Kenneth J. Harvey is published in 17 countries, from Russia to South Africa. His 15 novels and collections of short stories and poems have won major Canadian and international awards, including Italy's Libro del Mare and the Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize. His latest novel, Blackstrap Hawco, is an experimental 800-page Newfoundland epic, named one of the best books in Canada last year by The Globe and Mail. Saltscapes spoke with Harvey about growing up in an apartment, writing books at age 10 and renovating his barn.

Q You grew up in St. John's. What part of the city?
A The east end. I grew up in apartment buildings where there was a smorgasbord of every kind of strange person. Then we moved to suburbia, which was a smorgasbord of the strangest people you could ever meet.

Q About the same were they?
A No, the apartments were a little stranger. I used to hang out with a fellow whose father's claim to fame was that he could drive nails into the kitchen table with his fist.

Q As a child, what did you like to read?
A I read kids' books like Clifford. I was a slow reader when I was younger. My mom used to pay me to read books. I didn't like books and I didn't like reading. I still read very slow.

Q Were there storytellers in your family?
A My father says every time a book comes out he should have a byline on it. Blackstrap Hawco had a great many of his stories.

Q What was the first piece of fiction you remember writing?
A I used to write books when I was 10 and 11. Detective stories. I wrote them like plays-I don't think I knew anything about form. Frisbee was the villain. Canine was the detective. They're great comedy now.

Q Did you make a decision to become a writer?
A No. I just had to write… like people dream of dentistry. I think every occupation is equally blessed. What's the difference between someone wanting to be an undertaker or a writer? Yet, artistic endeavours are given a pretentious glow.

Q Ghosts and the supernatural play a role in your work.
A Everybody loves a good ghost story.

Q Were you brought up on them?
A My best buddy used to have séances in his room, and we used to play Halloween albums with the lights out. I think the supernatural is a big part of us the same as love is a part of us.

Q You're a fan of Stephen King's novels.
A As a teenager I read a good part of what he had written. He's to be admired just as much as Tolstoy or Michael Ondaatje, anybody who's really good at what they do.

Q Are you interested in organized religion?
A I think everybody makes up their own religion eventually. I'm a Catholic. I really like that ceremony. I like going to church because of community. I like seeing people. Saying hello. I like listening to a good message. People who are praying, people who are doing good, people who think about other people-if you took all that energy away, the world would fall into darkness and mayhem.

Q Describe your home in Burnt Head, Cupids.
A I'm in a small community. I've got a big old, square fisherman's house and a 130-year-old barn… the barns here are not really barns. They're called stores, and they were for nets-they weren't huge animal barns. They were storage sheds, basically.

Q You're renovating your barn into an office.
A Yeah, I finished. Seven years. If I hadn't been rebuilding this barn, I wouldn't have been able to write Blackstrap Hawco. I equate writing to building something. You put up the frame, you fill it all in, then you get down to the fine woodworking and sanding, going through different grades of sandpaper. That's what you end up doing with sentences.