hello, dear reader.

It’s lovely to meet you! My name is Allie Fournier and I’m a writer from the mist-covered Atlantic Canadian city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Most of the time, I write love stories. The rest of the time, you can find me reading, watching movies and television, and listening to music. In other words, papering the walls of my life with art – some of it weird and some of it wonderful, but all of it feeding my imagination and shaping my taste.

That’s where the idea for intertextu[allie]ties came from.

tell me more.

When I was a plucky young English Lit major, I became fascinated with the concept of intertextuality, which is the idea that all art is connected in some way. It does away with the lofty concept of a wholly original idea and, instead, proposes a kind of creativity that acknowledges the ways in which art inspires and influences others.

As a creator, I know this to be true. When you make your own art, then the things that shape you are bound to show up. I speak from experience: pieces that changed the landscape of my mind like Pride and Prejudice and Phantom of the Opera live so deep in my heart that I find strands of their DNA threaded through almost all my stories.

Because humans are makers of meaning, intertextuality applies to consumers of media, too. If you layer a lifetime of books, movies, television, and music one on top of the other, constellations start to form – disparate works of art suddenly connected because of a reference, a similarity, or an homage to another piece that you notice.

And, since intertextuality is all about connection, I like to think that the art we consume connects us to each other. There’s nothing like the “!” your heart makes when you discover someone else loved Fleabag or the latest Emily Henry novel as much as you did.  

enter intertextu[allie]ties.

Sharing the books, movies, television, and music I’m enjoying is one of my favourite ways to connect with people, so this newsletter will be a monthly round-up of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to, delivered right to your inbox the last Monday of every month.

Each issue will also include a few fun extras like excerpts from my ongoing writing projects, snippets from my daily video diary, and the occasional exciting life update!

So, if you’re looking for a few personal recommendations from a lifelong bookworm, amateur movie reviewer, and niche Spotify playlist curator, I have a feeling intertextu[allie]ties might just be for you. (I hope it is!)