Annie Proulx's secret to writing about place
Writing Tip | CBC Books | | Posted: May 24, 2019 5:49 PM | Last Updated: May 24, 2019
American writer Annie Proulx has won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Blue Metropolis Literary Grand Prix. Her many works include the breakout novel The Shipping News, the short story collection Close Range, which included the story Brokeback Mountain, and her most recent novel, Barkskins.
Proulx spoke to Eleanor Wachtel onstage at the 2019 Blue Metropolis Festival in Montreal, where she shared her secret to writing effectively about place.
Proulx's conversation with Wachtel will air on CBC Radio on Sunday, May 26 at 3 p.m. ET & AT, 3:30 p.m. NT, 5 p.m. PT, MT & CT.
"If you're writing about place, better than any photograph is to actually draw it — take the 20 or 30 minutes and draw it. Study every bit: where the shadows fall, the way the colours change, take note of the trees and plants, of anyone who has left traces of occupancy. Tuck it away, and when you need a description that fits it, sometimes years later, you can turn to it and you'll remember it vividly. I've done that a lot."
- From The Shipping News to Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx on the importance of place in her fiction