By Hannah Thompson

For Laurie Petrou, the university classroom and the writer’s desk aren’t two separate worlds. As a professor in Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) RTA School of Media and an author, she’s spent years moving through academia and creative writing—experiences which collide in her newest novel: The Rayburn Affair, released Sept. 2.

The novel follows Dr. Ruth Morgan, a lecturer at the fictional ‘East Toronto University’ who is trying to make a name for herself as a writer. Her world shifts when she meets Shelby Rayburn, a celebrated author she’s long admired. Morgan becomes involved with Shelby’s personal and professional life, and what begins as romantic intoxication soon puts Ruth’s own ambitions, relationships and ideas about success into question.

The Rayburn Affair is Petrou’s sixth novel and the second to be set on a university campus, following Stargazer (2022). This time, however, she wanted the university in a downtown setting, something she hadn’t written before. She was also drawn to the idea of a university with blurred lines between reality and facade—the novel’s fictional campus was once used as a film set.

“I love a campus novel,” Petrou said in an interview with The Eyeopener. “It’s always been one of my favourite genres of books.”

Although East Toronto University is fictional, Petrou’s experiences at TMU helped shape the campus in the novel. She said her time as a professor gave her insight into the inner workings of a university, providing a foundation for her to explore the tensions which can unfold within them.

“I wouldn’t say that it was based in any way on TMU,” Petrou said, “but my experience as a faculty member and as a professor has given me an inside track into what [working in a university] is like.”

That experience also manifests in Morgan, who balances being a professor and a writer like Petrou. Though the two share similarities, Petrou said she had to dramatize Morgan as a fictional character.

“I had to, as you do when you’re writing fiction, you have to really dial up the volume on anything that might be true in your own life or the life of people you know,” she said.

“I would say that kind of the outer lines might be a resemblance to me, but filling her in was completely an imagination exercise.”

Petrou’s experience as a writer also shapes the way she teaches at TMU. She teaches RTA 808: First Draft, a course where students develop their own creative writing while learning from someone who has experience navigating the writing world herself.

“My experience as a writer has greatly informed the way that I teach that class,” she said.

For Petrou, writing is closely connected to reading and the simple enjoyment of creating something of her own. “I write because I love to read and I love to write,” she said.

Petrou’s academic background has also influenced the themes she explores in her writing. She has a PhD in communication and culture from York University, which she said has helped shape her interests, while her background as an artist led her to explore questions of authorship and inspiration.

Those ideas are especially important to The Rayburn Affair, which has artificial intelligence as one of its main themes. Petrou is strongly opposed to generative AI—particularly what it means for young writers and artists who are learning to develop their own creative voices.

“I’m not afraid of it stealing my voice. I’m afraid it’s stealing my students’ voices,” she said.

Petrou sees creativity as the process of making mistakes, experimenting with your work and discovering something unexpected.

“Half of creativity comes out of mistakes,” she said. “If you can press a button and get something instantaneously, you are missing exploration and failure and really amazing accidental wonder.”