20 Questions is a Q&A interview series with authors, musicians, and everyone in between, celebrating experiences both shared and individual in the messy game of being human.
“I believe storytelling fulfills a human need we have for narrative. Haven’t we been telling each other stories since forever? It’s a way of shaping what we love, what we don’t understand, what frightens us. Through stories we learn to empathize.” Canadian author Alice Zorn has published three novels of literary fiction: Arrythmia, Five Roses, and Colours in Her Hands, the latter of which was published this fall. She is also the author of the short story collection Ruins & Relics, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Quebec Writers’ Federation First Book Award.
Five Roses was a finalist in the 2017 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award, and elsewhere, she has twice placed first in Prairie Fire magazine’s fiction contest and received the Manitoba Magazine Award for Fiction. Alice is a dear friend of mine, and she joins me for this edition of 20 Questions to discuss her latest novel and how everything is relative when it comes to words like “favorite” and “always.”
What is the earliest memory you have of wanting to be a writer?
I didn’t grow up in an environment where people became artists or writers. We were encouraged to be practical and plan for jobs with steady incomes. I marvelled when I met people who said they wanted to be actors or musicians or to write a novel. Then, in my twenties, I had a few kick-in-the-gut life and death experiences. I understood that life was short and I was the only one who could live mine — and that I wanted to write.
Which of your books was the hardest to write?
Five Roses.
Favorite book of all-time?
I’m allergic to the word “favorite.” However, a book that delighted me when I read it as a child and that I’ve returned to throughout my life is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
What’s one vice you wish you could give up?
Complaining.
One movie that will always make you cry?
“Always” is another problematic word. A film that moves me deeply because of the story and the superb acting by Benedict Cumberbatch is The Imitation Game.
What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
Finding the title.
The best book you’ve read in the last year?
Ce que je sais de toi by Éric Chacour, which has been translated into English as What I Know About You.
The protagonist of your latest novel Colours in Her Hands is Mina, a woman with Down Syndrome. What’s one thing you want readers to take away from experiencing life through Mina’s eyes?
To think about what disabled means. To see what a person CAN do.
The best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
To listen. You can learn a lot.
If you could have one writer, dead or alive, to compose your obituary, who would it be and why?
C.S. Lewis. Because I’ll have gone through the looking glass.
One song that you will never be sick of?
Any song from the 1969 documentary Woodstock.
Favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
My rainy days are like my sunny days, including my daily walk. I haven’t melted yet.
Aside from the fact that they all take place in Montreal, what’s a common thread that runs through all three of your novels so far?
I write about characters who don’t belong to the mainstream. They’re on the margins — immigrants such Ketia and Nazim in Arrhythmia; Rose who lived in isolation in a cabin in the woods in Five Roses; Fara whose sister’s suicide haunts her and the economically disadvantaged neighborhood of the Pointe (as it was then) in Five Roses; intellectual disability in Colours in Her Hands.
What’s your current read?
The Lost Tarot by Sarah Henstra.
Which authors would you say have influenced you the most?
I take something from every book I read. Even with the ones I stop reading, there’s a lesson to be learned. I’ll tell you who first made me understand point of view, a literary device I love to explore when writing. In Grade 11 English class we read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. What jumped out at me was how Faulkner moved from the thoughts of one character to another, including the mother who lay dying. From that book I understood how a story expands and becomes more rich when told from several points of view — how who tells the story is as important as the story.
How would you describe the importance of storytelling in an age of social isolation?
I believe storytelling fulfills a human need we have for narrative. Haven’t we been telling each other stories since forever? It’s a way of shaping what we love, what we don’t understand, what frightens us. Through stories we learn to empathize. How can this not be important in an age of social isolation?
Favorite quote of all-time?
There’s that “favorite” word again. Here’s a quote I have taped over my desk by Anton Chekhov: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Print books or e-books?
Both. I like the physicality of a print book, but I have hard time holding big, fat books open. I don’t appreciate poor quality paper, tiny font, or when printers stint on ink. That’s when I get the e-book or the audio version.
As a writer and artist, what would you say is the best way to rest or decompress?
Walking.
What can we expect to see next from you?
I have a new book of short stories coming out in 2026.
Follow Alice Zorn on Instagram, visit her blog, and buy Colours in Her Hands wherever books are sold.
Jeffrey Reads 