Cara Hedley interviewed by Uptown

Twenty Miles author Cara Hedley recently spoke with Winnipeg's Uptown about her novel and how her time with the University of Manitoba women's hockey team influenced her writing:<!--newline--><!--newline-->They say you should write what you know. Cara Hedley, a PhD student at the University of Calgary, and a three-year veteran of the University of Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team, has just published her first novel, Twenty Miles (Coach House Books), a welcome addition to the small sub-genre of novels about women's hockey.<!--newline--><!--newline-->This is a book filled with guts and glory. Its main character, Isabel Norris - called Iz by her teammates - grew up in skates. She comes to university on a hockey scholarship and joins a team of hard-hitting women, equal parts slapshot and slapstick. There's crude language, crude behaviour and beer bongs. There's some hockey, too. Recently, Hedley returned to Winnipeg to launch her novel at an event filled with former teammates. <!--newline--><!--newline-->"It really is fiction," Hedley told Uptown. "People are trying to guess which characters are which friends, but that's not the case. Some of my old teammates who've read it said it was a composite.<!--newline--><!--newline-->"Certainly I drew on the team dynamic, the energy, the banter between friends. But there's always a question of how far to push it, and the language the characters use."<!--newline--><!--newline-->At the centre of all the shenanigans is Isabel's story. Her father, a local hockey legend, died young and Iz finds that she's supposed to carry his legacy. While she's a talented player, she finds herself doubting if the sport is for her. She's in danger of becoming a hockey atheist, a rare beast in this country.<!--newline--><!--newline-->"It's a rarely examined section of Canadian society," Hedley says. "So what happens if you play and you're still questioning the sport? It's a coming-of-age story and she's questioning her life. When you're born into a hockey family, there are things you don't question." <!--newline--><!--newline-->This last point is something with which Hedley is well acquainted. Her grandfather was a member of the Winnipeg Falcons, winners of the first gold medal awarded in ice hockey at the Winter Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920.<!--newline--><!--newline-->At the end of the book, Hedley thanks her former teammates, using their nicknames: Nano, Boris, and Trash, for example. Throughout Twenty Miles, the characters call each other by names they create for themselves. In fact, when a character ends up using her given name, it's something of a shock. It's a feature of the book that gives it the tang of reality.<!--newline--><!--newline-->"We know each other by nicknames." Hedley says. "We still have moments of disconnection when we meet now and use our real first names. First names, the real names, only came out at serious occasions.<!--newline--><!--newline-->"To me, to my experience, it's a large part of hockey culture" she adds. "It's part of the process. It's a kind of ritual in a way. I really wanted to represent that in this book. <!--newline--><!--newline-->"These characters become their nicknames. On the ice, they become one giant girl. The team becomes a single character."<!--newline--><!--newline-->See www.uptownmag.com for the full interview.