U.S. author Gary Shteyngart aggravates Canada’s literary insecurity

Can a country whose most celebrated living writer just won a Nobel Prize still be anxious about its literary chops? The answer, evidently, is yes. The proof is in Gary Shteyngart’s Twitter feed.

Shteyngart—who’s best known for his novel Super Sad True Love Story, a near-future sci-fi romance/comedy—has just released a memoir. As part of his publicity rounds, he did an interview with Vulture.com. In response to a question about whether literature should be subsidized, he said the following:

Let me say this. I was the judge of a Canadian prize [that is, the 2012 Giller Prize], and it’s subsidized, they all get grants. Out of a million entries, we found four or five really good ones, but people just don’t take the same damn risks! Maybe they want to please the Ontario Arts Council, or whatever it is.

It’s clearly a put-down, but it’s a mild one. One could even call it constructive criticism—but so far, few people have. Several Canadian media outlets have picked up the story, turning it into a genuine mini-controversy. Shteyngart, true to form, has spent the past day using the situation as an opportunity to be hilarious. Check out his command of Toronto’s cultural zeitgeist:

Canadians, I was kidding about your literary non-edginess. As a nation that's home to both A. Munro and Rob Ford, you contain multitudes.

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 9, 2014

.@globebooks I was in a drunken stupor when I said that. Some of my favourite authors are Canadians. Richler anyone?

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 9, 2014

Look, as someone who's working on a coming-of-age novel set in Mississauga, I'm just jealous I can't get a juicy arts grant. :-(

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 9, 2014

"Like a fresh crack rock in a mayor's drawer, CanLit captures and refracts the beauty of the nation around it." There! I've blurbed CanLit!

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 9, 2014

By the way, I got married in Grise Fiord, Nunavut. How many of you Ossington Avenue Hipster Lit Nerds can say that, eh?

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 9, 2014

Here's a picture of me in my groom's outfit in Nunavut. Rob Ford passed out at my wedding (and later set fire to it) pic.twitter.com/WQ9dLbEwmr

— Gary Shteyngart (@Shteyngart) January 10, 2014

His book tour comes to the Toronto Reference Library on January 31, and tickets are free. If all of this is anything to judge by, it should be an entertaining show.