Robyn Mundy: Art Imitating Life
In 2023, inspired by my word of the year, ‘connection’, I started a new book club with my friend Kate and a wonderful group of women. Our first read was recommended by Kate’s 93-year-old mother: Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy.
One of the greatest joys of a book club is discovering books we might not have picked up on our own. That was certainly the case with this book. I probably would have skimmed past it in a bookstore, never imagining that by the end of the year, I’d be calling it my favourite read of 2023!
Set in the remote wilderness of Svalbard in the high Arctic in the 1930s, Cold Coast tells the remarkable true story of Wanny Woldstad, a pioneering Norwegian woman who defies societal norms to become a trapper of seals and polar bears. Determined and incredibly resilient, she navigates the merciless landscape alongside seasoned hunter Anders Sæterdal, facing the brutal realities of survival, isolation, and self-discovery. Through its vivid storytelling, the book explores themes of resilience, human connection, and the raw beauty of the Arctic. Cold Coast is a gripping tale of courage, endurance, and the power of the human spirit.
I had the pleasure of chatting with the remarkable Robyn Mundy in Salamanca Square, Hobart. Remote and rugged landscapes are central to both Robyn’s life and her writing. The term ‘art imitating life’ certainly comes to mind. She has experienced the extremes of Antarctica in both winter and summer, a setting that inspired her debut novel, The Nature of Ice. Her second novel, Wildlight, unfolds on the isolated Maatsuyker Island, home to Australia's most remote lighthouse on the south coast of Tasmania where she lived for ten months. Robyn has visited Svalbard numerous times: a Norwegian archipelago situated between mainland Norway and the North Pole and is one of the world’s northernmost inhabited regions. It's renowned for its stark, remote landscapes of glaciers, frozen tundra, and the possible presence of polar bears. Robyn has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, USA. She wrote The Nature of Ice as part of a PhD in Writing at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.
TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR EARLY YEARS AS A READER:
I come from a reading family. One of my sisters is an English Literature teacher and the other is an art teacher. At our shack on the east coast of Tasmania, we never had television, so it was easy to find time to read. I think it is a hard gig for parents today to influence their kids to read, especially as the phone (devices) are such a distraction. I read whatever mum read and the kind of books you had to read for school which were quite challenging. And we would talk about them in ways you wouldn’t talk about them today. We predominantly read Australian books, but I remember mum read Georgette Heyer. She would also read other things as well and she would often say, ‘I think you would enjoy this one.’ ‘Oh Robyn, you’ve got to read this biography, The Accursed Land.’ It tells the story of Douglas Mawson. I entered this other world and that was the moment where I knew this is where I want to go. It’s amazing how books shape your life.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
I am trying to read, but when I’m writing a novel, which I am at the moment, it’s kind of a double edge sword. Reading is distracting but it’s also a very good distraction. The last two books I’ve bought to read are the Robbie Arnott Dusk and Tim Winton’s Juice – I went to his launch of Juice.
SO, WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO ANOTHER BOOK SOON?
Yes. Again, it’s historical fiction and it’s based on a story I came across about a young woman and it’s her story. So, I’ve spent about a year doing research and that included visiting Norfolk Island for a week, and of course a lot of archival research and reading about tall ship sailing which I really know so little about. Fortunately, here in Hobart there are three tall ship rigs, and I was able to go out on one to at least get an idea of the sounds and feeling, even if I don’t know all the names of the lines and sails! So yes, I’m writing that at the moment and my plan is to have a first draft finished by the second half of the year.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT TASMANIA THAT PRODUCES SUCH A WONDERFULLY ECLECTIC ABUNDANCE OF WRITERS?
There certainly seems to be a concentration. I think there could be something about it being an island, and the weather of course. Definitely the wonderful culture.
Yesterday I was asked to host a potluck lunch writers’ lunch which I did. There were 12 of us – all Tassie writers. Writing is such a solitary sedentary profession, and you rarely get to talk to other writers. Tassie has a lovely community of writers, and it was good to hear of their challenges and even learn about things such as parts of contracts. One of the writers is launching a book this week, Mary-Lou Stephens, The Jam Maker, and she has a big following now. And another is Clare van Ryn who is publishing her second novel in March.
