Annabel Lyon BA’94
Annabel Lyon’s first novel, The Golden Mean, has struck a chord with both the public and the literati. It was the only book in 2009 to be nominated for the top three Canadian fiction prizes: the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award for English language fiction, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Lyon won the Rogers Prize.

You said your dad (former Vancouver Sun journalist Jim Lyon) taught you the basics of good writing when you were six. Did you know at that age that you wanted to be a writer?
I can remember dictating stories to my mom when I was about three, before I could read, and she would type them up and I would draw pictures to go with them. I always knew.

Were you surprised by the success of The Golden Mean?
Hugely surprised. I’ve always thought of myself – still think of myself – as essentially a short fiction writer, so I am still a little stunned every time someone actually buys a book.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a sequel to The Golden Mean, set at the end of Aristotle’s life. The focus will be his daughter’s resistance to the marriage he’s arranged for her. I got the idea from Aristotle’s will, which is a real historical document, where he makes very careful provision for her marriage.

Do you have a set writing schedule?
I have two small children, so my day revolves around theirs. I work after they’re in bed and on my husband’s days off when he can keep them busy. I write at home at the kitchen table or in the public library.

Did your experience at SFU influence your writing?
Absolutely. I majored in philosophy as an undergraduate, with minors in French and English literature. I took my first creative writing workshop at SFU. The classes I took definitely shaped both the interests and the prose style I would pursue as a writer.

What is your best memory of SFU?
It has to be the library. I spent most of my free time in there, devouring all kinds of things. I love libraries.

Were there any faculty members at SFU who influenced your thinking?
I had a directed studies seminar with Donald Todd in philosophy. (He’s since retired.) We were looking at philosophy and literature: how literary texts can be read as philosophical texts, particularly texts of ethics. One of the great proponents of this idea was the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who puts the Greek tragedians next to Plato and Aristotle and examines their different ethical stances in her book The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. That was my first real in-depth reading of Aristotle. I’m so grateful to Dr. Todd for making that time for me.

What do you do in your spare time?
I have fun with my kids. Music lessons, skating lessons, swimming, visiting the art gallery, going to the bird sanctuary, playing soccer. Reading! Lots of reading.

What are you reading right now?
Romeo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil. I was interested in getting more perspective on post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, since it figures largely in The Golden Mean. Dallaire was one of the first people to speak out about his own suffering. I admire him immensely.

What music do you listen to?
A wide range: Bach, jazz, punk. Whatever the kids want while we’re driving in the car! aq

Photograph by Phillip Chin

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