A Portrait of J.D. Dresner, By Author, Joseph Boyden
Every year Toronto hosts the Word on The Street Festival in Queen’s Park. The festival is the place to go for books of all sorts, and to speak to publishing companies & writers. Last year I met Robert J. Sawyer, author of Flash Forward and the award-winning WWW Trilogy. This year, I met Joseph Boyden, author of one of my favourite novels, Three Day Road. He was set up at the Typeface booth—a company founded by Siri Agrell and Dave McGinn. They created a mandate to raise money for the Library Foundation (web page not currently available), and asked Boyden to “draw” a portrait of those who donated to Typeface’s cause. He would have a quick conversation with you, and then write out a little portrait in words.
This is how he saw me:
Transcription:
To my compatriot, Jared, the man the world will soon know as J.D. Dresner. I believe you want my advice. And if you don’t, too bad.
Richmond Hill has been waiting for the next great writer to claim as its own. So you might as well take the mantle.
I can see your passion, and passion is much of the quotient.
And, I’ll be honest here: another big part of it is belief. Do you believe? I think you do.
I knew it when you said to me, “don’t be afraid to embellish my nose when you write my word portrait.”
Brilliant.
And so this is my advice. Look to the authors you absolutely love. And remember:
Good writers borrow. Great writers steal.
So steal it and run. Run hard.
— Joseph Boyden