Katie Zdybel’s debut collection of short stories, Equipoise, came out with Exile Editions in fall 2021. This book was shortlisted for the 2018 Harper Collins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction. Stories from the book have won awards, such as the 2020 Carter V. Cooper Emerging Writer Short Fiction Award and the the New Quarterly’s 2018 Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Prize. I loved this book and am so excited to share a bit about it here!

First, tell me about how this book came together. For how long were you working on these stories?

I started writing these stories about eight years ago when I joined a writing group in Whitehorse (where I was living at the time). The other two members of the group brought short stories to our first workshop, whereas I brought yet another beginning to a novel, and it dawned on me that focusing on creating short stories would be an excellent way for me to practice forming a narrative arc — which is the part of writing I find the most challenging. Over the course of several years of meeting with that writers’ group, I kept pushing myself to create new short stories to bring to the workshop, and about four or five years in, I suddenly realized I had almost enough to create a collection. And then I began noticing patterns in the stories and realized that similar themes and shapes ran through them and they might come together as a cohesive group. Shortly after I wrote the tenth and final story (which ended up being the title story, “Equipoise”), there was a call for submissions to a contest I wanted to try for. I took it as a challenge to polish that last story. When I wrote the word “equipoise” into the story, I knew that was the name of the collection; the collection was shortlisted for the prize and after that I was offered agency and publication so, while it started out kind of fumbling and experimental, it all came together with a rush of clarity at the end.

How do you come up with ideas for your stories? Do you begin with a certain type of relationship you want to explore (e.g., mother-daughter) or a life stage, or something entirely different? 

It’s different every time and always evolving, but for the stories in Equipoise, I usually began by ruminating on some kind of weird, confounding knot in my life. Like a disconnection with a loved one, a conflict of emotions within myself, or a question that I couldn’t find an answer to. This is what I wanted to write into. But to get words on paper, I am usually moved by a place and its weather. I see some place — usually rural, but not always — and I have an irrepressible need to write about who lives there, who loves this place, who is running from it, what the weather holds for them. Then those two impulses — conundrum and setting — converge, but usually get totally hijacked by character. From the time a character comes on board, my instinct is to follow them. 

Your stories tend to focus on a particular moment in a character’s life, but often take us back in time and give us a sort of condensed biography. Do you plot out a character’s life story before beginning, or does this flow out while you’re in the process of writing a story? 

No plotting out. It tends to flow in the process of writing, but often I have to revise many times to find the place where I need to unravel. It’s like drafting is producing a large messy tangle of wool and then in revision I find an end and start pulling. Eventually I make something from the strand.

In your stories, often one little gesture will end up being what the story revolves around, or the moment when a story alters course and spins toward the place where it ultimately lands. I’m thinking of the little girl in “The Fly Swimmer” who “languidly, sweetly lifted a middle finger” at the central character and made her feel “for some reason, comforted.” I’m wondering how these little details factor in when you’re putting a story together. Do you begin with that image and see what you can build around it?

I don’t think I’ve ever started with an image, but I think having singular frames like this in a story provide essential landing points. Just like in real life. We all have those moments that stick in our mind like mental photographs. There might not be any dialogue or significant event in that moment, but somehow it changes us or shows us something. I spent a lot of time riding in the back of my family’s minivan as a kid, on our way back and forth to Michigan where my relatives lived, and I’d watch the world go by as a kind of stream and then every now and then focus in on a decaying barn, or a man sweeping the sidewalk, or a single tree in the middle of a field. My brain would hone in on it; I think we need both that sweep of life and those flashes of stillness in story. 

Finally, maybe tell me a bit about what having your first book out in the world has been like. Any tips for emerging writers? And what are your plans for a next book?

So far, it feels amazing! I get messages from people telling me about a story or a moment they connected with. That’s pure gold. That’s what I want for these characters — to live with readers. To exist with people. My next book is a novel, which completely surprised me because it has a very different feel (for me) from Equipoise. It’s very energetic and maybe a bit dark; I kind of felt like I caught a wild horse and just held on. Now I’m in the final stages of revision and, it’s interesting, I feel it’s very important that my touch is super light so as not to hamper the flow. Light but still rigorous and thorough. It’s a new challenge. Emerging writers: listen to your gut, don’t let anything dissuade you, keep writing.