Special Feature! Talking Hamilton's gritLIT festival with Shari Lapena

Hamilton occupies a unique niche in Canada - it's a small city with a vibrant arts scene and a fascinating history. One of the mainstays of the thriving literary community in Hamilton is gritLIT, the annual literary festival that gathers emerging writers, CanLit icons, and local authors together to connect with book lovers in the Golden Horseshoe.

We're thrilled to be speaking today to Shari Lapena, one of the 2017 gritLIT guest authors. She is the author of The Couple Next Door (Doubleday Canada), an internationally acclaimed thriller that has been a fixture on the bestseller lists since its publication last summer. Shari tells us about her own personal history with gritLIT, her advice on public readings, and who she is most looking forward to meeting.

You can catch Shari on Saturday, April 8 at 8:00pm with Kate Taylor at their "Anatomy of a Marriage" event. Check out the gritLIT website for a full festival event listing and to purchase tickets. 

Open Book:

gritLIT has been focused on bringing together emerging and established voices, as well as local authors. What does that inclusivity mean to you as a writer? Was that approach part of your decision to read at gritLIT?

Shari Lapena:

gritLIT first approached me to read years ago, when I was new to everything and had a book called Happiness Economics out with a small press. They are very supportive and encouraging at gritLIT; they create that kind of atmosphere. I remember meeting some wonderful writers then—Will Ferguson for one. I was happy they asked me back!

OB:

Tell us a little bit about the book you'll be reading from at gritLIT.

SL:

I’ll be reading from The Couple Next Door, which is my debut thriller. It’s about a couple who get left in the lurch by their babysitter and decide to leave their infant daughter at home, while they attend an “adults only” party next door. They bring the baby monitor with them and check on her every half hour. They all have a lot to drink and when they return home, the baby is missing. A lot of secrets are revealed through the course of the book; everyone’s a suspect.

OB:

What do you think makes for a successful public reading or literary event? What advice might you give to emerging writers?  

SL:

I just returned from a tour in Germany and there they have professional actors do the readings. Perhaps that’s just because I don’t speak German. But it was interesting seeing actors do it with so much expression—it was more like theatre. So I suppose if a writer were also a good actor that would help, but they don’t usually go together. I think a lot of people are interested in what’s behind the book, what went into the writing of it, that sort of thing. My advice to emerging writers would be to select a passage that’s really interesting and tell a bit about the writing of it. The tricky thing with readings for thriller writers is that other than the beginning, it’s hard to find a passage that will make sense without a really long set up or that won’t give too much away.

OB:

Is there another writer reading at gritLIT who you're looking forward to meeting or spending time with?

SL:

I’m looking forward to seeing Iain Reid and Rebecca Rosenblum again, both of whom have written thrilling books, and I’m interested in Kerry Clare’s new book, Mitzi Bytes. And I’m looking forward to meeting Kate Taylor, with whom I’ll be reading.

OB:

What will you be working on next?

SL:

I’ve just finished my second thriller. It’s called A Stranger in the House, and it will be out in the UK in July, and in the US and Canada in August. It’s another ‘domestic noir’.