I spoke with Alicia Lawrence of The Malahat Review about my novella “Brains”, which won Malahat‘s 2010 Novella Contest. The interview is on their website. Excerpt:

When you describe Dr. F’s “telegeneric” face, you deftly illustrate a “performative” aspect of the medical profession. How do you feel that this is similar, and also different from, the writer’s construction of a fictional character?

Physicians understand that if they don’t project competence and warmth, it can be much harder to get the cooperation they need to do their job properly, and they’re more likely to be accused of malpractice; they teach that now. Endangered people want to believe they have the sympathy of a higher power—if not an actual torch-winged divinity, then a group of impossibly smart, capable people with infinite resources who care about what happens to them. Some doctors are good at empathizing, some are good at faking it, some are neither. Creating a fictional character is a very different venture, because you’re inventing the face as well as the mask. And you’re not doing it to get people to like you.