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The Book of York
Alissa York interviewed by Christine Fischer Guy (Audio)

Alissa York’s Effigy, shortlisted for the 2007 Scotia Bank Giller Prize, is a tale of the early Mormon people, set in Utah in and around September 11, 1857, the date of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, one of the bloodiest religious episodes on American soil. (Even up against heavy weight established writers like Ondaatje, Vassanji and Hay, Effigy is still Bookninja's top pick for this year’s Giller.)

Bookninja's own Christine Fischer Guy interviews York in Toronto, asking her about the coincidence of historic dates, the writing of historical novels, how research can build story and character, how characters come to be, and why one bothers to write historical novels at all.

Alissa York Interview
(27:54) (6.5mb)
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Alissa York is an acclaimed novelist and short story writer whose bestselling novels, Effigy (Random House Canada, 2007) and Mercy (Random House Canada, 2003), have sold internationally. Her award-winning short fiction has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, and in the collection, Any Given Power (Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 1999). York has lived all over Canada and now makes her home in Toronto with her husband, filmmaker Clive Holden. She is currently at work on a new novel.

Christine Fischer Guy is a Toronto writer whose most recent short story was published in Descant 136. She has another forthcoming for Descant in the spring.

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