Author Interview: Anna Evans
Q&A with the contributors from our latest issue.
Anna Evans is a writer with interests in place, memory, and migration. Her recent work has featured in literary journals including Echtrai and Panorama, and she has been a regular contributor to Elsewhere: A Journal of Place, including a series of pieces on books and place. Anna is co-editor of Elsewhere and is working on a book-length series of essays, among other writing projects. She is from Huddersfield and lives and works in Cambridge. Her piece ‘Talisman’ appears in Hinterland Issue 16.
What’s the last thing (except for this!) that you wrote?
Some meeting notes for my day job. I work as a university administrator, and so I am always trying to make a space for other kinds of writing.
What’s a recent discovery that you can’t keep quiet about?
I am reading Aednan by Linnea Axelsson. It’s an epic novel written in verse which tells the stories of two indigenous Sámi families through several voices spanning a century, their modes of struggle and resistance against displacement and loss. It is written in quite simple and sparse prose, which makes it feel accessible, and creates space in a way that other forms might not.
Words to live by?
Love what you do.
Tell us something about yourself that surprises people...
I once spent a summer travelling around music festivals working as a litter picker. I found some new friends along the way and became a bit feral.
What’s your piece in this issue about?
My piece is about borderlands and was inspired by journeys in Collioure and the surrounding region, on the border between France and Spain. I was interested in the tumultuous histories that could be found just below the surface of this beautiful place. It is a place filled with art and artists, and so in my piece I try to write through the lens of some of the pictures and stories that I came across.
Issue 16 is available to order at our webstore now, or in good bookshops.