Rachel Rose’s fiction debut, The Octopus Has Three Hearts, was published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2021, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is the author of four collections of poetry, including Marry & Burn, which received a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award. Her memoir, The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World’s K9 Cops, was shortlisted for the 2018 Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction crime book. A former fellow at The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, she was Poet Laureate of Vancouver from 2014-2017. She is also a ghostwriter, an editor, a woods walker and a sea swimmer.
What is the most valuable insight or skill that your VMI writers have learned from you?
To separate and protect the creative self from the fraught realities of publishing; to nurture creative joy and community while building endurance and discipline.
What do you gain from the mentoring process?
Many gifts: I gain new ways of seeing, of thinking, of approaching creative challenges; I gain opportunities to collaborate with writers who in turn teach me, and I am forced to clarify my own techniques.
What will VMI participants gain from the program?
The opportunity to work with someone who is enthusiastic about their specific project and invested in their success.
What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you have received?
I follow writing advice like I follow recipes in cookbooks. I read the recipe, and study how the chef advises preparing and combining the ingredients, but almost immediately I am improvising and experimenting. That said, there is much to be gleaned from learning what others do and how they do it, whether taking courses, reading books, or talking to other writers. Much of it has merit; none of it gets the writing done for you.
What books do you recommend VMI participants read for additional advice?
I would tailor that to each applicant, depending on their project. I love matching emerging writers with the right books at the right time, but there is no one size fits all.
What are you currently working on?
A novel.
What do you enjoy most about being a VMI mentor?
The opportunity to work with one individual on a project about which we are both enthusiastic.
What do you wish you knew when writing your first manuscript that you know now?
Becoming a writer requires such a long apprenticeship, and the path is so uncertain, that good company is important. A community (even of one or two other trusted writers) is sustaining and essential.