Jasmine Sealy and The Island of Forgetting
interview by Laure Baudot
Photo of Jasmine by Benjamin Gardere.
Jasmine Sealy's debut novel, The Island of Forgetting, was the winner of the HarperCollins-UBC Prize for Best New Fiction. Sealy is a Barbadian-Canadian writer based in Vancouver, BC, whose work has been published in The New Quarterly, Adda Stories, Cosmonauts Avenue, GEIST, Room, and Prairie Fire. She is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing from UBC and is the former Prose Editor at Prism International. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for several prizes including Prairie Fire’s annual fiction contest, the CBC Short Story Prize and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
1. What is/was the biggest challenge for you as an emerging writer and why?
JS: As an emerging writer I put a lot of pressure on myself to hurry up and get my work out into the world as quickly as possible. The hardest lesson I’ve had to learn is that writing a novel entails hours and hours of “wasted” time. So many discarded scenes, abandoned characters and half-baked drafts. Accepting that this is just part of the process has been a big challenge for me, especially now that I’m a parent to a one-year-old and time feels scarcer and more precious than ever.
2. What is the best thing you've experienced as an emerging writer?
JS: The support of my family and friends, in particular my MFA cohort. I don’t often take the time to appreciate my achievements, I’m always thinking about the next step, moving the bar a little higher for myself. But I’m surrounded by people who remind me to take pride in what I’ve done so far and to not get too caught up in worrying about the future.
3. What have you learned as an emerging writer that surprised you about editing or publishing that you didn't know previously?
JS: The work! I think emerging writers tend to see getting a book deal as the finish line. But sharpening my novel manuscript with the help of my editor has been in some ways as challenging and rewarding as writing the original draft. I’m surprised to still be making discoveries about the story and the characters so late in the game.