Andrew Binks

Andrew Binks (Vancouver)

“One of my most memorable early influences as a novelist was Patrick Roscoe. When many people open a book and are hooked by plot (and, as writers, we are told to hook our audience with plot), I was, and still am hooked by prose. On the continuum from fancy to spare, I have to say that Patrick’s work transcends definition; I am enveloped by his prose as if falling into a huge bottomless feather mattress.

“I still dream that someday I will be able to write like him, but I never let that distract me from my own task at hand. I suppose Patrick’s writing is the standard by which I measure my own prose, which may be an entirely unhealthy act.

“I started with Birthmarks and once again keep The Laboratory of Love close at hand. And there never seems to be a few months go by that I don’t come across a literary journal with something of Patrick’s, whether it is yet another prize winner or ‘just’ a recent submission.”

Andrew Binks, the author of The Summer Between and Strip, is putting finishing touches on his fourth novel, Alcazar’s House, before sending it out with the hope that his house may find a home.