Sean Dixon interviewed by The Danforth Review

Sean Dixon, author of The Girls Who Saw Everything, appears in the latest online edition of The Danforth Review, in which he is interrogated by Nathaniel G. Moore about book clubs, Gilgamesh and malevolent squirrels.<!--newline--><!--newline-->Here's a taste:<!--newline--><!--newline-->TDR: So we should do a Q&A for Danforth Review and start off with how very topical it is to write a book about a book club, since well, book clubs are a sort of secret society, but do in many ways, influence book sales in every city all over the world. Have you ever been a member of a book club?<!--newline--><!--newline-->Sean Dixon: I’ve never been a member of a book club. I suppose I was attracted to the notion of the secret society because of my experience with theatre companies in which a small group of people have to set goals for themselves that seem outrageous or arcane from the outside. Who’s going to build the indestructible wedding cake? How do we shatter a huge sheet of glass without hurting anybody? How do we rehearse in an unheated warehouse in the middle of January in Winnipeg?<!--newline--><!--newline-->But it’s nice to know it’s topical. Writing this work has been such a long process that I thought I missed my moment. I had the impression that the book-club-zeitgeist in Canada had its apotheosis in the winter of 2002 when Ann Marie MacDonald appeared on Oprah. The original plan, when I began to write the play, was that we would be performing by then. So I remember thinking that for once I’d been ahead of the curve (or even part of a curve) with my obsessions and I’d blown it.<!--newline--><!--newline-->You can read the whole interview at www.danforthreview.com.<!--newline-->