Biography:
- Author, columnist at The Globe & Mail
- St. Clement's School
Q: How has independent school help shape you into the person you are today? What life skills did you learn at school?
A: Rigorous thinking, mid-sized rebellion, basketball, basic Latin, how to sing Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz, and how to individuate oneself in a navy blue tunic. Mostly though, it taught me how to parse knowledge.
Q: What opportunities have opened up for you as a result of going to an independent school?
A: Education is an act of accretion; St. Clement's led to McGill which led to the National Theatre School which led to my work. I wrote my first play at St. Clement's, a French melodrama with a poisoning scene. I made a first book of poems. I wrote essays about Dylan Thomas and Leonard Cohen. I uncovered a lot of what I would later consider to be heroic and defining.
Q: What is your fondest memory at independent school?
A: There was a lot of laughter and scheming. There was a lot of concentrated scholastic effort. Mostly, there was, because we were a small school with a carpeted gym and no grounds, a fiercely collective spirit—in which our teachers were equal participants.
