Alex Manley
These are the two most significant objects I own in terms of writing. I’d say 99% of my writing work starts as text either written on or spoken to one of these devices. I really have incredibly bad handwriting.
What do you feel is your best piece of work?
Two things I wrote in university still call out to me when I think about this question: a short story written in the prose style of classic Russian novels in translation; and a bit of memoir/personal essay about a relationship I had in my early 20s. Although I feel confident that there’s a certain distorting effect at play—neither of them were ever published anywhere and I feel like that’s not a coincidence. I think maybe as soon as something gets published it stops feeling as sparkly to me.
What music have you been listening to lately?
New releases by A Wilhelm Scream (Lose Your Delusion), Sharon van Etten (We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong), Mitski (Laurel Hell), the War on Drugs (I Don’t Live Here Anymore) and Jacques Greene (Fantasy).
Have you ever failed at something you care about?
Many times! Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Best season?
Fall, I think. No offense to the other ones.
Best outfit?
Dark grey suit, black turtleneck, to my aunt’s funeral. She was a beautiful, stylish woman, and it felt appropriate to feel like I was doing justice to her legacy with a somewhat non-traditional funeral look that was still austere and mournful.
When did you first receive praise for your writing?
The first praise I remember really internalizing was from my Grade 8 English teacher, Mrs. Segal. I submitted a short story about God and the devil playing chess to her, on a whim—not for an assignment or anything—and she liked it so much she read it aloud to the class. It’s a miracle I had friends in high school.
Latest book you’ve read or favourite book ever?
Just finished Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, by Tajja Isen. Apart from being brilliant and a fascinating reckoning with the contemporary moment, it’s also full of little moments of joy at the sentence level. It’s like eating cookie dough ice cream, if cookie dough ice cream weren’t also bad for you.
Anything you’d like to promote?
My website is kind of nice looking, I think! https://www.alexmanley.com/
Alex Manley is a Montreal/Tiohtià:ke writer, editor, poet and translator whose work has been published by Maisonneuve, Hazlitt, The Walrus, Grain, CV2, Vallum, and the Literary Review of Canada, among others. Their debut poetry collection, We Are All Just Animals & Plants, was published by Metatron Press in 2016. Recently, they translated Daphné B.'s Maquillée into English; it was published in 2021 by Coach House Books as Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture Under Late Capitalism. A non-fiction book, The New Masculinity, is forthcoming from ECW Press.
