The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2003, Blaðsíða 14

150
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 57 #4
chosen by the Royal Society. What do you
tell your students who want to make their
marks as writers?
Bill: Everything I tell my students
would take a book, probably two.
First, it is all right to want success and
to strive for it. It is all right to do one’s
best.
Second, attitude is more important
than art or craft. No matter how much you
know, attitude can defeat you - or help
make you successful.
Third, becoming a writer is easy. All
you have to do is write well and write a lot.
The trick is to constantly practice one’s
craft so as to become a better and better
writer and to find ways of increasing your
productivity. I show my students how to
do both. My reward comes with the pub-
lished books my former students send me.
Fourth: Now is the time for success.
Too many people, especially young people,
see success as something for the future.
They postpone success. There’s no need to
do so. I’ve just had an e-mail from a stu-
dent who was in a second year workshop
last year. She wrote a wonderful story. I
recommended - nay, insisted - that she
send it out. It’s been accepted for publica-
tion.
Nina: You talked earlier about the
influence of your professors at United
College. But I’ve heard you speak of the
influence of your ancestors as well. Could
you tell the readers of the Icelandic-
Canadian something about their impact,
even those you never met, on your life as a
writer and a person?
Bill: There’s far too much to tell and,
at the same time, far too little. Obviously,
my grandmother, Blanche Bristow, who
died long before I was born, but who wrote
poetry, fiction, and plays, and had her own
acting company, has passed on some
writerly genes. The lifelong storytelling
that has taken place around my parent’s
kitchen table has had a big impact. Both my
father and mother are wonderful oral story
tellers. It’s not just my parents, of course.
Gimli was a storytelling community. You
could go from house to house all weekend,
drinking coffee and listening to stories
being told. People didn’t think of it that
way. They were simply talking with friends
and relatives, but many of them were fine
storytellers. Surprisingly, my Irish grand-
parents were not storytellers. My grandfa-
ther was too traumatized by four years in
W.D. Valgardson, Heimar Hannesson and Governor General, Adrienne
Clarkson at Rideau Hall.