Red Letter Day is the 49th Shelf series where Canadian authors tell us about a dream day where all pleasures are possible, thanks to a combination of extraordinary talent and mad cash. Today that day is envisioned by Aislinn Hunter, author of The World Before Us, a novel Helen Humphreys calls "a brilliant work of humanity and imagination." Aislinn's previous works have also earned her nominations for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, The Danuta Gleed Award, The ReLit Prize, and the Amazon.ca First Novel award. Her poetry collection Into the Early Hours won the Gerald Lampert Award.

Here is the premise: It’s been a good year. Things are looking up. You’ve sold your book, some lucrative foreign rights, and won a few prizes. AND it’s your birthday. It’s time to treat yourself. For once, money is no object. It’s time to go live a little.

And so ...

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49th Shelf: You walk (or fly!) to your favourite bookstore (AH: Ben McNally in Toronto—so my bestie can meet up with me) and browse the shelves for three books you’ve been meaning to buy. What are they?

AH:

• Helium, by Jaspreet Singh
• Ocean, by Sue Goyette

• School, by Jen Currin

49th Shelf: Then you see a struggling student scanning the Canadian Literature section. You decide to “pay it forward” and buy three must-read books by Canadian authors to leave anonymously at the counter for the student. What are they?

AH:

• The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals, by Elizabeth Smart

• Wisdom & Metaphor, by Jan Zwicky

• Mole, by Patrick Warner

49th Shelf: You’re a little bushed from all that buying and being considerate. So you’re going to go home, flake out on the couch for a while, and celebrate the birthday by ...

AH: Listening to Common One, by Van Morrison.

49th Shelf: Now you’re going to fly ten friends into town and take them out for dinner somewhere special. Where?

AH: Les Faux Bourgeois. It’s quaint and convivial, the food is delicious, and the wine list is distinctively French with some excellent BC wines in the mix (Clos du Soleil’s fume blanc is a favourite). It’s the sort of place you’d expect to find down a cobbled side street in Lyon or Toulouse. Jules in Gastown is also good for celebrations. And I really like the head sommelier.

49th Shelf: At dinner, that good old question comes up: what would you be if you weren’t a writer?

AH: Hmmm, I almost went to Boston to do a Master's in Art History … I guess I can see some version of myself giving lectures on Irish art, Banksy, Cornelia Parker, or the history of animal portraiture …

49th Shelf: Then they ask you about your latest book. What do you say? How do you describe it in two sentences?

AH: "A chorus of the dead are following you around." Seriously.

49th Shelf: Finally, because you’re the sort of person who puts aside 10% of your income for charity, you decide to make a significant charitable donation.

AH: I’d donate to Because I Am A Girl who do amazing work… I’d also use some of the money I get to keep to buy a house (with a big yard) so

we can keep fostering Border Collies for That’ll Do Border Collie Rescue.)

49th Shelf: That night you head to bed a contented person. Only one thing remains: deciding which of your new books you’ll read first until you fall asleep.

AH: I think I’ll start with School.

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Aislinn Hunter is the award-winning author of two books of poetry, a story collection, a book of lyric essays (on thing theory), and the novel Stay, which was made into a feature film starring Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black) and Aidan Quinn. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013 and has just been launched "on demand" on cable networks and on iTunes in Canada. Her newest novel, The World Before Us, is due out September 9th in Canada with Doubleday, and in the US and UK in the spring of 2015. If all goes well she will be finishing her PhD at The University of Edinburgh this December. Fingers crossed.