Leon Perniciaro: How’d you get involved with Augur?
\nTerese Mason Pierre: So I live in Toronto, spent most of my life here, and I went\nto the University of Toronto for my undergrad. And while I was at the University of\nToronto, I was involved in a number of student groups. By the time I was in fourth\nyear, I was in two choirs, directing one of them. I was volunteering at a hospital. I\nwas doing so many things. And among the things, I was a poetry editor for a student\njournal called The Spectatorial. It was the only genre magazine on campus, and I\nworked as a poetry editor on that magazine for about a year. I worked with poets and\ngot to see some of their editorial and submission processes. And when the people\nwho founded Spectatorial graduated, they founded Augur. I started as a poetry editor\nfor about 3 or 4 years, then I became a senior editor of poetry, and then in 2021 I\nbecame co-editor-in-chief alongside Lawrence Stewen, who’s also a writer. We have\nrecently undergone a restructuring of the journal, and the some of the fixed roles\nhave been dissolved. Now, each issue of the magazine will be led by different people.\nSo it’s more of a collaborative collective process. Now, my role is in programming.\nI’m the Chief Programming Officer of the non-profit, the Augur Literary Society.\nMy job is to create all of our programming and partnerships. I lead AugurCon, I do\nworkshops, and I help people develop their own programming. I also write grants.\nI’m a programming grant writer.
\nLP: I don’t know how extroverted people see the world, but it comes through in\nall of your activities here. You’re too busy. You have too much that you’re doing,\nright?
\nTMP: This is kind of my reputation. I don’t know how I feel about it anymore. I like\nhaving things to do because it’s fun. If I get to talk to people, it’s great. But I’m also\nvery tired. I do identify as an extrovert, but that just means that I like being around\npeople. I’m also very shy. If you put me in a room full of strangers, I’ll stand by the\nwall, and hope really hard that someone comes and talks to me. But I love being\naround people. It’s great.
\n[Then we talked about a whole bunch of things that didn’t quite translate but\nwere a joy, ending with me giving a long-winded explanation about how to\npronounce my name.]
\nTMP: I ask because people pronounce my name wrong all the time. It rhymes with\nthe Spanish Perez, but with a T. My name is French and it also has accents, but I\ndon’t use the accents. I didn’t like my name when I was younger, cause it was so\nhard. People just could not spell it and they could not pronounce it. But as a writer\nnow, I’m like, this is a great name.
\nLP: It’s got gravitas. What do you like about your name?
\nTMP: No one’s ever asked me that before. My parents are from the Caribbean, from\nGrenada. My mom named me after a friend of hers. I think it was the first female\nprosecutor in Grenada. I think she died pretty young, in her thirties or forties. But\nshe was good friends with my mom. So, she named me after her, and my name is\nFrench like my dad’s. They all have French names. And my name means something\nlike Reaper or Harvester.
\nLP: Why am I starting to get a little emotional? No, that’s good. Every good interview\nshould have us both crying at the end. We’re getting down to the serious stuff here.\nI feel like all of this kind of leads into another question I had about Augur.
\n[Then I launch into this long-winded thing about getting tested for ulcers for some\nreason? Terese is a saint to listen to this. Until finally:]
\nLP: I know that Augur has a really specific focus on Canadian writers, but also\non Indigenous writers. I’m just kind of curious to know what the impetus for\nthat is and if you think there are pros and cons to having that kind of focus.
\nTMP: So, Augur has three founding pillars. First is we aim to publish, prioritize, and\nshowcase the work of marginalized and underrepresented creators. We are aware of\nwhat the dominant culture is like. When you go up to the top and you see who really\nhas the power, it’s still mainly white and straight, and so we want to make a space\nfor those marginalized creators. We want to pay them pro rates, and we want to\nbring those diverse voices to an international stage. Secondly, funding stipulations\nare that we publish 75-80% Canadian content. We are Canadian, so we are invested\nin Canadian and Indigenous literature, specifically Canadian speculative literature.\nBut also, because we are sort of a bigger, more reputable magazine, we’re able to\nbring those Canadian and Indigenous writers to an international stage as well. We\nwant to make sure they get nominated for awards and that they’re getting visibility.\nThe third pillar is that we want to provide programming that’s specific to our\ncommunities. We want to be a community hub, a leader in Canadian SF literature.\nI find that a lot of SF groups are very insular. So, we want to be that network. We\nalso have a majority marginalized staff, because the people on staff reflect what is\npublished in the journal.
\nLP: That’s very cool. I can’t think of another big SF magazine that has such a focus,\nand I think that’s really valuable.
