Fave chair, laptop and four noisy parrots
Author reading classic work on the Black Death during pandemic
With galleries locked, concert halls closed and theatres dark, Postmedia has reached out to B.C. artists of all types to find out what they are doing during these trying COVID-19 times.
Former Vancouverite and author of the new novel Polar Vortex Shani Mootoo has taken some time to answer our isolation questionnaire.
Q Where are you spending most of your time?
A In my fave chair in the living room with my computer on my lap.
Q Who are you with?
A I am with my partner and our very noisy four parrots. But I find myself flipping through an old family photo album, family I haven’t seen in decades, long dead, and alive still but far flung across the globe.
Q Where are you getting your information?
A Various news channels, CBC on the internet, the New York Times, my partner’s FB.
Q What is something you are doing that you don’t normally do?
A My newest novel (Polar Vortex) has just come out. Every single reading I was to do, and two launches have been cancelled. So I am currently trying to create a short podcast and video in lieu of a launch.
Q What do you have lots of in your cupboards?
A: Almond milk, peanut butter. Frozen berries. Medjool dates. Smoothie fixings.
Q What have you been reading?
A Wayne Rebhorn’s translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterpiece, The Decameron, written during and about the bubonic plague, or Black Death, set in Florence, Italy. It is frighteningly au courant.
Q What have you been watching?
A The news, light movies — last one was Knives Out.
Q What are you doing for exercise?
A Taking long walks in the (Prince Edward County, Ont.) countryside, photographing the end of winter, and farm animals.
Q What worries you?
A If we don’t exercise our kindest and most responsible natures now, we will descend into the kinds of horror scenes depicted in The Decameron.
Q When this ends, what will be different?
A Nature may well have rebounded, the skies will be cleaner, there’ll be fish in the sea.