Douglas Coupland is known mainly for his international bestseller, Generation X. But with more than a dozen fiction novels, a handful of short stories, and long list of non-fiction under his belt, Coupland isn’t afraid to try new things.
His latest literary venture is Temp, a serialized novella is coming out in Metro’s Canadian and global newspaper editions beginning on Nov. 4. There will be 20 installments of the story published on weekdays.
The story of Temp opens with: “Greetings. My name is Shannon. I’m a temp, but more than that, I’m the future of employment in the Western world. Sure, you may have a job right now, but one day you’ll be me.”
His latest novel, just released in October, Worst. Person. Ever., is available from Random House Canada. Coupland is also a visual artist and designer.
On Nov. 12, in partnership with the School of Creative Industries at Ryerson University, Metro is holding a free reader event at the Ted Rogers School of Management, at Ryerson University. Douglas Coupland will read from Temp and sign books. Register here.
In an email, Coupland answered some questions for The Ryersonian. For the full interview, pick up a copy of next week’s issue, on Nov. 13. Here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:
Q:
In a letter you wrote that fiction isn’t keeping pace with life and how we live it anymore. What can be done to change this?
A:
Acknowledge that we live in a new era and stop pining for the past. If you pine for the past too much, your brain calcifies and you officially become a depressing and people avoid you — which locks you into a downward warp of uselessness from which there is little hope of escape.
Maria Siassina was the arts and life editor at the Ryersonian in the fall of 2013. She graduated from Ryerson's journalism program in the spring of 2014. She has also interned at the National Post in the arts and life section, contributing to the Afterword section with Mark Medley. Her past experiences include interning and writing for Quill & Quire, Canadian Press, This Magazine, and Tightrope Books. She is fluent in Russian and hopes to use this skill in her future as a writer.