1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first book familiarized me with a feeling that, I suspect, is integral to becoming a writer. I was living in South Africa, and I allowed someone to convince me that unless I was making money off my writing, I wasn’t a real writer. So I put together a collection of short stories, which I self-published. And though that process taught me a great deal, it also felt rushed, as though I had introduced something into the world before it was ready. They say you only get one chance at a first impression, and I sort of feel like I botched mine. I stood up, grabbed the mic, and riffed well before I deserved those privileges.
Goalie felt different. I finished that collection in 2022 and began sending it out. It was accepted for publication in 2023 but wasn’t published until 2025. During that time, I worked with a great editor – shoutout to Elana Wolff – and together, we worked through every poem, every line, every word to make sure it served its purpose. Learning that I had to wait three years until my book would hit the shelves felt like agony, but looking back now, I’m incredibly grateful for that time. Between the shotgun blast that was my first book and the glacier melt that was my second, I much prefer the latter. It turns out good things do, in fact, take time.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I dabble in all three, but I feel like my temperament is best suited to poetry. Though I love crafting sentences, I don’t quite have the patience required for long works of fiction or nonfiction. In my opinion, a poem feels more immediate and can capture a fleeting mood, a feeling, or emotion far more effectively than a drawn-out story. I do hope to write many great stories in my career – both true and fictive – but for that quick-hitting, crack-pipe release, I will always choose poetry.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
It depends. I know that’s not a sexy answer, but when it comes to poetry, some poems I nail on the first or second shot, others take weeks, months, sometimes years to complete. I have drafts saved on my computer that are five or six years old, which I still very much believe in – though maybe I don’t yet have the words or the wisdom to finish them. Yet. Always “yet.”
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
When I’m at my best, I write from all aspects of my life. Sometimes those areas coalesce and begin to form a theme, at which point I start considering a book. I find that if I write with the goal of filling a book, the poems turn out a bit too formulaic and forced.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
No, I’m too shy. I prefer a reader’s attention over the attention of a large room.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I don’t really begin with theory, but I’m aware my work will inevitably start circling a set of questions – like earth orbiting the sun. I’m interested in identity. How we figure out who we are in a world full of expectations and inherited ideas about masculinity and success.
In Goalie, a lot of that came through environment. Having lived and played abroad, I’ve seen how locker rooms, teams, cities, and countries shape what feels possible or permissible, especially for men. I’m often asking how much of who we are is chosen and how much is trained into us.
I also keep returning to questions of self-actualization and adversity – whether strength and introspection can coexist, and what it looks like embracing our true selves when deviation from the norm isn’t always rewarded.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Put this beautiful life into words. Make art. Paint.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Again, unsexy, but both. It can be disheartening to have someone discard or dismiss a line or a word you thought was literary dynamite, but there was also typically a method behind the madness. I was fortunate to work with a great editor while polishing Goalie, and many of Elana’s notes helped clarify lines I’d glossed over. I suppose there are few greater gifts to the young writer than a good editor.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
I’ll give you two, both of which have made an impact on me.
The first is trite but valid: read. A writer who isn’t also an avid reader has a difficult road ahead of them. Reading, to me, is practice. And having spent the majority of my life playing sports, I know just how critical practice is when it comes to development.
The second is to treat the creative process as a job. I’m aware many people might disagree with me – many people, in fact, have – but for me, writing is work. I don’t wait until the mood or the moment feels right to craft sentences. I force myself to sit down and clock in, much the same way I would any other job. That single act, of sitting down to write, has paid more dividends than all of my “epiphanies” combined.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I like to write first thing in the morning, though with work and sports, I can’t always afford to do so. That being said, there are very few days in the year where I go to bed not having written anything at all. I seek out moments in the day where I can block off a chunk of time in which I write. I’m not too picky as to what I write or for how long, just so long as my keys clack.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Exercise. Music. Travel.
Exercise is the quick fix, the daily dose. It gets the blood and the creative juices flowing. I’ll go for a run or hit the gym, and when I come back, I’m almost always in a better mental state.
Music is soul food, and writing, as you know, requires soul.
Travel is probably the most obscure point on this list, and I don’t necessarily mean I jet off to Quito when I get stuck. But for me, changing my setting has always been fruitful. New sights, new sounds, new smells – a writer could do a lot worse.
12 - What was your last Hallowe'en costume?
This year, Halloween coincided with Game 6 of the World Series. I dressed up as Harry Potter – cloak, wand, scar, everything – and went to meet some buddies at a bar to watch the game. I opened the door to a sea of Blue Jays jerseys. There were about three hundred people in the bar, and no one else was wearing a costume. In the end, I saw two other people in costumes that night. A witch, and another Harry Potter. Oh, and the Jays lost.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I find inspiration in art as a concept. Goalie wasn’t necessarily influenced by a specific song or a captivating vista, but the desire to create something of my own was very much at the forefront, shaped by the music I listen to and the art I appreciate.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Poetry: Selina Boan, Kayla Czaga, Alden Nowlan, Lynn Crosbie, Ellie Sawatzky.
Fiction: Ocean Vuong, Mary Lawson, Min Jin Lee, Barbara Kingsolver, Junot Diaz.
Nonfiction: Bill Bryson, James Baldwin, David Sedaris, Sloane Crosley, Jon Krakauer.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I’d like to finish the novel I’m working on and find a home for my collection of essays.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I’m pretty blessed to say that I have three jobs, all of which I love a great deal. I play American football professionally overseas, I’m the Marketing Manager for a Canadian distillery in Perth, Ontario, and I write.
There’s a song by Luke Combs that starts, “Someone asked me once in an interview…what would you do if you weren’t doin’ this?” He goes on to say that he’d be “singin’ them same damn songs like I am now…I’d still be doin’ this if I wasn’t doin’ this.”
That song really resonates with me. I feel like I’m following the right path, and that I’d follow it regardless of the circumstances.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I’d love to be a country music star, but I have no stage presence or musical talent so…this.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
The last great book I read was A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry – a $6.99 pickup at Value Village. The last great film I watched was Rush.
19 - What are you currently working on?
I’ve got a novel in the works, a book of poetry, and an essay collection all competing for my attention. I’ve also got a Q4 Report to run and a knee to rehab. Busy man.
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