Interviewed By: Kylie Petrovich
BIO: Jaymie Heilman grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She lived in Wisconsin, Peru, and Nova Scotia before circling back home to Alberta, where she taught Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Alberta. She has written two books about the history of Peru, and her first YA novel will be published in September 2023. When she’s not reading or writing books for children or teens, she’s usually gardening, biking to the library, or dreaming about the ocean. She lives in Edmonton with her husband, son, and a ridiculous number of books. (Written by Jaymie Heilman).
Jaymie Heilman’s short story “Fire Hazards” was featured in volume five of SHIFT magazine. The recurring wildfires in her home province of Alberta prompted her to write the story. “Alberta, Canada, has an economy dominated by oil and gas industries,” she says. “We suffer terrible wildfires almost every year. Blaming those fires on climate change driven by fossil fuels remains a relatively taboo subject.”
“Fire Hazards” is fictional, but the setting is based on actual events. “It’s only May 4th,” Heilman says, “and several nearby communities have already had to evacuate because of wildfires. It’s incredibly dry right now, and there is a fire ban in effect—no campfires or backyard firepits—and we’re all extremely nervous about the summer ahead.” The story’s vivid scenes evoke this tension. “Descriptions of the smoky air and orange sky and the fear of looming dangers,” she said, “come from lived experience in Alberta.”
The protagonist is watering a roof with a hose. “I’ve read about people watering their roofs during forest fires—please, please don’t do that! In addition, a dear friend’s elderly father stubbornly fixed his own roof after a major storm, leading me to my idea for ‘Fire Hazards.’”
In the story, Heilman not only tackles the subject of climate change but she also delves into the complexities of familial dynamics. The protagonist and her brother have a strained relationship. “I’m fortunate to be an only child,” Heilman says, “but I’m fascinated by the sibling tensions that persist in adulthood.” The story also explores the fraught dynamic between the protagonist and her mother. “In many ways,” Heilman says, “the protagonist treats her mom like she’s a stubborn teenager. She thinks that she can just reason with—or guilt—her mom into moving out to the coast.” Ultimately, the protagonist comes to a crucial realization. “It takes a hard night of really listening to her mother,” she adds, “for the protagonist to accept that she can’t control her mom, just as she has to be true to her own wishes and those of her husband and child.”
Heilman also engages the reader with the protagonist’s internal struggle. “Her husband and daughter want to live elsewhere,” she says, “and so does she, but she feels responsible for her widowed mother and extremely reluctant to move away from her. The fire emergency brings those internal conflicts into sharp relief.”
Heilman says the most challenging part of writing “Fire Hazards” was “trying to understand the perspective of the mother who unquestionably wants to stay.” She goes on to explain, “Many young (and youngish) Albertans are leaving the province for precisely the reasons my protagonist does, and it saddens me to see so many families having to confront these tough decisions.”
Much of Heilman’s writing tackles environmental issues, but she says she is “extremely wary of writing anything that reads as a call to action or message heavy.” Nonetheless, Heilman hopes “readers find something in ‘Fire Hazards’ that will help them get through the challenging times we are all enduring.”
For more information on Jaymie Heilman, visit her website: https://jaymieheilman.com
To read the latest volume of SHIFT, in which Heilman’s work is featured, click on the purchase tab!
