Holly Hogan and Michael Crummey were on tour for part of last year and shared the stage on a joint reading tour. (Mark Cumby)
Holly Hogan and Michael Crummey are both authors whose books have been celebrated in the last year – they are both nominated for the BMO Winterset Award, which will be presented on Thursday – and they are also life partners.
The couple has had quite a year, going on a joint book tour across Canada and seeing the couple’s respective works gain attention far from their home in St. John’s.
Crummey, author of books such as River thieves, Sweetland And The Innocentshas been a driving force in Canadian publishing for several decades and is known for his immersive fictional exploration of the cultural and historical depths of Newfoundland. His latest novel, TThe Adversaryreturns to these themes, this time with a Cain versus Abel atmosphere.
In contrast, Hogan, a seabird biologist, is now in the literary spotlight with her husband. Her first book, Message in a bottle: Ocean reports from a seabird biologistwas nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Awards in the nonfiction category.
Bringing together nature, science and adventure, Hogan sheds light on our plastic-dependent lifestyle, reports on its devastating impact on the marine environment – and highlights global efforts to combat it.
Both books – as well as Hollow bambooby St. John’s author William Ping – are nominated for the Winterset Award, which will be presented on Thursday at Government House in St. John’s. The annual literary award was established by the late Toronto journalist Richard Gwyn to honour his wife, writer Sandra Gwyn, and her roots in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Michael Crummey’s latest novel is called “The Adversary” and takes up familiar themes about Newfoundland and family ties. (Mark Cumby)
Crummey, who describes himself as “Holly Hogan’s husband,” and Hogan recently sat down with me to talk about their books, their writing and their life together.
Although the two authors are married, they form a somewhat mismatched literary pair. For example, Crummey focuses on the past, while Hogan’s gaze is directed towards the future.
In addition, they not only explore different genres and audiences, but also have two different writing processes.
Hogan recalled how she began the “really long project” of writing a manuscript and was advised to write 500 words a day.
“Michael doesn’t pay attention to it, but for him it’s a minimum,” she said. “For me it was a maximum, so I had my 500-word dance every day.”
Hogan, who describes her experiences and research in her book, discovered her strengths during the further writing process.
“I was loudly proclaiming all my little, tiny successes while Michael disappeared into his office and reappeared three months later with a draft of a book. It’s really annoying,” she said, smiling.
A private process – until it is no longer
Crummey, on the other hand, would like to be more cautious about his approach.
“I don’t like talking about it because I don’t know what it is. … So for me, it’s putting the words on paper to figure it out. For Holly, on the other hand, figuring it out was mostly talking about it, throwing ideas around and saying, ‘So what about this?'” he said.
“I feel like it’s really, really private – until it’s not,” he said. “I really don’t want anyone else digging around in my head, you know, until I feel like it’s ready to dig around in.”
Holly Hogan’s first book is Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist. (Mark Cumby)
However, they rely on each other’s insights into what they want to write.
Hogan has read all 13 of Crummey’s books, while Crummey has probably read Hogan’s book about 13 times.
LISTEN | Holly Hogan discusses her first book with CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter:
Crummey is also sure who will see his future manuscripts first.
“Holly is one of my first readers and for some reason she assumed I should be one of her readers,” he said.
“I did.”
As a veteran of the Canadian literary scene, he was thrilled to see Hogan find her voice on paper.
“When she got the contract, I said to her, ‘I’m excited and this is going to be a really important book.’ And I knew it was going to be a really good book because she just has such a good feel for words and she knows the subject inside and out.”
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