I often think of Neil Smith as a creature more than a person, in the best of all possible ways. He has a magical quality about him; rather than walking, he seems to hover inches from the ground.
Neil is a vivid, moving writer who makes you laugh when you’re not sure you should. The author of three books of fiction, he writes in a voice that’s versatile, yet unmistakably his own. His work has earned critical acclaim, award nominations and audience adoration, and has been translated into nine languages. He’s also an accomplished literary translator, a talented visual artist, a sometime model, and a stellar friend.
Why have someone in your life who’s so infuriatingly accomplished? My short answer is that he’s both a rock and a ray of light, solid and illuminating. When I sought his counsel about my own lapsed writing, he asked me what I was waiting for. “Financial security,” I said. He asked what it would take for me to feel financially secure. “Twenty bucks,” I said. He slapped twenty bucks on the table and said, “Here. No excuses.” That twenty-dollar bill now breathes in a drawer, ever reminding me that I’m not Neil Smith.
-Written by Rhonda Mullins, a friend and fellow writer and translator.
Glen LeMesurier in Mile End.
tower.
George Seurat.
***
Which hood are you in?
I live in Outremont right off Laurier Avenue West, an area of the city that’s adjacent to Mile End. I love my neighbourhood, given the number of stores and services and its proximity to the mountain and to downtown. However, I was born in Verdun, back when that part of Montreal was very working-class and Irish. I have Irish roots on both sides of my family.
What do you do?
I write fiction. I’ve published three books so far and am now working on my fourth. I also translate fiction from French to English. To date, I’ve translated three novels, one graphic novel, and a slew of short stories.
I draw, too. I recently completed a series of whimsical drawings inspired by famous artists, for example, a rat done in the pointillistic style of George Seurat (called “Le rat de Seurat”) and a pelican in the drippy style of Jean-Paul Riopelle (called “Jean-Paul Riopelican”).
I also like to take photographs, particularly around my neighbourhood.
What are you currently working on?
I prefer juggling a few projects at once. The three I’m working on this month are very different from one another.
The first is a novel, Red Rover Red Rover, inspired by the psychological horror stories of the late American writer Shirley Jackson, author of The Haunting of Hill House. I’ve also written an essay to be included in an anthology devoted to Jackson, which Oxford University Press will put out.
The second project is my translation of a novel by the Québécois author Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard about a deeply troubled stand-up comedian. It’s called You Crushed It and came out on April 1st with Book*hug Press. The novel has already been made into a television series in French.
Finally, I’m putting together a collection of crazy book covers for famous novels. I design the jackets myself, mostly using objects I buy from antique shops, junk shops, and toy shops in my neighbourhood. I want to self-publish about thirty of them in a book to be called The Book Title Book.
Where can we find your work?
My three books of fiction are published by Random House Canada and are available from most bookshops, real and online. The latest is a semi-autobiographical novel called Jones spanning twenty-five years in the lives of a brother and sister from a screwed-up family.
Before that, I put out a fantastical mystery novel called Boo about a boy living in a heaven reserved exclusively for kids who die at the age of thirteen.
My first book is Bang Crunch, a collection of short stories written in a whole grab bag of different voices and tones. One of the stories was just optioned to be made into a short film. A new short story of mine will appear in Maisonneuve magazine in April.
So far, my work has been in translated into Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. Jones will come out in Spanish in Argentina later this year.
You can follow me on Instagram.
