A Coffee Date with Danila Botha

Author of A Place for People Like Us

Paint a picture of your favourite coffee shop for writing. What makes it perfect to you? Is it the corner table, the barista who knows your name, the way the light hits at 2pm?

I love Bobette and Belle on Yonge street. It’s near my house, and is so cute and quaint, like a mix of high tea and an artisanal, local business. They have the cozy chic kitchen decor down to an art, beautiful plate art on their walls, comfortable armchairs, and tables large enough for a laptop and several books. Also, they have excellent, strong coffee.

You’re at the counter. The barista knows your order by heart. What are you getting? Be oddly specific.

I wish my order was more specific, but I tend to get either a cappuccino or a latte (hot or iced in the summer, I love both) with an extra shot of caffeine, and I love the milk foamy with extra cinnamon and sometimes brown sugar on top. They’re one of these places that makes beautiful coffee art, usually hearts, so that’s a fun bonus. I also usually get water or Perrier with it.

You're sitting across from me now, coffee (or other beverage) in hand. Tell me a bit about yourself and your latest book.

Delighted to be having coffee with you :) I’m Danila, I write short stories and novels, and I also illustrate and paint. I have a new novel called A Place for People Like Us that was published this fall with Guernica Editions. It’s about a woman named Hannah who meets a charismatic, talented musician named Jillian and feels a strong and instant connection, but it soon turns out that what she thinks she knows about Jillian, and who Jillian actually is are two very different things. I’m excited to have it out in the world. I also have a graphic novel that I wrote and illustrated, which will be published by At Bay Press next year.

You notice I'm scribbling your social media handles and website on receipt paper (old barista habit). What should I write down so readers can find you?

Ha, I did for a while after I waitressed too! my website is danilabotha.com
My socials are: https://bsky.app/profile/danilabotha.bsky.social
https://www.facebook.com/danilabothawriter
https://www.instagram.com/danilabotha/

I'm that friend who always asks 'what should I read next?' What are your top three current reads that you'd practically force into my hands, and why is each one consuming your thoughts?

I’m also that friend, my friend. Oh wow, hard to pick just three! Catherine Bush’s Skin, which is published by Goose Lane Editions is an incredible collection of short stories, so masterful and precise. Lynda William’s collection, The Beauty and The Hell of It, published by Guernica Editions is amazing, wry, original, and beautiful. Book*hug recently reissued Kate Cayley’s beautiful short story collection, How You Were Born, with three brand new stories that as great as the original. Also, Hollay Ghadery’s brilliant short story collection, Widow Fantasies, published by Gordon Hill Press, which was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Awards. Salma Hussain just published a poetry chapbook with Bassline Press called What If, Maybe and Other Poems that is just beautiful and deeply moving. I know it’s not technically new, but I’m reading Danielle Daniel’s novel, Daughters of the Deer, and it’s incredible. Everything she writes is magical, from her kids books to her novels for adults. I’m a huge fan. I also really loved Kate Gies’s memoir, It Must Be Beautiful To Be Finished. It reads like prose poetry, but it’s Creative Non-Fiction. Really amazing.

The coffee shop WIFI just went down, so we're stuck here talking. Tell me the weird, unexpected, or completely ridiculous path that led you to become a writer.

Ha. I always knew that I wanted to write. I was always a big reader, and writing was the way I processed the world around me. When I was a kid, I had an incredible teacher who encouraged me to take my writing seriously (I was in grade three, so you can imagine the effect this had. I was so lucky. Thank you so much Mrs. Notelevitz). My parents were very supportive too, they were big readers and encouraged my writing, as did my grandfather, who I used to read early drafts of short stories to. I feel very lucky to have had so much support. Originally, my early publications (starting when I was sixteen) were in journalism; I reviewed albums and interviewed bands for a couple of local music magazines. I thought I might go into journalism, but this is really funny; when I went for my interview at what is now TMU, I told them that what I really loved most was creative writing (and then I wondered why, with decent grades and a portfolio of published work, I didn’t get in). I mean it’s sort of hilarious in retrospect, like going into an interview where I should have been sticking to the facts and essentially saying, well what I enjoy most is making stuff up. Can you imagine?

