DESSA BAYROCK
Issue #4—In this one:; Today I learned it was you
Write yourself a horoscope for 2019
This year you should be wary of birds. What are they thinking? What are their intentions? Pigeons bludgeon your balcony; your cats will slaver at the windows morning, noon, and night. You will find feathers everywhere and hear their clucks and claws in your dreams. But what’s to stop you from building wings of your own and flying too close to the sun?
Name a writer you discovered in the past 12 months that you think others should know about
Chloe N. Clark is everything I want to be when I grow up - her writing is so visceral, so honest, so weird and unsettling in the best way. I'm constantly grateful and in awe of the way she supports and encourages the lit community and takes no shit.
Name a book you read in the past 12 months that surprised you
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - I'm a huge science fiction nerd and was looking for a book that would take me out of my own world for a while. It transported me and entertained me, but also grounded me in the real world - her work in building the depth and vibrancy of alien culture and community, and incorporating and experimenting with how we might perceive or envision or imagine a queer or non-binary future.
If your life philosophy were a slogan for a restaurant, what would it be? (You don't need to use an existing restaurant's slogan for this)
all-day breakfast
What creative outlet is your "if-I-weren't-a-writer (or visual artist)" pipe dream?
I've always secretly wished I could trade places with the world's well-known Dessa, AKA Margret Wander, who is an intimidatingly talented rapper / spoken-word artist. But that's still kind of writing. I also wish I could skateboard? Skateboarding seems like a sick talent / creative outlet to have.
What is a piece or project you're working on now, that will be released soon, or that was recently released that you'd like to share with our readers?
It's a millennial cliche, but I'm working on a podcast and I'm so stupid excited about it! It's me and three of my very closest, nerdiest friends talking about books, and it's called Best Canadian Book Club. We live in three different provinces and miss each other horribly, and so we started skyping and chatting about the things we were reading. Canadian lit is a dumpster fire right now, and we're trying to reform it in our own way - excising some of the rotten parts, dunking on Margaret Atwood, and building something new. Anyway, it's coming soon! We're just finishing up episode five and it'll be going live hopefully this summer!