“Stella Harvey poised to publish fourth career novel, 'Disruption'

Stella Harvey is on the cusp of releasing her fourth novel.
This new book, Disruption, features a girl named Kitianna who lives in a fictional country rife with civil war. Against the orders of a draconian state, Kitianna wonders about how things are on the other side of the wall that bisects her nation. To avoid seeing her pressed into a re-education camp, the girl's parents send her away—but a growing underground movement resists the status quo, eliciting further government crackdowns.
Disruption is Harvey's initial foray into the dystopian fiction genre. Her previous novels, Nicolai's Daughters, The Brink of Freedom and Finding Callidora, run the gamut from historical to contemporary and explore themes related to her Greek heritage, but her latest work was inspired by questions like "what would we be prepared to accept in order to be secure?" and "what does more security mean?"
Recent political developments in the United States also influenced her creative process.
"The country that's our neighbour, they started building walls and I wondered: would we as human beings build concrete walls if we didn't have walls inside of ourselves, between us and other," Harvey muses aloud. "I'm quite an open person naturally, and I just wonder: what makes us as human beings want to be safe and secure? And what makes us fearful of others or questioning others or whatever? I just don't think that as a society, we would build concrete walls if we didn't fear things like, for example: immigration or refugees."
As both an immigrant to Canada and a social worker by training, Harvey has long wrestled with questions of belonging. This topic is a key factor in Disruption, where violence and political upheaval have essentially generated a migrant diaspora within the borders of Kitianna's homeland. At one point, the protagonist says: "How is it that people forget our past?"
'Fiction does something that a headline can't'
Harvey believes that fiction has the power to explore themes relevant to modern society in a unique way.
Years ago, she was invited to a book club of young mothers who had read The Brink of Freedom, a story about refugees fleeing into Greece in search of a better life. One person told Harvey: "you made me feel for people I don't even see."
While factual news can have a similar effect—Harvey became emotional when she read about the passing of American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, who died on Aug. 25—compelling fictional narratives often elicit deeper feelings of sympathy and empathy in their audiences.
"What story does is: it helps you remember history that we simply forget," opines Harvey. "I think fiction does something that a headline can't. It personalizes and makes you feel a character's experience and puts you in that place."
Now a veteran of penning and publishing original work, Harvey reminds both herself and her students that a novel requires a lot of time and a lot of drafts to come to fruition. She also believes that one must be patient with stories, especially the particular story they want to write. Despite her age, she still describes herself as "naive" because she expects the best out of her fellow human beings.
Disruption will become available sometime in September, with the exact date to be determined as of this writing. Harvey plans to read from the book on Sept. 28 at Simon Fraser University, where she once taught creative writing, and launch it Nov. 7 at the next Whistler Writers Festival (WWF).”

— David Song Pique NewsMagazine

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