\nTMP: Yes, and we separate Canadian and Indigenous content [in our calls for\nsubmissions] because not all Indigenous peoples within the borders of Canada\nidentify as Canadian. But if they live in Canada, we count them as part of our\nCanadian quota. And we’re also open to Indigenous writers who are not from North\nAmerica.
\n[Then there’s a bit where I talk about my academic research, and Terese gives me\nsome really great suggestions for scholarship because she knows her stuff. And we\nend up here:]
\nLP: I recently read an article by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang about how\ndecolonization is not a metaphor but a real process. Does that kind of terminology\nappeal to you?
\nTMP: Okay, so, at AugurCon 2020, I very last minute—maybe a day’s notice—had\nto moderate a featured conversation between Joshua Whitehead, who is Indigenous,\nJael Richardson, who is Black, and Larissa Lai, who is Chinese Canadian. And one\nof the points that Joshua Whitehead brought up that I found really interesting\nwas that what we consider speculative, what we consider fantasy—that delineation\nbetween real and unreal—is 100% colonial, right? Europeans have various modes\nand systems around what is real and what is not real. There are all sorts of things\nthat, from a Western fantasy literature standpoint, might be “made up,” but for\nother cultures, it’s a very real thing. So, I think about what that means for what\nwe publish and the kinds of storytelling modes, the narrative systems, that we are\nplatforming—the politics of it. What do we want to hold as real? What does it even\nmean to call someone a speculative writer? The writer may be like, What I’m writing\nis not speculative. To me, it’s real. So, we have to be careful about how we talk about\ntheir work and how the editor edits their work.
\nLP: 🤩🤩
\nTMP: That's what I think of Augur work and decolonization, of speculative fiction\nwork and decolonization in general. That›s how I think about this delineation\nbetween real and unreal and whose knowledge that highlights and whose knowledge\nthat puts down.
\n[Then we talk a little about cons until I awkwardly transition to:]
\nLP: I think my last formal question is about what you’re working on. I read some of\nyour poetry this morning while I was preparing. Are you still writing a lot of poetry\nor are you mostly writing fiction? What are you working on lately?
\nTMP: What I mainly write is literary and speculative poetry, and I’ve been\npublished widely in that regard. My chapbook Manifest was nominated for a\nliterary award and a speculative award. Once in a couple of years I’ll publish a\nshort story. I’ve been doing well with that. The last short story I published also\nwon an award. And right now I’m just working on my edits for my first book of\npoetry, and I’m aiming to start writing a poetry second book. I also want to finish\nmy fiction manuscript.
\nI’ve written a couple of short stories, and I think about submitting them, but then\nI’ll have to edit them. I hate editing my own work. I hate it so much. I love drafting.\nDrafting is great. Outlining and drafting—beautiful. I want other people to edit my\nwork. To read it and tell me what I need to do, and then I go in and edit it. That’s\nwhat I want. So, I have, like, six short stories just sitting on my computer, waiting for\nme to get the time and energy to edit them.
\nLP: It's funny because I think writers are the only people who are like, God, I hate\ndoing this. But also, I can›t stop and also I love doing it. I don›t know how to describe\nit exactly.
\nTMP: I think it's very hard, but as far as that’s your baby, your lovechild—you can’t\nimagine life without it.
\nLP: Do you have anything you want to plug?
\nTMP: My first book of poetry, Myth, is coming out on April 1st, April Fool’s Day,\nfrom House of Anansi Press. It’s a mix of literary and speculative poetry.
\n[Then I foolishly didn’t ask enough follow-up questions, but you should order it\nimmediately at https://houseofanansi.com/products/myth!]\n
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\nTerese Mason Pierre (she/her) is a writer and editor whose work has appeared\nin The Walrus, ROOM, Brick, Quill & Quire, Uncanny, and Fantasy Magazine, among\nothers. Her work has been nominated for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, Best of\nthe Net, the Aurora Award, and the Ignyte Award. She is one of ten winners of the\nWriters’ Trust Journey Prize, and was named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. Terese\nis an editor at Augur Magazine, a Canadian speculative literature journal, and coDirector of AugurCon, Augur's biennial speculative literature conference. She has co-hosted poetry reading series, spoken at conferences, organized literary events,\njudged writing contests, facilitated creative writing workshops, and mentored\nemerging writers. She is the author of chapbooks, Surface Area (Anstruther Press,\n2019) and Manifest (Gap Riot Press, 2020). Her debut poetry collection, Myth, will\nbe published with House of Anansi Press in Spring 2025. Terese lives and works in\nToronto, Canada, and is an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph. Follow her\nInstagram and Bluesky.