“I’ve got a bit of a chaotic mind,” Esi Edugyan muses. “I’m very absent-minded, always switching from one topic to the next.”

Two things seem to contrast this idea (which is perhaps where the author’s brilliance lies). One: her voice, which is calm and measured over the phone from Vancouver Island, where she lives just outside Victoria. Edugyan speaks slowly, with intention. One gets the sense she considers what she says before saying it.

Two: her writing. Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (published in 2019) is nothing short of masterful, its use of language at once vivid and expertly sparse. Even her new children’s book, Garden of Lost Socks, which was released earlier this year, feels specific and pointed. Edugyan’s writing shows incredible restraint; there is a rich quality to it, but it’s not frilly nor is it embellished. Every word feels carefully placed.

“It’s this idea of searching for order within chaos. Starting out with that first draft is about just allowing yourself to play—so that first draft is often very messy for me,” she says of her writing process. “And then part of the pleasure, and also the torture, of writing is to try to rein things in—to see where there are holes, to reorganize things (sometimes physically reorganizing pages), and just really striving for for order. That’s one of the pleasures: to find the form.”

Half-Blood Blues follows aspiring jazz musician Sid Griffiths from Berlin before the Second World War through to the artistic salons of Paris. Amidst the fear of rising Nazi power, the book explores themes of guilt, friendship, loyalty, forgiveness, and flaw. It was nominated for just about every award imaginable, including the prestigious Booker Prize (as was 2018’s Washington Black).

This year, Edugyan developed a different relationship with the Booker as one of its esteemed judges (and, in fact, as the chair of the judging panel). The task had her reading 163 books in seven months to help decide on the award’s shortlist.

“This is a prize that has a huge profile, and you don’t take that lightly when it comes to choosing the long list and eventually the winner,” Edugyan reflects. “It’s a huge honor and it’s a huge responsibility.”

Her children’s book might not add to her Booker accolades, but it offered another opportunity for her to flex her creative muscles.

“My children are a little bit younger, and being very aware of what’s on the shelves for children’s literature and having huge respect for it—for those writers who manage to completely enchant and absorb your child and get them excited about books—part of me was nervous about doing this sort of a book,” she admits. “It is such a skill, and it’s not a skill that every writer possesses, even though we like to think that we do.”

Short and very sweet, Garden of Lost Socks tells the story of a little girl who struggles to make friends, and learns how to embrace her uniqueness. Like all of Edugyan’s books, it’s insightful and beautiful and direct. If starting in chaos results in works like these, well, then: bring on the storm.

Esi Edugyan will be at the Whistler Writers Festival on October 14 at 10am (Picture this! Picture Book Reading) and 6pm (Astonishing Voyage: A Conversation with Esi Edugyan).