‘Write generously’: finalist Anna Knox on long-haul writing and opportunities at Wasafiri
New Zealand writer Anna Delany (Knox) was a finalist in First Pages Prize 2018. We caught up with her about her novel, her role as Editor at Large, and focus on emerging writers.
FPP: Anna, your historical fiction Islanders placed 5th in the inaugural First Pages Prize in 2018. How has your novel evolved since then?
I entered the First Pages Prize in what I jokingly refer to as my ‘year of submission’ – a year where I submitted work left, right and centre. Having my half-drafted novel place in the First Pages Prize was the highlight of that year. I had started the novel in 2010 as part of my MA at UEA, but only really returned to it after an intense first few years with my (then) young daughters—I didn’t juggle motherhood and writing well initially. Though part of me urgently believed in the story, I needed motivation to shape it into something fully formed. Placing in the FPP helped enormously to validate what I was doing and encouraged me to persevere.
Since then, I have persevered, and the novel has become something almost fully formed. It’s not quite there yet, but thanks to FPP I have a complete draft. It’s an historical novel narrated by the ghost of a stoker who jumps ship illegally in New Zealand in 1905, narrowly avoiding a boiler explosion that claims the rest of his crew. His struggle to build a life in his adopted country is in part an examination of contemporary Pākehā (white/Anglo) identity through the legacy of our ancestors. It’s my attempt at whakapapa, I think. It is very much about the relationship to the whenua (land) of both England and New Zealand, the latter of which in many ways still feels foreign to me – or, at least, not mine to be buried in and return to the way it is for many Māori. Despite a lot of doubt and struggle, I am very glad I kept going with the novel because it has helped me figure out so much about myself as a human being, and about our present moment in the context of the past and future, which for me is a big part of what writing, or any art form, is about. It also taught me to write; to shape and control my natural ability. I regard it in part as an apprenticeship.
FPP: You've recently joined Wasafiri as Editor at Large, tell us more.
I am so excited to be part of Wasafiri. It is a place, a forum, a journal, a writing and intellectual space which desires and strives to be truly inclusive – of every adult on the planet (should they want to be included) regardless of, well, all the things that can stop a person belonging; age, gender, religion, political views, nationality, race, and many other things that make us uniquely who we are. Wasafiri’s dream is reflected in the incredibly rich stratum of work that is published by the magazine, and on the website. It’s an incredibly ambitious dream and one I am fully committed to supporting. I’m lucky to have lived in Saudi Arabia, Finland and the US and to know first-hand how powerful getting close to walking in someone else’s shoes is in terms of fortifying a truly open and tolerant regard for greater humanity. Big words, but they’re meaningful. Reading is a close second to (and sometimes better than) first-hand experience, and so sharing writing from many places and perspectives really is powerful and wonderful.
My role as Editor At Large for Wasafiri is pretty interesting. I get to talk with lots of literary people and organisations in New Zealand about Wasafiri while scouting for emerging and established writers whose work would land beautifully on its pages. (Submit, submit!) I also get to work alongside Editors at Large from Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia and I am loving the chance to learn about what is happening with, and connect to, the literary worlds of those locations.
A platform like Wasafiri is an amazing opportunity for connecting our readers and writers to the wider literary landscape.
FPP: What's on your horizon in the next year to lift up emerging writers?
My focus is very much on writers in Aotearoa and the surrounding Pacific and in encouraging them to submit their work on and beyond our shores.
The 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – which closes May 31; get your entries in! – is a fantastic chance for emerging writers everywhere, and there are three categories: fiction, poetry and life writing, so there’s something for everyone.
My advice to emerging writers is to look further afield and find not only local but also international opportunities as well as communities in which to anchor your work. The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is a great place to start as is the First Pages Prize for next year’s award.
FPP: What are your top tips for writers to keep momentum and energy going through a long project?
If I can speak to anything, it’s this! I am the kind of person who likes to do a job well, and fast. So having a novel that took ten years to draft let alone publish is one of the great ‘learning experiences’ of my life. Let me say this: I am very happy I have let the novel grow with me, and—despite many people’s encouragements to just ‘do it’ or otherwise ‘move on’—I’m glad I haven’t done either. Taking time with it has been a blessing. I’m still unsure if it will ever be ready for publication but the interesting thing is, that almost doesn’t worry me now. What matters is what I have learned, and am still learning, in the process, and the wonderful privilege it has been to sit with it, day after day, and find the edges and contours of its world, to know it, to know its characters and to see what they have done and will do with themselves. And to learn how to write. God, that is so fantastic! It gives me shivers. I would rather that, rather be able to do that, than have the outcome published. It is absolutely worth all the time and thought I have given it. And it has meant that starting my second novel has been far less intimidating. I’m writing it because I love the process.
FPP: What are your next steps with Islanders?
I’m really committed to my work with Wasafiri this year, so my own writing won’t get much attention. Islanders also needs a little breathing time again. In an intense burst post the New Zealand lockdown, I pushed it forward a lot, and now need to let it rest. I am writing some poetry though – which is interesting, and have started another novel with a much narrower scope.
I’ve also just started a full-time job with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, as Communications Manager, and the crossover with my own writing in that role is exciting, if at times a little spooky. The organisation is very concerned with all New Zealand heritage, not just colonial (as it used to be) and for me this is an exciting shift and very much in cahoots with what I want to explore in my own writing – how the past is always present and with us, all our ghosts, our ancestors, our histories, shaping who we are.
I do have an idea of what to do next with Islanders though. And it *might* be the thread that pulls it all together. It might also have to wait a year or so.
FPP: What's your personal guiding light for 2021 and writing in this post-COVID world?
Live generously, write generously. There’s a great line in Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life which I often think about. ‘One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hold what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give all, give it now.’ I want to write that way, and live that way.
FPP: Thank you, Anna, your first pages of Islanders are still vivid in my mind from reading it four prize cycles ago. Follow Anna’s journey here https://annaknox.com/.
Readers: there is still time to enter the 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. Find all of the details here https://www.wasafiri.org/new-writing-prize/. The 2021 FPP longlist has just been released here; the shortlist will be announced May 14. Stay tuned and happy writing.