LET’S TALK ABOUT COLD COAST – DESCRIBED AS A RAW AND CONFRONTING STORY OF A TRAPPER’S LIFE … AMONGST MANY OTHER DESCRIPTIONS.
I have had people say they found the whole animal killing really challenging and I totally understand that. I knew right from the start, and I made a decision that I was going to honour the culture of the time and not pass that over. Back then people wore fur, and animals didn’t have the rights the way they do now. It was a different mindset. Times change. People often ask me which parts were true in Cold Coast, and I was very fortunate that Wanny had published a memoir and I was able to get a copy of it from a library in Wisconsin. And a friend of mine who is Norwegian/English did an informal translation for me. It was both frustrating and very informative because Wanny hardly ever spoke about her feelings. You would have to read between the lines. But she presented the day-to-day domesticity of life as a tracker, and she was very focussed on her embroidery, her cooking and then going out to check the traps, and that provided an amazing scaffolding for the novel. Taking on the life of a real person especially when they’re not from your own country or culture, was scary. I tried desperately to find any remaining family members. I wrote to people and couldn’t get in touch with anyone, and so I wrote but there are gaps no one can know. I had to use my imagination and filled the gaps in. When it was finished, I received this message on Instagram from a woman who had the same surname as Anders, Wanny’s trapping partner. She said her grandfather was Anders’ son, but he had passed away, but her grandmother was still alive and she’d bought the book for her grandmother. I was waiting to hear what she would think! And she said, her grandmother wants to know how you knew all that? One it was a huge relief, and two, it was quite affirming. When I was writing Cold Coast all I read was Norwegian authors and about Norway. They have such a strong affinity with nature.
NATURE OF ICE WAS YOUR FIRST BOOK. WAS THAT THE MOST DIFFICULT BOOK TO WRITE?
Yes, I think so. When I look back on it, I’m proud of it in the one sense, but I feel and hope, and maybe every writer’s the same, you hope with each book you become a stronger writer. Not that you ever feel confident about it – ever. But at least you have some grounding and maybe you don’t go down quite as many dead ends as you did the first time. And probably if I wrote it again, I’d write it differently but at the time I’d never written a novel.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE REWRITES AND EDITING?
I always remember my Masters supervisor saying to me, ‘Robyn, you’re a better rewriter than you are a writer’. And I think that’s totally true. Not that I would regard a first draft as rubbish by any means but somehow having it down and going back and reworking it is, is something I feel far more comfortable about than the writing itself. And I usually have a couple of long-term trusted readers, not including my partner! People who give me a good balance of criticism and encouragement, and not false praise. I remember reading a book on learning to write and the analogy was it was like cutting your own hair yourself, you can cut the front bit but can’t see around the back. You need someone to hold up a mirror so you can see the back of your hair. It’s the same having someone read your work and say, ‘I didn’t understand that bit’ or ‘this bit didn’t ring true.’
AS A WRITER AND TEACHER OF CREATIVE WRITING, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WHO THINKS THEY WOULD LIKE TO WRITE A BOOK?
I generally say to people, if you’re not a reader it’s going to be much harder to become a writer. A reader learns so much from osmosis, so if you’re reading, you’re also learning to write. I always encourage people to find a writing group, even if it’s two people. It makes you accountable and give one another feedback. And to start off with something that feels achievable. It has to be an idea that’s going to sustain you for three years or more, whereas a short story, it requires a huge amount of craft but it’s not going to consume your life for three years as a novel would.
I ALWAYS LIKE TO ASK WRITERS WHERE THEY WRITE?
At the moment, I have the most meagre working space. We have a tiny house and initially I was in what was the spare bedroom and then we were having guests, and I wanted to change it into a guest room. Which I’m very happy we’ve done so now I’m in the lounge room, against the wall with the most simple, humble desk you could imagine. I face the wall which is a practicality because of the lighting. I have a quiet envy of people who have beautiful writing studios, but I know for myself there’s no correlation between the beauty of the space and the writing. It all happens inside your head.
I type when I’m writing but I always have a notebook, but usually what happens is I write a scratchy note and then shove it into my notebook. I do also have this envy of people who have these beautiful journals and mine is just this scratchy paper.