It was painter Mara Korkola who first suggested to a less-than-certain Ray Robertson that he should take up writing as a full-time vocation. Six novels, two pieces of non-fiction and more than a few literary accolades to his name later, he’s now grateful that he followed his partner’s advice.
The University’s new writer-in-residence, Robertson was still a philosophy and religious studies student in Toronto in the early 1990s when Korkola pointed out how much he loved to write and proposed that he should follow his muse.
“I thought, ‘what an absurd thing’,” he recalls. “But eventually I realized that’s what I really wanted to do.”
Robertson eventually went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from Southwest Texas State University in San Marco, and while still a student there, his first novel Home Movies was accepted for publication, making him something of a minor celebrity on campus.
Since then, he’s published five more novels and has been nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers Trust Nonfiction Prize as well as the Charles Taylor Prize for Nonfiction. He’s been referred to as one of Canada’s finest novelists and as “the Jerry Lee Lewis of North American Letters.”
The rock n’ roll reference isn’t unwarranted. An ardent music fan with a guitar tattooed on his right arm, his 2010 novel Moody Food is centred around Thomas Graham, a Gram Parsons inspired folk-rock singer living in Toronto in the 1960s. He’ll soon release a book about some of the musicians he believes are the most influential but under-appreciated artists, among them Townes Van Zandt, Ronnie Lane, John Hartford and Hound Dog Taylor.
Robertson will be on campus for the next two weeks making public appearances, while making himself available for aspiring writers looking for his insights on their work.
“My mail slot’s already full of manuscripts,” he said “I’m really looking forward to meeting a lot of these writers.”
This Thursday, there will be a reception in his honour and a short reading at Vanier Hall’s Katzman lounge from 2 to 4 p.m., and on Saturday at 1 p.m. he’ll be at Mackenzie Hall speaking about the Elgin Settlement and the historical research that went into his recent novel David, which is just being released in the U.S.
On February 12, the University’s departments of English, psychology, and philosophy will have him back at Katzman lounge at 2 p.m. for a discussion about Why Not? 15 Reasons to Live. One of The Globe and Mail’s selections for its Top 100 for 2012 list, the book was written after Robertson was coming out of a deep depression and pays homeage to some of the things he believes make life worth living.
“Music, wine, dogs, solitude, friends,” he says to name a few.