Why award-winning poet Steven Heighton keeps returning to Mavis Gallant

Steven Heightonis an award-winning poet and author. Hiscollection, The Waking Comes Late, won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry in 2016. Heighton made his return to fiction earlier this year with The Nightingale Won't Let You Sleep a novel about buried secrets, the repercussions of war and finding love among the ruins. When heisn't writing, heis busy reading stories by MavisGallant.This segment originally aired on Oct. 16, 2018.

"The book I go back to every few years, andsometimes every few months, is Mavis Gallant's The Collected Stories. I reread certain stories, but sometimes I read one that Iknow I must have read in the past, but I'm reading it almost as if it's the first time. I keep going back to her because of her stylist exactitude.It isn't clinically cold. The exactitude and the austerity somehow increasethe emotional charge of the writing. I think she is the best writer Canada has produced Mavisand Alice Munro.But I think MavisGallant is my favourite."

Steven Heighton's comments have been edited and condensed.