After a lot of twists and turns and after writing just about every other kind of novel, in 2011 Alan Cumyn finally wrote a young adult novel, Tilt.
Why it took him so long is anyone's guess. As a young adult himself he was an avid story writer and looked like he was going to do something worthwhile with his gift. But then he seemed to meander on many different paths before straightening himself out enough to (finally) work on a really worthwhile project.
In high school in Ottawa, Canada, in the late 1970s, Cumyn played on every sports team that would let him. He began writing poetry when it occurred to him that a lot of popular song lyrics were not speaking to his experience of adolescence. After a while the poems all started turning into stories, and it was a relief to write prose instead.
The first weird turn his career took was the morning after high school prom when he joined the military, flying out to Chilliwack, B.C. for Basic Officer Training. He was, he claims, completely sober when he made the decision. Although he had no previous military experience, he did have a thought in the back of his mind: whatever happened, it would make for good stories.
Cumyn's first novel (unpublished) was about that first exhausting, exhilarating, and oddly absurd year at Royal Roads Military College (which, by the way, had probably the most beautiful campus in North America but closed down as a military outfit in 1995).
Even in the military, when every minute of the day was accounted for, Cumyn wrote. He wrote in the bush while doing summer jobs when he was finishing his undergraduate degree at Queen's University, and he wrote a lot more when he did a Master's degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor. But here's the thing: as a young man, Cumyn tended to write about older people. It wasn't until he got married and had children, and his children got to be young adults, that he finally started writing about young adults and their concerns.
He wasn't idle. He did a few jobs here and there: he ran a group home in Toronto for Katimavik, and taught in China and Indonesia, and for most of the 1990s he worked as a researcher and writer on international human rights issues. He wrote a couple of human rights novels, which won some prizes, and then he got interested in the First World War and wrote two more novels about that. All for adults. Another one, Losing It, is about adults being pretty well crazy. Really. Almost all his books have a dark humour -- you have to be looking for it.
In high school in Ottawa, Canada, in the late 1970s, Cumyn played on every sports team that would let him. He began writing poetry when it occurred to him that a lot of popular song lyrics were not speaking to his experience of adolescence. After a while the poems all started turning into stories, and it was a relief to write prose instead.
The first weird turn his career took was the morning after high school prom when he joined the military, flying out to Chilliwack, B.C. for Basic Officer Training. He was, he claims, completely sober when he made the decision. Although he had no previous military experience, he did have a thought in the back of his mind: whatever happened, it would make for good stories.
Cumyn's first novel (unpublished) was about that first exhausting, exhilarating, and oddly absurd year at Royal Roads Military College (which, by the way, had probably the most beautiful campus in North America but closed down as a military outfit in 1995).
Even in the military, when every minute of the day was accounted for, Cumyn wrote. He wrote in the bush while doing summer jobs when he was finishing his undergraduate degree at Queen's University, and he wrote a lot more when he did a Master's degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor. But here's the thing: as a young man, Cumyn tended to write about older people. It wasn't until he got married and had children, and his children got to be young adults, that he finally started writing about young adults and their concerns.
He wasn't idle. He did a few jobs here and there: he ran a group home in Toronto for Katimavik, and taught in China and Indonesia, and for most of the 1990s he worked as a researcher and writer on international human rights issues. He wrote a couple of human rights novels, which won some prizes, and then he got interested in the First World War and wrote two more novels about that. All for adults. Another one, Losing It, is about adults being pretty well crazy. Really. Almost all his books have a dark humour -- you have to be looking for it.
Finally getting it together...
Some of these novels got noticed here and there. Cumyn claims that as an antidote to his darker work, he started writing for kids when his own children were small. He spent three books writing about an epic love story for children (he claims they're for everyone): The Secret Life of Owen Skye, After Sylvia, and Dear Sylvia. If you give these books to someone you really have a crush on, say for Valentine's Day, and nothing happens -- well, you just weren't meant to be together. The Owen Skye books alone have won or been shortlisted for twelve national awards in Canada.
But, finally, to Tilt. Cumyn started teaching in the graduate program in writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Something began to rub off at last and he found his inner teenager again even while he was serving as Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada, which was a petty grown-up thing to do. It didn't stop him from writing a really good book. He still plays basketball, by the way, and ice hockey, and has spent more than 25 years learning about and practicing Chinese martial arts, especially tai chi. He met Suzanne, his wife, in a tai chi class, and they're still together even though she now does yoga.
He never talks about what's he's working on now, so it's hard to say. It's always something, though...
But, finally, to Tilt. Cumyn started teaching in the graduate program in writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Something began to rub off at last and he found his inner teenager again even while he was serving as Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada, which was a petty grown-up thing to do. It didn't stop him from writing a really good book. He still plays basketball, by the way, and ice hockey, and has spent more than 25 years learning about and practicing Chinese martial arts, especially tai chi. He met Suzanne, his wife, in a tai chi class, and they're still together even though she now does yoga.
He never talks about what's he's working on now, so it's hard to say. It's always something, though...