Anyway, I went to York to study art, which I loved and was really happy about. Towards the end of my first year, I found out there was a Creative Writing program, and it started in second year. You had to submit a portfolio to get in, including a short story. I wrote my first official short story that week on the bus home from university. This turned into the first draft of my story “Another Other,” which later was in my short story collection For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known, and I’ve been writing short stories and fiction ever since. I love getting to write fiction so much, and I’m so grateful to get to do it.

I’m timing you with my phone’s stopwatch. You have exactly 50 words to describe your writing ritual or process. Go!

I sit in front of my computer. I love my desk, it has a great view of the street, including beautiful trees. I either like quiet or music specific to characters or setting. I also read and research a lot as part of my process. I write most days, and if I go to many without writing short fiction, I don’t feel like myself.

You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite any of your characters. Who’s getting the invitation, and what are you serving? (Bonus points for pairing their personality with the menu).

Ooh, what a fun question :) I love this. You know what—I’m genuinely fond of and emotionally invested in all of my characters. I think you have to be, especially with a novel, where you really spend a lot of time with them, and really get to know all aspects of their lives and backstories and experiences intimately. I think it would fun to have a dinner party with Hannah, Jillian, and Naftali. I’d have spicy, textured, interesting appetizers for Jillian, maybe some brightly-coloured, crispy vegetables and layered salad that looks like art and is as much or more about tasting and experiencing as it is about eating. I’d have some comforting foods that could be layered with more interesting ones for Hannah, like fluffy couscous or rice that she could layer with some kind of curry, something vegetarian for Hannah and something familiar and kosher for Naftali, maybe some kind of chicken dish (I’d be ready to show him the kosher labels on everything to reassure him that he could eat it).

The person at the next table is eavesdropping on us. Let's make them regret it. What's the weirdest research rabbit hole you've fallen down that would make them raise an eyebrow?

Oh boy, that’s a great question. So much of the research I’ve done is strange. It’s genuinely hard to choose. I did a lot of research on cults to write this book, and some of the research about Hannah’s father and the cult she grew up in was informed by what I read about Roch Theriault, who did some pretty horrifying things as the leader of a group called ‘The Ant Hill Kids.” Theriault fathered a lot of kids, was at times incredibly violent towards the women, and performed surgeries with no medical training or medicine, among other things. What struck me as both interesting and strange was, though many abandoned the cult after he was arrested, some women didn’t. Some even went as far as letting Children’s Aid take their kids so they could keep visiting him in jail. He apparently even fathered more kids via conjugal visits. Wanting to understand this formed the basis of Hannah’s background and her mother, who in many ways, is not honest with her about the ways she’s still connected to her father. I worked on the original draft of this novel when I did my MFA at Guelph, and one of my mentors mentioned that a lot of people who choose to convert to a religion (as Hannah does when she converts to Orthodox Judaism) come from some kind of religious background and are seeking something that feels more authentic or valid, or that is publicly recognized as such. That led me down a rabbit hole of cults and very interesting research. I also researched some medically interesting conditions for Jillian—I don’t want to give it away—but I really wanted to understand her motivation for doing what she did because I’d read similar cases and it was hard initially to imagine.

As we're leaving, you turn back and say something that will stick with me forever about writing, creativity, or life. What is it (no pressure)?

First of all, thanks for being such a great coffee date. I had a great time. Haha, no pressure. Well, the biggest one for me is to give yourself permission to write without editing, to not be too critical of early drafts. It’s important to get the ideas down on paper, to try them out to see what works, and to give them the space and time they need to figure out the details. I really love drawing and painting as part of my creative process. It really helps me embody my characters, to think of them not just as having thoughts and feelings, but as people with bodies, with facial expressions, with mannerisms. I also like thinking of description as a facet of characterization, a way to show your reader the specific ways your character thinks, versus just being there to describe. I remind myself of this whenever I find myself struggling with it. I think it’s really important to read a lot, and it’s so enjoyable. Ever since reading a few years ago that Lauren Groff reads two to three hours a day as a part of her daily writing practice, I felt so validated in doing the same.

Also, remember to enjoy the process. Getting to create worlds, characters, relationships, friendships, and whole lives is the greatest job ever. I’m so grateful I get to do it.

Find out more about A Place for People Like Us here.