Women Reading Women: Carley Fortune

Welcome to Women Reading Women — a series featuring women writers, and the women writers they love.

Carley Fortune is an award-winning Canadian journalist who’s worked as an editor for Refinery29, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and Toronto Life. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons. Every Summer After is her first novel.

What is a book you would recommend to any woman writer?

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. This is one of my favourite books of the past year, and I hype it at every opportunity. It also has a lot to offer writers, aside from the gorgeous, hilarious, gut-wrenching prose. It’s a love story, set in New York’s Black literary world. The protagonist is the author of a popular vampire erotica series who’s at a crisis point in her career — and she’s a mom. The story is told in alternating now and then timelines, over the course of a tumultuous week she spent as a troubled teenager with a boy and when they reunite in the present and he’s now a reclusive literary icon. This book has all the feels. It also has so much to say about writing life and motherhood — plus, it’s sexy as hell and bursting with joy.

What’s your top book written by a woman?

If you omitted the last four words from that question, my answer would be the same because all my favourite books are written by women. And there are just so many, so here’s a random selection: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, That Summer by Jennifer Weiner, Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. I could go on.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I was a career editor, and during a weekly call with my boss back in early 2020, she told me she thought I should start putting aside time to write — but not necessarily for work. Her words stuck with me, and a few months later I started writing what would become my first novel.

What should every aspiring writer do?

Read. It sounds simple, and it is. But I don’t think it goes without saying. You don’t need an MFA, but you do need to steep yourself in writing. Read so you know what you like and — just as importantly — what you don’t. Read so you can develop an ear and your voice. Read so you can gain an instinct for plot and pacing. Read to become inspired and jealous and bored, then figure out why. If you aren’t a greedy reader, you won’t be a great writer.

Why do you think books by women are important?

There’s an alarming lack of empathy in the world — particularly toward people who are different than us, people who we therefore perceive as threatening. It’s within the pages of our books where I find the most proof of humanity, the most empathy for messiness of living, the clearest eyes and fullest hearts.

Quick-fire Questions

City you were born in versus city your heart belongs to?

I was born in Toronto, but when I travelled to London on a brief work trip in 2015, I felt an instant connection to the city. I knew I was meant to live there forever. I have yet to return.

A piece of art that inspires you?

My husband and I visited the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, ON, last fall to see Uninvited, an exhibit of works by the female artists who were contemporaries of the Group of Seven. In other words: the women who weren’t allowed into the boys’ club. I’m so familiar with the Group’s paintings, but I’d never considered the women who worked (sometimes literally) alongside them. It was eye-opening and thought-provoking. For my 38th birthday this February, I asked for the book that accompanies the exhibit.

Fill in the blank: ___ helps stimulate my creativity.

Running. Moving my body almost always helps clear away the mental sludge.

Describe your writing in three words.

Evocative. Nostalgic. Sparkling.

What’s an assumption about you that you don’t think is true?

That because I worked in journalism for 16 years, I wrote a lot. I was an editor, and I didn’t write very often. Partly that was because I was busy and partly that was because I was afraid to put myself out there. I always considered myself a fairly empathetic editor, but it wasn’t until I was soliciting feedback on my first manuscript that I began to really appreciate ho it means to put your name on something.

Name a book that you wish you wrote.

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

In your opinion, who is the most underrated author?

Pass. I don’t want to unintentionally insult someone!

What’s a book people would be surprised to see in your book collection?

A Life in the Bush by Roy MacGregor. ■

Do you know a writer who would be a great feature for Women Reading Women? DM us on Instagram!