Yasuko Thanh is a Victoria-based award-winning author. Her first novel, Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains, won the 2016 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, while her short story collection, Floating Like the Dead, includes the Journey Prize-winning title story and was on Quill and Quire’s list of best books of 2012. Her latest release, Mistakes to Run With, is a beautifully written and hauntingly vulnerable memoir that hits on all sides of love, loss, identity, and past circumstances that shape our future. She is currently working on her second novel.
Interviewed by Ash Hampson
Ash Hampson (AH): How would you characterize your writing process?
Yasuko Thanh (TH): I think of myself as an intuitive writer. I follow the “hotspots.” I read with my body — does this work provoke a physical response? — and try to write from the body, too. Five minutes of sustained writing, first thing in the morning, when I’m a little fuzzy, pen to paper, not stopping, often points me in the direction of my true subject matter. The exercise is like a compass, and also like prayer.
AH: After a novel and a short story collection you released a memoir, Mistakes to Run With. It was a remarkably deep dive and such a departure from your previous work. Did writing a memoir open a door for more vulnerability in your work?
YT: Vulnerability. I feel like the writer is always vulnerable. Attached to their words and sending their stories into the world, hoping they will be well-treated, liked. I’ve always resonated with the Hemingway quote, “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” In this sense, I don’t feel Mistakes to Run With was a departure. I try to tell the truth about things that hurt, and the side-effect is vulnerability. But then don’t we all?
AH: What kind of difficulties or differences did you find moving from research/historical-based fiction to memoir?
YT: Differences exist between fiction and nonfiction — I have more room to move in fiction because I can make things up when needed — but I guess I found more similarities than differences. It’s all writing and the rules of good writing apply: evidence the author has paid attention to diction, to the sound of words, to rhythm. Has written with heart, all while successfully engaging the reader.
AH: Having read a portion of your upcoming work and noting that what we express on the page is often pulled from or helped along by personal experience, how much of yourself is in these characters and story?
YT: I believe every character we write contains some facet of us. They must. They may have been given directions and helped along by the Muses, but they come from our minds. They often embody those things we respond violently or passionately to, and I’d say, if you’re not responding in an emotional way to your characters, then you may not have yet found your true work
AH: Could you give a brief overview of your new material and when you’re hoping it will be published?
YT: It comes out next year with Penguin Random House. We’re going into copy-edits now. The story deals with a family struggling after the teenaged daughter’s suicide attempt. It’s not cheery material but I hope it’s nuanced and thoughtful.