There is ‘a lot of beauty’ in the Western Canadian communities that inspired writer Cole Nowicki

Growing up and staying in the same part of one’s home country can be a defining experience. For Cole Nowicki, that experience is the basis for his essay collection, Laser Quit Smoking Massage. The nonfiction work explores questions of family, community and belonging amid the rural and urban spaces that make up Western Canada. 

Nowicki is a writer, producer and publisher originally from Lac La Biche, Atla., who now lives and works in Vancouver. His work has been featured in publications such The Walrus, Catapult, Vice, The Outline, Maisonneuve and Quartersnacks. 

Nowicki spoke to The Next Chapter’s Ryan B. Patrick about growing up in Western Canada and his fondness for the cool and quirky urban and rural spaces that inspired Laser Quit Smoking Massage.

Throughout the book Cole, your essays and reportage kind of poke and prod at the oddities of life and the world around us. I really liked how it kind of honours people, places and things that are often in the margins. How would you describe your approach to writing these pieces in the book?

It’s kind of like an unconscious attraction to these sorts of subjects. Sometimes, I notice that it’s something that I want to write about — years after the fact that I’ve been paying attention to it. There’s a piece in the book that focuses on the website for the funeral home in my hometown, Lac La Biche, Alta., which I no longer live in. 

And there are a lot of really beautiful interactions on this website because it’s like an interactive obituary page that is, you know, constantly updated. So people are constantly sending each other messages of condolences and kindness. You can send digital prayers and candle emojis to people.

Community gets expressed through this website and also, in a morbid way, this is how I keep up with my hometown. 

Sometimes, I notice that it’s something that I want to write about — years after the fact that I’ve been paying attention to it.– Cole Nowicki

You’re like, ‘Hey, here’s who’s no longer with us,’ sort of thing. And I didn’t realize how sort of special this website was until years later and decided to write about it. 

I really enjoyed that sense of community, that sense of small town. This book felt like I was walking around in your brain. So I need to talk about the title. It’s called Laser Quit Smoking Massage. It’s one of the essays in the collection and it’s set in a small Saskatoon neighborhood. Tell me more about the piece.

That piece came to be because a friend’s band was going on a cross-country tour and I had just gotten laid off. So I jumped in the van and while we were driving through Saskatoon, through this neighborhood, there was a stretch of houses that were all advertising businesses. They all had the same style of signs, same typeface, et cetera.

One guy was selling sausages. Another guy was selling lawn service care. And then someone was promoting a business that was offering ‘laser quit smoking massage.’

I had no idea what that was, so I had to look into it and then went down a bit of a rabbit hole into finding out what this sort of procedure was, and finding out why exactly this stretch of houses in the community is, or was, home to so many literal home businesses. 

So tell me about this business called “Laser Quit Smoking Massage”. What is this all about?

From my understanding, it is a procedure where you are subjected to various lasers and they help you quit smoking. However effective that procedure is, I’m not exactly sure, not a doctor.

But for me, the tie-in and the appeal of writing about this is that when I was a kid, my mom — she still operates a sign shop making signs for industrial companies, industrial signage — when I was a kid, she had to bring the shop home at one point.

From my understanding, it is a procedure where you are subjected to various lasers and they help you quit smoking. However effective that procedure is, I’m not exactly sure, not a doctor.– Cole Nowicki

So having a business in the home is something that I can personally relate to and I was curious about how maybe other people came into that similar situation. I couldn’t really get a good read on what was going on inside the house offering the ‘Laser Quit Smoking Massage’, but who knows, maybe I’ll go try it out for myself one day.

What do you want to say about resourcefulness and economic insecurity in this piece? It’s this strip in Saskatoon and all these home businesses. There’s a sense of pride, whether it’s just a sense of bleakness as well. What did you want to capture here?

Ideally, I mean in the traditional sense, if you’re running a business, you want a storefront. That is a less and less feasible option for people these days. When I’m talking about why my mother had to bring her work home is that, you know, finances weren’t great. So that’s the reality that I was looking to uncover there and I think that there is a truth to that in that strip of houses in Saskatoon.

But I think that there’s definitely an economic reality to places like the Laser Quit Smoking Massage. Or clinic if that’s what you call it. 

This book is about community, it’s about family, it’s about belonging, and it’s about love in big cities or small towns across the country, specifically the Canadian West. What does this book say about Canada in 2024?

Alberta and British Columbia are the only places I’ve ever known. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I’ve always lived. I believe and I hope that the stories that I’m telling, whether they’re my own or others in the book, that they sort of transcend these geographical locations.

Alberta and British Columbia are the only places I’ve ever known. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I’ve always lived.– Cole Nowicki

I’m not exactly sure what they would say about this country generally, but what I do think, or I hope anyway, is that these stories do share feelings of hope and belonging and silliness just in general.

If they can give people those feelings no matter where they are, I think that’s the ultimate goal. I struggle with questions like this because I’m a very selfish writer. I’m not thinking about the audience, I’m just writing what I’m enjoying.

Cole Nowicki’s comments have been edited for length and clarity.

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