At age 64, while Leslie A. Davidson was awaiting the release of her first published book, she heard she had won the CBC Literary Prize for Creative Non-Fiction. She was sure neither luck nor magic had anything to do with either achievement but was understandably incredulous that they were happening simultaneously.
“It was an amazing time for me,” Leslie recalls, from her home in Revelstoke. “The day on which I received the news that my submission “Adaptation” had won the CBC literary award was absolutely wild. I was surprised to the point of shock, humbled – especially after having read the other four powerful, beautiful stories that were also short-listed for the prize – and thrilled. Is there a word for ‘Is this happening; and I am so very happy?’” She laughs, remembering how startling and surreal it was to suddenly be a writing celebrity. “At almost 65, that flurry of attention and recognition was a testament to ‘it’s never too late.’”
And a testament to Leslie’s grit. The day on which she received the news about her writing award (which included $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a 10-day writing residency at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the publication of her winning story in Air Canada’s in-flight magazine Enroute), she was attending, as a delegate, the World Parkinson Congress in Portland, Oregon. Though she had been dealing with Parkinson’s for over four years, and her husband, Lincoln (now deceased), with Lewy Body dementia, her determination to give form to that voice that had lurked behind her consciousness all her life had guided her steps forward as a writer.
Feelings unearthed as a result of moving from her beloved home in Grand Forks to Revelstoke (in order to be close to the special care her husband had needed, and to their two daughters and four grandchildren) and the on-going challenges of living with the realities of their life-altering diseases, had found solace in the intricate crafting of a simple story. Her prize-winning story, “Adaptation” (see CBCbooks.ca) spun gold, the hard-rock kind, from a tale of two lives holding fast against the unpredictable changes inflicted by aging and two unforgiving illnesses.
While “Adaptation” provided a place for Leslie to tell her and her husband’s story, the question about what creative non-fiction can offer the reader prompts Leslie to reflect on her journey as a writer and the reasons she writes.
“I was never a journal writer; I have always written to communicate and share my stories,” she begins. “I come from a family of talkers and storytellers; my mother gathering us barefoot kids round her to hear stories of her childhood, and my paternal grandmother regaling us with stories of her experiences as a young Prairie town school teacher. Storytelling was a way of structuring and relaying experience that, I guess, I unconsciously absorbed because, between keeping scraps of paper with scribbles of ideas and searching for ways to express the inexpressible, I have always felt compelled to tell my story and those of the people I cherish. In telling these stories, I may be helping to articulate the reader’s story as well. Writing, to me, is an act of love.”
Some of Leslie’s stories are fashioned for a young audience. It was the publication of one of these; In the Red Canoe that coincided with the winning of the CBC Literary Prize for Creative Non-Fiction. She recounts the experience of “going to print” for the first time as, likewise, one of the most thrilling of her life.
“I have been writing poetry, stories and novels for young readers all of my life, and when the manuscript for In the Red Canoe did catch a publisher’s eye, you can imagine my excitement,” she says, adding, “especially when that publisher was Orca Books, a highly regarded publisher of children’s books with whom I had become very familiar during my former life as a kindergarten teacher and librarian.”
With the contracting of an illustrator, Laura Bifano, the images for In the Red Canoe – a tender portrait of a young girl’s first canoe trip with her grandfather – were richly realized and faithful to the memories that had inspired the story. Many stemmed from the first years in retirement when Leslie and her husband would load the canoe in their car and head out to the Chilcotin to camp.
“The longing for grandchildren was particularly intense at that time,” she shares, “and as we quietly paddled and noodled along the shore, I imagined their grandfather – who was sitting behind me in the canoe – opening magical worlds for them as he pointed out the natural wonders of our wilderness lakes. Each image in the book was something I had seen or had felt during those precious times.”
Retirement has brought that other gift – the gift of time – that allows Leslie to dwell awhile with the thoughts, experiences and ideas that have shaped her writing consciousness.
“It is so wonderful to be in that quiet space now, where, after a series of unforeseeable transitions, the stories that have been stalking me all my life are finally getting written down and shared,” she says. “I am currently chipping away at a few children’s stories and gathering up ideas and previous bits of writing for a linear memoir. What thrills me is when I look at the clock and it’s 1:00 a.m. and I’m still writing!”
“At 65, I am a beginning writer,” she says proudly, “fulfilling a dream happily delayed by other passions: a student of literature, a “gotta-write-a-word-poem-for-them” teacher, a mom, a traveller, a nature lover, a reader, a friend and a partner. Not for a moment do I regret waiting for this chance to write. I feel so blessed that what I find myself doing now has also found a readership.”
Leslie marvels at how, with writing, she is always getting to a better place than where she began. We can only hope that her courage, zeal for writing and ever-growing fan-club emboldens her continued efforts towards “better places” for author and readers alike.
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