CDB; I know you’re a writer, poet, published author, and former professor. Which one do you identify with the most?

HNT; I’m not altogether sure whether I identify more with being a writer or being a professor. I sincerely believe that in my case they are complementary. Teaching students how to analyze imaginative literature and how to express their discoveries cogently brought me great satisfaction. Writing is more of an egocentric pursuit that brings satisfaction when something worthwhile is produced—whether or not it’s ever published.

CDB; At age ten you said that you wanted to become a teacher, so why did you study psychiatric nursing for two years at Douglas Hospital and worked part-time as a mental health worker?

HNT; By the time I was nineteen, I wasn’t as certain about a career in education. In my native St. Vincent, I was distressed by the poor care psychiatric patients received. I felt that training in psychiatry would enable me to return to St Vincent and work in the field. I, however, discovered that it wasn’t an occupation that suited my temperament.

CDB; You were a professor at Université Laval and you retired in 2006, do you miss teaching? While teaching, did you indoctrinate any of your ideologies (i.e. immigration, homosexuality, poverty, atheism, etc.).

HNT; I was very happy with my teaching career, although it wasn’t devoid of frustrations, especially in the last five years when the classes doubled and tripled in size and made class participation—vital for a study of literature—problematic. But while I taught, it wasn’t always possible to follow my imagination wherever it took me. There were courses to prepare and teach and a schedule to follow. Retirement has given me the time to let my imagination roam.

On the subject of injecting my personal ideology into the discussions I held with my students, I would have to say I didn’t—not consciously at any rate. However, there were texts in which ideology was implicit or explicit, and my students or I identified it and examined its implications. Thoreau’s and Emerson’s attacks on US materialism, Melville’s implicit critique of Calvinism, Whitman’s pro-homosexual stance are some of the instances that come to mind.

CDB; Why did you choose to teach American Literature at Université Laval? Why not Canadian or French Literature?

HNT; The fact that Laval is a French language university does not preclude its offering degrees in languages other than French. All first-class universities do. Laval offers degrees in English at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. I taught courses in the areas I’d specialized in; nineteenth and twentieth century US literature and eighteenth-century British literature. Since Laval, like Université de Montréal, offered degrees in English that were comparable to those in Canadian universities, it was essential that the curriculum cover all the periods of literature written in English as well as the factors that shaped that literature.

CDB; Among your published work, which includes short stories, critical studies, poems and novels, which of these do you enjoy working on the most?

HNT; Without doubt, the novel. Poetry and short fiction are excellent for the intensity that characterizes them, but, unlike the novel, they leave little room to explore a theme in diverse ways. Least interesting is literary criticism. I enjoyed doing it while I had to. Now, beyond writing book reviews, I do very little of it.

CDB; Have you been working on another project since your anthology, Lives; Whole and Otherwise (2010)?

HNT; I have a few manuscripts in various stages of completion. One, which is the first tome of a trilogy, is due to be published in 2015. By the way “Lives; Whole and Otherwise” will appear in a French translation with the title “Des vies cassées”, later in November2013.

CDB; Can you tell us more about the award you received this year for your contribution to the arts, the 2013 Hommage aux créateurs from Université Laval?

HNT; Université Laval instituted the award three years ago to recognize the most outstanding artists who are or were faculty. The award is for a body of work that is outstanding, highly commended by the artist’s peers, and has a global outreach. The jurors are selected from experts in the fields of music, film, literature, architecture, and the plastic arts. This year the award was given to two artists; a musician and a writer.

CDB; Where does your creativity come from?

HNT; I don’t know. What I do know is that what passes for reality is often a mask, and like Wordsworth I like to look “into the life of things.” Writers are troublesome people. They annoy politicians, priests, and moralists. Coleridge says that we are the real philosophers. Shelley says we are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind. Faulkner says fiction comes from a heart in conflict with itself.

I say we want to know the truth about human nature, and we turn to the imagination in order to find out.

CDB; Did you get support from your family in your chosen career?

HNT; No. I write about themes that family members find embarrassing. The language of my characters offends their bourgeois sensibility. Oftentimes I’m stripping away the masks of the bourgeoisie, so my writing is in opposition to their sense of order and decorum. Sincere writers present truth as they understand or see it. Most people prefer to hide what’s horrid in their society and to exaggerate what’s good. This is a fact that Israeli writers know well.

CDB; As an author, do you get support from your community or fellow writers?

HNT; I get some support from fellow writers and some community support. I belong to a few writers’ groups, and they are for the most part supportive.

CDB; Do you have any regrets?

HNT; None whatsoever. I did for a long time agonize over whether to specialize in history or literature. I’m glad literature won the battle, but I’m still drawn to history and spend a lot of time reading it.