{"id":56444,"date":"2018-05-20T00:59:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T00:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=56444"},"modified":"2018-05-21T15:10:26","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T15:10:26","slug":"the-chat-with-chelene-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=56444","title":{"rendered":"The Chat With Chelene Knight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chat With Chelene Knight<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

49th Shelf<\/a>
\n2018-05-09<\/p>\n

Trevor Corkum<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"dearcurrentoccupant\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chelene Knight\u2019s<\/a> debut memoir <\/em>Dear Current Occupant<\/a> (Bookt*ug) takes a closer look at childhood trauma and the uncertain idea of home. It\u2019s a haunting, experimental, and deeply moving book which follows the author as she returns to many of the apartments she lived in as a young girl.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Toronto Star<\/a> calls Knight \u201cone of the storytellers we need most right now\u201d and calls the writing in Dear Current Occupant \u201clush, lyrical…mesmerizing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Chelene Knight was born in Vancouver<\/a>, and is currently the Managing Editor of <\/em>Room Magazine<\/a>. A graduate of The Writers\u2019 Studio at SFU, Chelene has been published in various Canadian and American literary magazines. Her debut book, <\/em>Braided Skin<\/a>, was published in 2015. <\/em>Dear Current Occupant is her second book. Chelene is also working on a historical novel set in the 1930s and 40s in Vancouver\u2019s Hogan\u2019s Alley<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trevor Corkum<\/strong>: Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind Dear Current Occupant<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Chelene Knight<\/strong><\/a>: While I was writing my first book, Braided Skin<\/em><\/a> (Mother Tongue Publishing 2015), I felt that there was an unfinished thread. Something wasn\u2019t complete. I actually started working on Dear Current Occupant<\/em> in 2013, but quickly tucked it away because the realization that I was not ready to re-experience everything was quite apparent. I was not ready to write these stories.<\/p>\n

When it comes to childhood and trauma, there\u2019s a certain amount of healing that needs to occur, you have to distance yourself a bit, step back from the table. Every day on my way to work I\u2019d pass ride the Sky Train<\/a> and just before the train pulled into Broadway Station<\/a>, I\u2019d get this twinge as I passed one of the buildings I used to live in as a young girl. Then I\u2019d pass another, and another, and another and the same twinges poked and prodded under my skin. Then I knew I was ready to start the work, to put the pieces together.<\/p>\n

I stood out front of as many of the houses as I could remember and I just wrote. It was winter and I was cold. I didn\u2019t have gloves on and the snow was coming down, but I couldn\u2019t stop. Memories and fragments came back like lightening. There was something about being there in the space. Even though I was outside those walls I knew so well, I will still there, back in time. I had no idea the effect this book would have on people. I have received nothing but stories of change, emails, tweets, messages, and posts about how this book changed them.<\/p>\n

And at the end of the day isn\u2019t that what a book is supposed to do? Change the reader…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chelene Knight\u2019s debut memoir “Dear Current Occupant” (Bookt*ug) takes a closer look at childhood trauma and the uncertain idea of home. It\u2019s a haunting, experimental, and deeply moving book which follows the author as she returns to many of the apartments she lived in as a young girl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,19,13743,8],"tags":[28683,2138,22979,28684,6790],"class_list":["post-56444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-canada","category-interviews","category-media-archive","tag-49th-shelf","tag-british-columbia","tag-chelene-knight","tag-trevor-corkum","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56458,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56444\/revisions\/56458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}