Inside the Writer’s Mind: Dawn Macdonald

Dawn Macdonald, one of the IHRAM’s treasured writers, shares her musings, inspiration, and drive as an author and activist. Thank you for all you do, Dawn. 

What moves you? What compels you to pick up a pen or open your laptop to free write?

I’m pretty obsessed with books. I want to read all the books, collect all the books, and be in the books! I grew up in a rural and remote environment, and was lucky to have access to books at home, at school, and through the kindness of librarians. Books opened doors to the past and future, to other parts of the world, and to entirely different universes (I didn’t watch a lot of television in those days). Books… I would not be the weirdo I am today without them!

What human rights concerns are you most moved by?  What inspires and influences your writing, particularly when it comes to addressing human rights issues?

I’m from the Yukon Territory, in northern Canada. The Yukon is home to fourteen First Nations, eleven of which are self-governing, but we still have a long way to go on reconciliation. We also have serious social issues that affect Indigenous and non-Indigenous Yukoners, albeit at different rates: the opioid epidemic and substance-use emergency, a housing crisis, a health-care crisis, and overall high prevalence of violence and accidental injury and death. So, fun times! A lot of people do come here for fun – it’s a place where some folks can make pretty good money, drink and party, and live out their wilderness adventure dreams. Which isn’t all bad – and people have some incredible life stories. It’s just kind of mixed; being from here, feeling tied to this place, loving it, seeing all the beauty and the damage side-by-side.

My poem in IHRAM Literary Magazine talks about going to school in the Yukon in the 80s and 90s, with kids being more or less ignorant of their own rights and the rights of others; but, thinking we know it all – we know enough to get through the school day, and surely that must be all we need? Education is a human right, but it's also a tool of oppression – one that gets right inside your head. I'm still not sure if a crappy education isn't what saved me – left me on my own resources as an autodidact and let me develop more freely. No simple answers here.

The human rights concerns addressed in the IHRAM literary magazine are often complex and challenging to navigate. How do you navigate the balance between highlighting these challenges and maintaining a sense of hope or optimism in your writing?

It’s been hard lately, right? I’m not sure it’s necessary to have hope and optimism. Maybe we just go through our days together, and that is enough.

Please reflect on the power of art and literature to influence social change. Do you believe art has the power to influence positive change?

My friend shared a list of “25 Books That Will Change Your Life” and I said, ‘I have read most of these! And it has been a real rollercoaster!’ So yes, books can change you, whether that’s with facts or by getting you inside another head, another world.

What drew you to become a contributing author for the IHRAM magazine, and how do you personally connect with its mission?

I hadn’t heard of IHRAM until I saw the submission listing on Chill Subs; but, it’s hard not to want to connect with an arts-based human rights mission. A lot of magazines talk about uplifting diverse voices, but IHRAM really foregrounds this with a broad, global perspective. I’ll also be honest, it matters that IHRAM offers payment to contributors. I get that a lot of literary journals are all-volunteer labors of love, but even five bucks conveys value in a world where money means food, shelter, and the occasional book bought off the shelf. So, thank you for recognizing artists financially!

The values of IHRAM include beauty as a fundamental creative principle, sincerity, vulnerability, celebrating diversity, and opening doorways of engagement. How do these values resonate with your writing, and how do you incorporate them into your creative process?

There's beauty in ugliness. I'm a fan of the hot mess, of the kind of art where you're not sure if it's art or if someone just threw up in the corner. Outsider art; using forms of craft that may not read as "art", that feel unsettling, incomplete (or overdone), leaving space where the eye skims around looking for its usual closure. We have to stay open to the myriad ways of saying things, the stories that don't follow a rising action and resolution, the door that looks like a window or a tunnel or a bookcase needing the right touch to open. A diversity of beauties, and a vulnerability to experiencing beauty in outlandish forms.

How does your environment influence your view of the world (your home country, city, and surrounding culture)?

I had a bit of an oddball upbringing: living down a dirt road in the Yukon without electricity, running water, or modern telecommunications (we had a radio phone, a system of 12-volt batteries and a diesel generator for limited use, and a lot of buckets and barrels for water storage). My parents were doing a back-to-the-land thing, coming out of the 60s and 70s counterculture movement. Thing is, I didn't know much about this "mainstream society" we were rebelling against – I only knew this particular Northern way of life. It's been confusing ever since and I can't help coming at things from the side.

My first poetry collection, Northerny, is coming out this month, and is pretty clearly informed by that background – and by the tensions of being from a place that others come to as a destination, often with art-making in mind. The art that's made by the visiting adventurer reflects a consciousness subtly at odds with my own, and I have to exist and create partly from my own worldview and in reaction to this Southern view of the North – this need for everything to look "Northerny" in a way that the South understands. I'm grateful to have had this perspective resonate with a publisher from "down South" who chose and supported my book!

In comparison, how does your intersectionality influence your view of the world (your personal beliefs, gender expression, religious affiliations, etc.)?

I feel private about this one – I have drafted a couple different responses and deleted them. I don’t have anything to say about this that’s for public consumption right at this time.

Read and enjoy all of Dawn’s previously published work:

Northerny (2024, University of Alberta Press)

The Antigonish Review, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Canadian Literature, The Fiddlehead, filling Station, FOLIO, Grain, Literary Review of Canada, The Malahat Review, OxMag, Nat. Brut, Strange Horizons, Wizards in Space, the International Human Rights Art Movement (IHRAM), and more.