Martha Schabas wearing Atelier by Nicole Miller, jewelry by Jasmine and Augustine
“Success is sel f -knowl e dge
but al w ays being abl e to
l a ugh at yoursel f . ”
- Martha Schabas
Novelist
FAN MAIL.
The charming postcard on Martha Schabas’
fridge from an Ottawa woman, thanks her for
articulating experiences of “growing up” within
the female body in her 2011 novel, Various
Positions. Named “The Year’s Best Debut” by
NOW Magazine, the book interrogates ideas of
women, self-determination, beauty and strength.
Georgia, its protagonist, tiptoes her way through
life as an adolescent ballerina, twisting with
its many curveballs, but Schabas isn’t wary on
covering women’s issues. “The female body
has become public territory and everyone has
an opinion on it,” the Toronto author says. “I
wanted to capture that moment where Georgia
is trying to synthesize how complex the world is
for women.”
TRAVEL IS THE BEST MEDICINE.
Like Georgia, Schabas had childhood
ambitions of becoming a ballerina, but after a
stint at theatre school, she settled for writing – a
conflation of all of her interests. After
completing a Master’s Degree at the University
of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, Schabas moved
to London. Simultaneously working on Various
Positions and in a grand Edwardian bookstore,
she went for broke in creative fashion. “I
desperately wanted to stay,” she says of the week
her VISA expired before heading home.
“I would have qualified for another visa.
But no, I sacrificed it all for the book, and
I have no regrets.”
IN THE WORKS.
The author is scribing her second novel, its
details under wraps, but foundation on similar
themes from a mature woman’s perspective.
When she’s not pacing a room with sentence
structure ideas, Schabas is relaxing in High Park,
enjoying the opera or preparing for her June
22 appearance at Luminato Festival’s Literary
Picnic.