INTERVIEW: Constanza Paez-Silva and "Blaze Hoofer"

Brent Phakousonh interviews Constanza Paez-Silva, about her piece, "Blaze Hoofer", featured in the 2026 Anthology, EXIT LINES, her writing process, and her time at Sheridan's Creative Writing and Publishing Program.

ABOUT CONSTANZA PAEZ-SILVA

Constanza Paez-Silva is a Chilean-born, Toronto-based fiction writer with a passion for speculative worlds, sci-fi reimagined realities and distortions in the matrix. Her stories often blur the line between the strange and the familiar, written to provoke strong emotional responses in readers. A lover of all forms of storytelling, Constanza draws inspiration from real life experiences, oral traditions, folklore, and the quiet, yet powerful force of the imagination.

INTERVIEW

BRENT PHAKOUSONH: How has Sheridan CW&P program impacted your writing career?

CONSTANZA PAEZ-SILVA: I would say it started it to be honest. I had a background in visual arts and did an art program in high school, so I always kind of leaned towards a creative kind of-esque vibe. But I never did true writing until I did CW&P, and it really  expanded my kind of view not only on writing itself but also reading and the industry itself. I didn’t know a lot of things I ended up learning now in my fourth year. Having gone through all four years and gone through copyrighting, copy editing, substantive editing, and even the business of publishing, ALL really kind of impacts on how I write from now on. Because it’s not only just writing to get the story out, but it’s also writing to how you’re going to get published. And I think it’s very important to know that. So the program itself really not only impacted my kind of ability to understand the industry but also expanded it, so I have all the respect for all of the professors in the program as well. They did a great job, and it’s a shame that we’re actually closing the program at Sheridan. I think it will affect—definitely—the Canadian literary industry.

BP: What’s the inspiration behind your piece? Why is it called “Blaze Hoofer”?

CP: So I started writing this piece in Glenn’s masterclass for single genre, and I remember doing an exercise before having to write this piece because it was the final for the class. And it had to do with just experimenting with—starting off with—weird beginnings to stories. So we kind of just started practicing that and, in that, I kind of thought, “What’s the weirdest way I can start a story?” And I kind of just thought about—what’s that show on Netflix… the bosman, the horse?

BP: BoJack Horseman?

CP: BoJack Horseman! Yeah, yeah. That guy. And I was like, “Oh, that’s like something weird.” And then thought about the impact of, like, what if you actually saw someone who just showed up at your apartment and was like, “Oh, hey, like I have a head of a horse.” And then that’s where it kind of just started off. So that’s why my piece starts off with there’s a horse at my door, and it kind of goes off into that. And “Blaze Hoofer,” I kind of Googled what were very horse-like names and Blaze was one.

BP: Yeah sounds about right.

CP: Right. And then “Hoofer,” I guess, I don’t know, I wasn’t being creative with that one. I just thought it’s something that would be really on the nose and was funny and at the end of the story I really didn’t know what to call it, so I just defaulted to the name of the horseman.

BP: What’s the one thing you would say to the next graduating class of CW&P?

CP: I think I would tell them to advocate for Canadian literature because I feel like, we in Canada, don’t have any kind of say into what books get kind of shown. Like when you get into Indigo, you always see other names that, you know, we don’t really know, and if you ask anyone, Margaret Atwood is probably one of the only Canadiana literary…

BP: Figures

CP: Figures, exactly… that we have, and it could always be you. So I think if we just support Canadian writers and writing in general, it’ll really expand not only our own writing as writers but also just the industry itself. And kind of play ode or give ode to the CW&P class and program.

BP: Yeah, for sure, I agree with that. And you really don’t know where everyone else is going to go from here, right, so someone else in the CW&P program could be the next Margaret Atwood.

CP: Exactly, it could be you. It could be you.

BP: Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right, thanks, Constanza.

CP: No problem, thanks for having me.