How Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist David Bezmozgis's immigrant background shapes his writing life
CBC Books | | Posted: October 24, 2019 4:51 PM | Last Updated: November 18, 2019
'Some of the stories deal with looking back and the nostalgia around being an immigrant.'
David Bezmozgis was born in Latvia and came to Toronto when he was six years old. His experience as an immigrant has informed his fiction.
He's the author of the short story collection Natasha and Other Stories, the novel The Betrayers and, most recently, the short story collection Immigrant City.
Immigrant City is a finalist for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The $100,000 prize is the richest Canadian literary award and annually recognizes the country's best fiction. The winner will be announced on Nov. 18, 2019.
Immigrant City is an examination of the contemporary Canadian immigrant experience featuring stories of people of diverse origin and the challenge they face living in a large metropolis.
CBC Books talked to Bezmozgis about why he wrote Immigrant City.
Looking back
"I'm a peculiar kind of immigrant. I came to Toronto from Eastern Europe when I was six. I grew up in an immigrant community. The core of my immigration story is a bit about people and my parents' and grandparents' generation. With this collection, there's a lot about what it's like to have lived in this country, starting out out as an immigrant and what influence and what imprint immigration leaves on you."
It's about life as an immigrant and the influence and imprint immigration leaves on you. - David Bezmozgis
"Some of the stories deal with the peculiar thing of looking back nostalgically on being an immigrant. Whereas at the time of being an immigrant, being an immigrant was really hard. There's some sense of looking back, with fondness, at a period in one's life that was, in a way more difficult, but felt more authentic."
Creating real characters
"Most of the characters in the collection are Soviet people, often Jews. Most of the characters are not me. So whether I'm writing about somebody who is an older Russian Jewish person: not me. Or a woman: Not me. Or a Somali immigrant: also not me.
It's about getting an understanding of these people's experiences, what their lives are, what they want, and trying to communicate that through the stories. - David Bezmozgis
"It's about getting an understanding of these people's experiences, what their lives are, what they want, and trying to communicate that through the stories."
Defining success as a writer
"My advice has never changed. It's the same advice I give to myself, which is finish what you start. And that's the only thing you can control. If you have an idea and you believe in it, start writing and keep writing until you're done. Once you have that, you can figure out what place it has and whether it will find its way into the world or not.
"Success is when you sit down and you have something in your mind that you want to set down on the page. You try to come as close to that as possible. You never quite nail it, but it's conveying something that you feel and think — through characters and onto the page."
David Bezmozgis's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
The CBC Books Why I Write series features authors speaking on what literature means to them. You can see all the episodes here.