Jenny Haysom: Publishing Isn’t Always the Endgame

Jenny Haysom has published her writing in magazines across Canada. Her debut poetry collection, Dividing the Wayside, won the Archibald Lampman Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Jenny lived in Ottawa for nearly 30 years, on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Algonquin Nation, and has recently returned to Nova Scotia, in Mi’kma’ki, where she grew up.

Jenny Haysom

Photo by Lucy Boyd

In this interview, Jenny discusses how fiction seemed the perfect medium to be able to tell her new story, Keep, her process of learning the mechanics of writing fiction over poetry, and more.

Name: Jenny Haysom
Literary agent: Carolyn Forde at Transatlantic Agency
Book title: Keep
Publisher: House of Anansi
Release date: October 1, 2024
Genre/category: Fiction
Previous titles: Dividing the Wayside
Elevator pitch: A timely tale of ownership and loss, loneliness and connection, and a meditation on all the stuff in our lives.

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What prompted you to write this book?

When I was a young mother, I had a brief stint working as a home stager—an activity I describe at some length in Keep. Many of my “clients” were fragile people, some forced to sell their homes in the aftermath of divorce, unemployment, death…. The job was intense and came to an abrupt end with a health crisis that put me in the ICU. Now I know what it is to be physically and mentally broken.

It took me a while to process these experiences and to find a way to approach them on the page. Poetry and memoir, with their intimate ‘Is,’ were the wrong vehicles. I had to find a way to write less directly, imaginatively, and fiction seemed the perfect medium for exploring difficult—and sometimes contradictory—thoughts, feelings and ideas; it allowed me to adopt positions or points of view.

In 2017, when I found out that Rachel Cusk (a writer I deeply admire) was teaching a fiction workshop at Banff, I wrote the first chapter of Keep and applied to the program. Sadly, I was waitlisted for the class, but once I got over my disappointment, I realized I had a beginning.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It took seven years from start to finish—in part because I didn’t know what I was doing! Though I’d had lots of experience writing poetry, I knew relatively little about the mechanics of fiction, and had to figure things out as I went. I relied on skilled readers (friends, other writers, literary agents, editors) for feedback, and learned to identify the salient bits of their critiques. It’s odd, because you have to trust your readers, and listen to them with an open heart, and yet, you also have to trust yourself and know intuitively when something is right or wrong. And once you’ve identified what needs fixing, you’re on your own; you have to sit down, by yourself, and write it out. Needless to say, the story changed significantly.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

For me, publishing isn’t always the endgame. I have lots of material that will never see the light of day, and I’m content with that.

My first published book was a poetry collection, and I submitted the manuscript to a variety of small presses myself. With Keep, however, I was seeking a wider readership and felt I needed a literary agent. Admittedly, pitching to agents isn’t much fun, and requires a thick skin and a shift in vocabulary. I interacted with three different agents and learned a lot about what publishers (and readers) want. Finding an agent does add another step to the submissions process, but once you’ve found representation, it shortens the wait time significantly. My agent was able to get my manuscript directly into the hands of editors, and rather than dangling in limbo for months, I had a happy outcome in a few weeks.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

In my mind, the writing process should be full of surprises. In drafting and revising Keep, there were many revelations along the way. On reflection, the biggest surprise was the change in tone; what began as a dark and confused narrative became more balanced, even optimistic, over time. Likewise, the shape of the story changed too; the first draft had an abrupt and tragic finale, yet the final version has a denouement that offers hope to the reader.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Hope is indeed the thing I want readers to get out of this book. As I deal with some depressing topics—waste and consumption, aging and dementia, loneliness, homelessness, etc.—I want to leave my readers with the sense that however bleak things may be at this late capitalist moment, however small the influence of our individual decisions, we are not entirely without agency, and our lives matter. I have a daughter who loves to read, and I want her to feel this way when she finishes my book.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

I’m uncomfortable giving advice, but long ago, when I was struggling to edit some of my work, I was told to stop griping and get on with it—that writing is the pleasure. For me, this has turned out to be true; now that I have to get out in the world and promote a finished book, I can’t wait to shut the door and start again, to be alone with my thoughts and words, wherever they take me.

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