20th Anniversary Spotlight: Shannon Bramer
Our 20th-anniversary celebrations wrap up today with one final Author Spotlight interview. Today, we’re shining a light on Shannon Bramer. We have had the pleasure of working with Shannon as a playwright, as well as a poet. In 2017 we published her poetry collection Precious Energy, and in 2020 we published her three-play-volume Trapsongs. Shannon is one of our Co-Publishers Hazel and Jay’s oldest friends in the literary scene, having met during University many moons ago, and it’s been a joy to grow alongside her as members of this community.
In our Q&A with Shannon, she shares what it means to be part of the Book*hug author family, and highlights multiple titles by fellow Book*hug author Marianne Apostolides that have left a lasting impression on her. Happy reading!
B*: What does being part of the Book*hug Press author family mean to you? Please share an anecdote, reflection, or backstory about your publishing experience?
I like that you use the word family in this question because that is how I have certainly felt over the years; I have known Jay and Hazel since our university days (more than 25 years!) and they published some of the first poems I ever submitted to magazines —an old favourite being “Shy Birds”—a poem about being afraid to pee at a party. I am also a playwright and Jay and Hazel have attended performances of several of my plays, and were even gutsy enough to publish a three volume collection in 2020 —when the entire theatre world went dark and my anxiety as a writer was at an all-time high. I am so grateful to Book*hug Press; I love how innovative they are, how beautiful the books look, how careful and thoughtful they are about pairing their writers with editors and finally —how they sometimes take a chance on a manuscript that might be a little rough around the edges because a person like me has submitted work too early(!). They see the sparks in poems; they have helped me turn very ferocious little fires of poems and plays into beautiful, funny, weird, brave books.
B*: Can you share another title or two from the Book*hug Press catalogue that has left a lasting impression on you as a reader? Tell us about a book that has been a touchstone for you, one that you found meaningful, interesting, or simply loved.
There are so many books that I’ve loved over the years and so many excellent authors; I Can’t Get You Out of My Mind, a novel by Marianne Apostolides, is the first book that comes to mind because I love all of her books and I think she is one of Canada’s most brilliant authors. Her work is so dexterous, so honest, so original —it blows my mind. Her non-fiction work is also magical; Deep Salt Water, a memoir about love, abortion, time and loss —I could not put that book down. It swallowed me. I loved the hybrid essay/poem form of it. Sophrosyne will haunt you for years if you read it. Everyone should read Marianne.
