Startling illumination

Carol Shields knew a lot about writing. The late author won both the American Pulitzer Prize as well as the Governor General’s Award for Literary Merit here in Canada, both for the same book: The Stone Diaries. It’s the only book that achieved such acclaim.

Before she passed, Shields also wrote books of poetry and short stories plus other fine novels such as The Republic of Love and Larry’s Party. She was also able to pass along her love of literature and many lessons on writing to her eldest daughter Anne Giardini, who in turn has become a notable figure in Canada’s literary scene with The Sad Truth about Happiness and Advice for Italian Boys.

Giardini figured that it was about time that she and her son Nicholas took Shields’ lessons and shared them with the world.

“There was always writing going on in the house,” she recalled. “I could see how she went about each project, thinking of ideas and formulating them into a full book. It was a wonderful example to have. It occurred to Nicholas and I that we had the benefit of that but not everybody else did. It might be wonderful to bring out what she had to say about writing and make it more widely available.

The result is Startle & Illuminate: Carol Shields on Writing, the book of Carol Shields’ own words as edited by Anne and Nicholas Giardini, just published last month. Anne said that she has talked to many groups about writing. This is the first time that she is offering her mother’s advice and it is garnering much notice.

She also added that there are many hundreds of examples of books for writers that are helpful to them in honing their craft – she lists Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Stephen King’s On Writing as examples – but very few of them are from this country.

“The other great books on writing are American, and a couple of them are British. This book really speaks to Canadians.”

Nicholas Giardini remembers getting the same kind of lessons passed down to him from Anne.

“I don’t think that everyone in the family was interested but my brother and I were. She would give us a little more insight while she was working on her first two novels. We were both still pretty young by that point.”

Even now that he lives on his own, Mom still sends him pages from chapters to keep him connected to what she’s working on. He admits that he isn’t a writer himself but took on this project mostly behind the scenes with research to flesh out the lessons and solidify the ‘family effort’ quality to the book.

As far as Anne is concerned, her mother’s advice is simply too valuable to keep to themselves. She was known as a constant support to her other author friends. To her, Startle and Illuminate is perhaps the best way of paying tribute to Mom by carrying on her legacy.

“The book is useful to anyone wanting to sharpen their own writing or start writing. People say that my mother’s writing advice is great! People want to be better communicators. They want to be better writers. They want to express… and tell their stories. Anything that can help them do that is a good thing.”