"Small Reckonings is my debut novel, so my first big piece of fiction. It came out in 2020. My next project is Inheriting Violet, a sequel that picks up where the first novel left off." - Author Karin Melberg Schwier
Check out RITC's interview with
Karin Melberg Schwier, author of "Small Reckonings," an award winning book.
Writer Alice Kuipers calls this book “a stunning exploration of love, disability, family, and loss.” Novelist Anne Simpson says it is a “graceful, poignant debut novel,” a story told with “compelling power.” It won the 2019 John V. Hicks Award for Fiction; judges Elisabeth de Mariaffi and Rabindranath Maharaj as an “intricately-told, historical novel (with) modern connotations broaching our current conversation around trauma, consent, and sexual assault… Scenes linger, and resonate in the mind.”
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Interview:
RITC: What inspired you to write this book?
Author: The story literally walked into my office when I worked in communications for an advocacy organization. We supported people with disabilities and Hank, this retired farmer, was the executor of his friend’s estate. When the farmer friend died, he asked Hank to take care of his daughter who had Down syndrome. Years later when the daughter died, Hank was to donate the balance to our organization. He asked if I’d like to hear the story about his friend and the daughter. I remember about 15 minutes in, I thought, I’ve got to write this story. With Hank’s permission, I fictionalized much of it. But there are many true elements in the novel, not only about what happened to Violet but I was able to weave in a lot of truths from my own farm childhood. I’ve since completed a sequel and that is based on new true details that I didn’t know about when I was writing the first novel.
RITC: What messages or themes do you hope readers take away from your book?
Author: That no one is purely good or purely evil. That people with disabilities in a novel, no matter in what era, can be full, complete and complex characters and not merely stereotypes.
RITC: What other books have you written or what's your next writing project?
Author: I’ve written several non-fiction books, most have to do with disability. There were particular issues about disability and people’s experiences that I had an interest in, mostly because of our son Jim who has a disability, and I had questions about how we could create a better life for him. Those questions grew into books and I was lucky enough to attract publishers before or after I finished each project. I’ve also written and illustrated a couple of children’s books to help kids understand disability a bit better.
Small Reckonings is my debut novel, so my first big piece of fiction. It came out in 2020. My next project is Inheriting Violet, a sequel that picks up where the first novel left off. In the spring of 2021, Hank came to visit me and I asked him to tell me that original story again so I could record it. He was about ten minutes in and dropped a bombshell bit of detail that he hadn’t told me the first time. I shrieked and he said ‘oh sure, that’s what we all thought happened.” Had I known, the first novel wouldn’t have been written as it was. For everyone who has asked what happened to the characters in Small Reckonings, the sequel offers a big twist. My other current jobs include being the editor of Saskatoon HOME magazine, a quarterly, and I also write articles for each issue. It’s a home decor, renovation and historical features magazine. I also write for a provincial quarterly magazine, Prairies North, which features articles about interesting locations and experiences throughout Saskatchewan.
RITC: What advice would you give to new writers?
Author: Write a lot. Read a lot. Read in the genre you like to write in, but expand that to other types of fiction (or non-fiction). When you don’t feel like writing on your current project, whatever that might be, write something else. Write a long letter. Keep a journal. Create some writing prompts for yourself and expand on those. Writing is like working out; just keep at it. Sometimes you don’t feel like it, but do it anyway! Just have fun when you write. When it’s working, there is no greater joy than being able to tell a story well.
RITC: Who's your favorite writer and outside of your book, what other book would you recommend? and why?
Author: I really can’t pick a single author as a favourite. I like include Bonnie Burnard, Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, Guy Vanderhaeghe. I recently read August Into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe, which was phenomenal. One of my favourite authors and I loved his earlier novel, Homesick. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel made my head hurt in a good way. It’s brilliant. Not too long ago I read Dianne Warren’s The Diamond House. It was great (I was thrilled to be shortlisted for the Glengarry Book Award when she won for that book in 2021. Just to be in her company was a big high). It’s good to read a variety of stuff, not only for enjoyment but I think it helps you as a writer. I often find that I will make myself read a novel through to the end, even if I’m not really taken by it (or the genre) at the start. I somehow feel I owe it to the author to do that. I’ve just started The Observer by Marina Endicott. I’ve known Marina for years, and always enjoy her work. If Sylvie Had Nine Lives is a complex collection of interwoven stories by Leona Theis, and I really liked that. I have a stack of a few others waiting on my bedside table. I look at the books mentioned above and see that Guy, Yann, Leona and Marina are all Saskatoon neighbours, and Dianne lives in Regina. Something about Saskatchewan! I’ve also just finished All Things Consoled, a creative non-fiction work by Elizabeth Hay. It was very good. My father, almost 97, has dementia. My mom, 93, is still looking after him a great deal so there was so much that resonated in Hay’s book. I wrote her a fan letter and got a lovely note in return. I like a story that sticks with you, something you keep turning over in your mind, wondering about, thinking about the characters, and searching for the meaning the book has in your own life.
The author would like to share the following resource for writers/book enthusiasts:
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