Featured Interview With Margaret G. Hanna
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I now live in Airdrie, AB, Canada, but I grew up just outside the village of Meyronne in southwestern Saskatchewan, on the farm that my paternal grandfather homesteaded in 1908 and in the house he built between 1917 and 1926. I was a voracious reader, and through books I discovered archaeology which sounded like the most fun way to spend one’s life. After 12 years of university and various summer positions and contracts in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, in 1984 I was hired as one of the curators at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, SK. Among other duties, I was responsible for the development of the First Nations Gallery which involved extensive consultation with First Nations Elders, artists and traditional people. In 2005, I traveled to Cairo (yes, Egypt) to visit friends who were living there, and while there, met the man who, two years later became my husband. In 2007, I resigned my position and moved to Airdrie, my husband’s home town. I joined the Airdrie writers’ group and, for the past five years, have participated in Voice and Vision, a collaboration between Airdrie artists and writers.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always loved books. My earliest memories are of my mother reading to me. I read my way through the local library and through every book in the house. As an academic, I have always had to write academic reports and publications, but my preference was always to write for non-academic public. Since I retired, I have been researching and writing family history, the focus of my book. This is more than mere geneaology. It requires a lot of historical and archival research, which I love, in order to understand the political and social context of why families thought and acted the way they did.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Given my predisposition to historical research, I devour any history or historical fiction book I can find. I especially search for books about the homestead era of the late 19th and 20th centuries, especially if they written by or about women. Some of my favourite authors include Phillipa Gregory, Barbara Kingsolver, Hilary Mantel, Rohinton Mistry, and Michael Ondaatje. But when I’m not reading history, I escape into murder mysteries. Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson are my two favourite authors in that genre. Almost every book I read inspires me, even the bad ones because they show me how not to write.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book is called “Our Bull’s Loose in Town!” Tales from the Homestead. It is based on the diaries, farm documents and photographs of my paternal grandfather, Abraham Hanna. It tells the story of my grandparents as they built their farm and raised a family through the trials and tribulations of the Great War, the roaring Twenties and the dark years of the Dirty Thirties. It ends in 1940 when my grandfather died. The title is derived from a diary entry one Sunday morning in August: “Had to round up bull from village in am.” I thought, there’s a story there, so I sat down and wrote one. I knew all the people involved so it wasn’t difficult to (re)create that particular situation and their life in general. I chose to tell the story in my grandmother’s voice. Imagine you are visiting your grandmother and you ask her, “Grandma, tell me about the time when . . . ” She pours herself another cup of tea, sits back in her chair and says, “Well, it happened like this.” In the book, as in life, Grandma Hanna doesn’t stint on saying exactly what she thinks of people and events, and anyone who reads the book will quickly learn that attitudes were radically different 100 years ago.
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