Where there are monsters

KIERAN ANDREW KHAN

Breanne Mc Ivor has always loved words and writing since she could remember. “My mother kept all these copybooks full of stories that I would write as a child. I would follow her around the house while reading stories to her, so I’ve always had a story that I was ready and willing to share,” she recalled.

Now, the Cambridge-educated writer, who’s been shortlisted for several writing prizes, has returned home to tell new stories – our stories, to the world.

On May 5 at the Bocas Lit Fest, Mc Ivor will join the growing list of TT authors who are redefining Caribbean literature with the launch of her book Where There Are Monsters. This collection of short stories features both the modern and contemporary sides of the country, but also pays homage to the more traditional myths – particularly those passed on through the generations in our shared stories of folklore.

Readers can easily then find themselves immersed in short-form stories with topics and themes that range from economic and cultural divisions between the rich and the poor, or the rising tide of drug trafficking to ones that also involve the midnight robber or loup-garou.

“I was always drawn to characters that were a little darker in their nature,” Mc Ivor pointed out. “That’s perhaps the central theme that runs through all the stories; but not all the monsters are outright monsters. The stories range from those monsters in greater and lesser forms, with the first half of the book called Where There Are Monsters and the second called Where We Are Monsters. So while readers may expect that it’s more folklore-based, it really is a mix of those we grew up with and those we have come to know – the humans who are themselves monstrous.”

While Mc Ivor has been published before in other collections and anthologies, it was a chance suggestion that she take a look at the body of her work that led to her assembling the collection.

“I always knew that I wanted to be a writer – even my secondary-school yearbook says that’s what I wanted to do. This was reinforced especially after I switched from science subjects to history and literature with that very intention in mind. I didn’t think outright that I would be able to get into Cambridge. However, I applied after talking to friends of my parents who went to Cambridge and loved it – and after I placed first in the Caribbean in my subjects and won an Open Scholarship I was able to do just that.”

Cambridge was the right environment to nurture her art form and self-expression as Mc Ivor soon joined the Girton Poetry Group and began entering competitions with some of her short stories. “The first three competitions that I decided to enter, I got shortlisted. I was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Writing Prize, the Glimmer Train Fiction Open and The Fish One-Page Prize. I do think that being shortlisted so soon into my writing career did give me a false impression of writing competitions – making them seem easier than they really are. After many rejections, I know that they’re not.

"But I do have the support of a small group of writer friends called the People’s Republic of Writing (PROW) and though there’s just a few of us, we’re able to read each others’ work, find new angles and fill in things that the writer may not see, so it adds tremendous value to have that support to call on,” she advised.

Mc Ivor also went right on to complete her masters at the University of Edinburgh before returning home, where she now works with AmCham TT after a stint as a teacher. She also writes as a freelancer in addition to her own creative writing work. Since then she’s also been selected for the Caribbean Writer’s David Hough Literary Prize and just last year she was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Despite having to balance such a schedule of competing demands, she admits that she’s not a planner in general, or when it comes to her stories either – something that super-novelist Stephen King is also famous for.

“Many of my stories start with a single idea – a moment. I have friends who write and they have pages of characters and notebooks full of plans and sketches and ideas, but my way is more organic, in a sense. Once I am able to get to a place that I won’t be distracted too much – like a coffee shop, rather than being at home – then I can take that single idea and start opening it up a bit more. The first draft is very often for me a messy combination of words, where I’m simply trying to get the idea down on paper,” she explained. “Then I get to the second and third drafts and share it with my peers and the People’s Republic of Writing and I’m able to bring the final idea to completion.”

Returning home has also been a boon for her inspiration. “Being an adult here has allowed me to discover more of home than I had before I left at just 18 to study. Now 30, she notes that there is much more fertile ground in the publishing and writing spaces locally.

“There’s such a good movement and force in the arts happening here now – with so many people telling so many different stories – their stories, our stories. And I think that’s very important.”

In her own time back at home, she’s an avid sports fan – particularly of football and of her favourite team, Arsenal. “I love lots of sports – and I really love yoga too. When I’m not writing or working I would generally be getting together with my friends, doing what Trinis do best – liming and playing all fours,” she said.

While it may be thousands of miles away from Cambridge and Edinburgh. where she had the chance to flourish as a writer, it has allowed her a different immersion and experience and that will surely bring forth new stories for one of the bold new voices in Caribbean literature.