Episode 8 | Chelene Knight

Parallel Careers

“When I think about teachers as gatekeepers, I think deeply about privilege and what our access to information and knowledge looks like. I recall a lot of the opportunities that have been offered to me came from a teacher just paying attention. And so when I think of gatekeeping at that smaller scale, it's also the teacher needing to pay attention to that and to open the door and say, 'Hey, you. You can come into the space. It's totally fine.’”

In this episode, Chelene Knight discusses creating new containers for learning and how she’s shaping CanLit as a writer, editor, and agent.

• 0:41 | Her focus on creative sustainability through industry transparency, wellness and care, and process-building at The Forever Writers Club through Breathing Space Creative.
• 4:33 | Writing in hybrid forms and the development of Dear Current Occupant
• 8:00 | Becoming a literary agent and creating ethical boundaries
• 11:35 | Her exercise “Be the Observer” and how it can help overcome writer’s block
• 13:22 | Bringing the community of Hogan’s Alley to life on the page in her forthcoming novel Junie

Guest Bio:

Chelene Knight is the author of Braided Skin and the memoir Dear Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award, and long-listed for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Her essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Walrus, and the Toronto Star. Her work is anthologized in Making Room, Love Me True, Sustenance, The Summer Book, and Black Writers Matter, winner of the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Award.

Knight was the previous managing editor at Room magazine and the previous festival director for the Growing Room Festival in Vancouver. She is now CEO of her own literary studio, Breathing Space Creative and she works as an associate literary agent with Transatlantic Agency. Chelene teaches part-time at the University of Toronto.

About the Podcast:

Parallel Careers is a monthly podcast about the dual lives of writers who teach. Few writers make their living from publication alone; many fill the gaps with teaching in both academic and community settings. Much of the work is precarious, and there are few opportunities for professional development.

Parallel Careers features writers with diverse practices and points of view—writers who are at the top of their game in both craft and pedagogy. Tune in to hear the big ideas and practical tips they take into their classrooms. Take their insights into your own class or craft.

Credits:

Parallel Careers is produced by Claire Tacon, in partnership with The New Quarterly Magazine. Erin MacIndoe Sproule is our Technical Producer and Story Editor. Music composed by Amadeo Ventura. Financial and in-kind support provided by the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, St. Jerome’s University, and the Government of Canada.

Access more free writing and teaching tips at:

tnq.ca/parallel