Women Reading Women: Marissa Stapley
Welcome to Women Reading Women — a series featuring women writers, and the women writers they love.
Marissa Stapley has worked as a newspaper journalist and magazine editor, and is now the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Lucky, a Reese’s Book Club December 2021 Pick, The Last Resort, Things to do When It’s Raining, and Mating for Life. Her work has been published in fifteen countries and two of her novels, including Lucky, have been optioned for television. She also co-writes holiday rom-coms (The Holiday Swap, All I Want for Christmas) under the pen name Maggie Knox. She lives in Toronto with her family.
What is a book you would recommend to any woman writer?
I reread The Awakening by Kate Chopin when I was writing The Last Resort (the book I wrote before Lucky) – as a way to try to understand Shell. (She was a character who was always at risk – in my mind – of just walking into the ocean and swimming away.) The Awakening was as good as I remembered it, if not better -- whereas often the books I loved in my younger days turn out to be unworthy of my starry-eyed enthusiasm, upon reinspection! I would encourage women writers to read this book and others by Chopin, and to read about her, too – about the ways she was rejected and maligned by the publishing industry because she was a female author writing honestly about sexuality, motherhood, and infidelity. Male critics dismissed her work as immoral; she had publishing contracts cancelled and fell into a depression. Scandal aside, her work was eventually dismissed as simple writing that provided “local colour”. But it’s really accomplished, beautiful writing. When I read her, I feel compelled to push forward as a female author, to push boundaries and ignore those who don’t take me seriously.
What’s your top book written by a woman?
This is such a tough question! I can’t pick just one, so here are my top five: The Mothers by Britt Bennett, Runaway by Alice Munro, A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews, Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I’m also leaving out Lauren Groff, an all time favourite author, but I can’t pick just one of her books. (I really overthought this!)
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
My agent (Samantha Haywood) always tells me, “If you breathe into your fear, it becomes excitement.” I think that’s great advice to go into big meetings with, or even to go into novel-writing with. Starting a new book is so terrifying, and so very exciting.
What should every aspiring writer do/know/try/fear/run toward?
Do the work. Know there will be hard days. Try not to let it grind you down. Fear just means you’re onto something. Run to the finish line – then go back to where you started and do it all over again. That’s the writing life, so be prepared.
Why do you think books by women are important?
I grew up thinking important literature was written by men, and “fun” books were written by women. That means it was only as I got older that I started to realize there were different ways of looking at relationships, for example. As in, in my twenties, I loved Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair– but there is just way too much of that arms-length idealization of women in literature, and I didn’t realize it was a problem until I started reading more widely. As in, reading more female authors. I love that bold literary works by women have moved in to start to change certain perceptions, or approaches to power in relationships – and that my daughter will have so many other options to turn to when she decides (I hope) to start reading great literature.
Quick-fire Questions
City you were born in versus city your heart belongs to?
Toronto for both!
A piece of art that inspires you?
My friend, the artist John Ford, makes constructions on plywood using woodfiller, sawdust, and acrylic paint. I was recently away on a writing retreat and we were all chatting with him. He then created a piece called Conversations with Writers – and I love it so much. I love thinking about the way writers work compared to how visual artists work. With the visual art, you have to say so much, using no words at all. But it can still have such meaning, and contain entire conversations.
Fill in the blank: ___ helps stimulate my creativity.
Music.
Describe your writing in three words.
Complex female characters.
What’s an assumption about you that you don’t think is true?
People often assume that because my books are considered easy reading, that means they’re easy to write. No book is easy to write, but I’d argue there’s a special challenge to writing a book that flows smoothly and is considered a page-turner.
Name a book that you wish you wrote.
Where the Crawdads Sing.
In your opinion, who is the most underrated author?
I think many Canadian authors don’t get as much attention in other countries as they should – but also, here in Canada. It seems a shame that our hardcover bestseller lists are so US-heavy, for example. So I’d say most Canadian authors are underrated! There are so many great authors to choose from in this country.
What’s a book people would be surprised to see in your book collection?
I have an inordinate number of music industry memoirs on my shelf. ■
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