Like a million other young girls, Judith Graves has known Anne Shirley seemingly forever, especially since she hails from Prince Edward Island.
“She’s almost embedded in my psyche,” says the Summerside author, screenwriter and illustrator. It’s a big year for fans celebrating the 150th birthday of Anne of Green Gables writer Lucy Maud Montgomery, who was born on Nov. 30 in New London and raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish, about a kilometer away from her uncle’s house, which inspired Green Gables. Graves, who had won a writing contest with “ANNe,” her short story about a malfunctioning robot, was keen to hop aboard the festivities. With help from her friends at Charlottetown-based Acorn Press, Graves collected and co-edited nine more Anne-inspired stories that became The ANNEthology: A Collection for Kindred Spirits .
Graves’ literary rules to the Canadian contributors, who write in genres ranging from horror to fantasy to poetry, were both vague and specific. “It doesn’t have to be a human girl, but the character has to be named Anne, has to have red hair or somehow reference red hair, and Anne has to be either orphaned or adopted,” she told them. The new takes and twists on the iconic Anne Shirley recast the feisty, freethinking outsider as a boy, a cannibal, a person of color and a modern-day angsty teen, for example. Each and every one confirms Graves’ reason for loving Anne. “She was way ahead of her time. That we’re still talking about Anne more than 100 years later, that’s cool.” How and why do the other writers love Anne Shirley, and how did they reimagine the red-headed orphan for a new age? Naturally, we had to ask.
“Anne and the Bloody Book” by Susie Moloney, horror author, Winnipeg, Man.
Why did Anne Shirley appeal to you as a character?
What all lovers of Anne know is that Anne is us. She’s the little girl lying under her bed where it was semi-dark, imagining all sorts of scenarios and how she’d be the hero in all of them, until her mom runs through the house screaming her name, because she hasn’t seen her in a couple of hours. Wait, maybe that was me. Anyway, Anne is just like us. A little lost, a little found, a lot living in her head.
What biggest, over-the-top, Anne Shirley-esque adjectives would you choose to describe her?
Passionately optimistic, blindingly faithful, incurably red-headed and vicariously perfect.
Describe your ANNEthology take on Anne Shirley?
I was a kid; we’re powerless. So, I have always assumed that coiled inside our Anne was a tightly wound coil of rage. Babysitting twins? Triplets? Being used as a workhorse? Sent back to the orphanage? Being blamed for killing some guy? Dead parents? RED HAIR ?! Anne was angry. She was going to blow, and in my story, she does. And she wreaks havoc when she does, with the help of a supernatural book.
“Where the Dark Goes” by Mere Joyce, YA novelist, Antigonish, NS
Describe your ANNEthology take on Anne Shirley?
In my ANNEthology story, Anne runs away from her foster father in order to try and protect her foster siblings, twins Davy and Dora. On a stormy night, the trio seeks shelter in an abandoned and reportedly haunted house nicknamed Green Gallows. But Anne knows that ghosts are not the scariest thing in the world, and she’s willing to take her chances with the dead if it means she can keep the twins safe.
How did you come up with that?
Within Anne of Green Gables , and especially within Anne of Avonlea , there are hints of an Anne with a darker sensitivity. She talks about haunted places and ghosts, and she sees beauty in a story about a woman dying in her beloved garden. I loved these parts of the books, and as a reader it frustrated me that the other characters were always so bothered by her ruminations. I wanted to give Anne the chance to exist in a world where she could explore those darker interests and confront the reality that the living world is sometimes far scarier than many of the things people find to be “spooky.”
What biggest, over-the-top, Anne Shirley-esque adjectives would you choose to describe her?
I decided to look through the Dictionary of Obscure Words for this one, as I think Anne would appreciate them. Gaudiloquent: speaking joyfully or on joyful manners (this one doesn’t need an explanation); inocciduous: a never-setting star (although Anne’s not that kind of star, she never gives up and never lets her brightness dim, even when faced with some serious hardships); and rupicolous: living in the country or in rural areas (this applies to Anne’s love of PEI and Avonlea, but also Montgomery’s beautiful nature writing overall!).
“4624463” by Natasha Deen, YA writer, Edmonton
What ‘s your best/earliest/funniest/strangest Anne memory from childhood?
One hundred and ten per cent it was the 1985 adaptation featuring Megan Follows as Anne and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert. Specifically, the moment he calls her “Carrots” and yanks her hair, and Anne retaliates by smashing the slate over his head. As a viewer, I loved everything about the moment and was in awe of the amazing dynamic the actors created in the scene.
Why did Anne Shirley appeal to you as a character?
I appreciated she was the outsider – she was the only redhead, had moved to a new place and had to attend a school where she didn’t know anyone. As a kid who moved from Guyana and was often the only kid of color in the room, her struggles to fit in and make friends resonated with me.
Describe your ANNEthology take on Anne Shirley?
In a dystopian society where families are outlawed, emotions are illegal and access to books are restricted to an elite few, Anne must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice everything to stop the government before it’s too late. My Anne is a person of color and she’s in a world that takes logic above all, where her core traits – her humanity, imagination, and heart – are considered both unattractive and dangerous.
“Anne, from nowhere in particular” by Matthew Dawkins, an author and poet, Toronto
Why did Anne Shirley appeal to you as a character?
Growing pains are part of our life cycle; we’ve all experienced them from the moment we gained consciousness to every stage of life thereafter. Anne stands out to me because, despite those pains and the little life offered her, she remained tenacious. Anne enters her own story with a hunger for life that’s admirable and we watch that blossom, despite the odds, and infect those around her, allowing them to also dare to hope.
Describe your ANNEthology take on Anne Shirley?
Anne, from nowhere in particular follows Anne, a trafficked Jamaican girl coming to grips with her new reality. In my short story, Anne reckons with freedom, family, history and the understanding that these qualities of life linger and, possibly, are the key to her escape.
How did you come up with that?
There’s a history of young girls from the global south being trafficked to North America. For Jamaicans in particular, there’s a history of enslavement and the itemization of our bodies. Knowing these two things, I wanted to deliberately trouble our idea of “adoption” and help raise awareness for the lived experiences of so many girls worldwide.
“Carpetbaggers,” by Paul Coccia, fiction writer, Toronto
What ‘s your best/earliest/funniest/strangest Anne memory from childhood?
I didn’t read Anne of Green Gables until my twenties, through a Manchurian professor who used to bum cigarettes off students during breaks. Had he known how beloved Anne Shirley is, he may have been kinder teaching [us about] Canada’s beloved red-headed orphan.
Why does Anne Shirley appeal to you as a character?
Anne Shirley is a drama queen. Not a critic! The trait provides a dynamic catalyst that propels the character and plot.
Describe your Anne Shirley?
My Anne is a chubby teenaged boy who leaves the only home he’s known to seek a family and future with Matthew Cuthbert, but instead finds Marilla. I thought of the original text and came up with the idea of expectations. Anne knows when she’s at Green Gables that she isn’t what Matthew and Marilla expect or want. Were they what Anne expected? We all possess and experience expectations daily and it fits with themes of sexual identity and body image that are already part of my stories.
How is your Anne different from the Anne we all know and love?
I took the original Anne Shirley as an inspiration diving board and leaped, creating my version of the iconic heroine as fat, gay and male. Despite the ostensible variations of each Anne in The ANNEthology , readers will still find the plucky, brave, optimistic and resilient main character they love in every story. It’s Anne Shirley across the multiverse.
