CCL, no. 82, Summer 1996

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An Interview with Michael Bedard / Marie C. Davis

Michael Bedard, winner of the Governor General's Award for Redwork (1992), and one of Canada's most gifted writers for young people, discusses in this interview the influences of Blake, Boehme, Brontë, Dickinson, and Flaubert on his craft and vision. Bedard's kinship with the Romantic poets is clear: he tends to use organic metaphors to describe the creative process and, like Blake, he speaks not of "good and evil," but of imagination versus restriction, light versus darkness, the unfolding flower versus the restrictive funnel. Bedard also discusses details of his craft — his use of landscape and architectural space and broader issues such as his generic slipperiness (he mixes realism with fantasy, mystery, and horror).

Lauréat du Prix du gouverneur général pour son roman Redwork en 1992, Michael Bedard discute de l'importance de l'influence de Blake, Bshme, Brontë, Dickinson et Flaubert sur son œuvre. Son affinité avec le poètes romantiques est évidente: il tend à recourir à des métaphores organiques pour décrire le processus créateur et, tout comme Blake, parle non pas "du bien et du mal" mais de l'opposition entre l'imagination et la restriction, la lumière et l'obscurité, la fleur qui s'épanouit et l'entonnoir qui engloutit.

This page last updated 1 October 2003.