The CBC’s Jane van Koeverden interviewed Cary Fagan about his Governor General’s Award-nominated book. Cary spoke about Toronto in the 1950s, “motherly inspiration,” and writing women characters:
“I had this idea of Miriam as this ambitious, intellectual young woman who has hopes to go on to graduate school. I didn’t know how many obstacles there would be for a woman in the 1950s wanting a higher education, especially in a fairly conservative institution like the University of Toronto. I read and talked to people and discovered that women were discouraged in a very heavy-handed way, from trying to go to graduate school and take up positions that would be ‘better’ occupied by a man. I didn’t know that was going to be part of the story when I started.” (Cary Fagan)
Read more here: https://www.cbc.ca/books/cary-fagan-s-the-student-was-inspired-by-the-opportunities-his-mother-never-had-1.5318329