Juno-nominated singer and songwriter Dayna Manning exemplifies the very best that Canadian folk music can be. Her cool, clear voice, along with her insightful songs, represent a history of Canadian musical art that goes back to the early 60’s and sounds equally vital today. Dayna Manning’s memoir Many Moons is her debut work as an author, and she is already starting to work with several Canadian songwriters on her next book.

In engaging prose as smooth and colourful as her Juno-nominated melodies, Dayna Manning’s memoir provides a window into the world of her songwriting. In Many Moons, Manning depicts her collaborations with Canadian legends such as Burton Cummings, Chris Hadfield, and William Lishman, providing readers with an intimate view of a musician’s life and up-close encounters with some of Canada’s greatest personalities. Manning’s charming debut memoir is a fascinating read, spanning Canada itself as well as a three-decade career in an ever-changing music business.

This book is important to me because I think people need to see that there are other reasons to choose my career then fame and fortune. The sheer experience and adventures I have enjoyed simply from writing a song are astounding. I want my contemporaries to think about how they could be writing songs that have big lives of their own ahead of them.

I’m hoping other songwriters will be interested in writing memoirs in the same style as mine. I’m working on a collection series with different songwriters and that perhaps some of them will want to write their own full book.

As silly as it seems I would say, “You can do it”! I’ve never thought of myself as a strong literary writer. In fact, I avoided a lot of writing opportunities when I was in school despite being a strong songwriter.

Writing my first record at age 16 and 17 showed me the power of words. It was always fun to try and capture the sentiment and story I was trying to tell with poetry essentially, in a maximum allowance of words. Then seeing where creating these songs led me, I realized the true power of human connection through words and music.

Pretty much in all facets of my life, success is being able to continue doing what you love and growing.

Honestly not much. I knew it my focus was from the beginning, telling my stories through my songs, so it was easy to stay on track. I didn’t write the chapters in the order they ended up in which I found interesting, so I did have to do some rejigging and editing to make them flow.

For songs, it’s generally it’s a connection to spirituality, humanity and Nature. For my book it was easily the adventures my songs had let me on. I feel like a passenger through every twist and turn they take. I absolutely love watching them take on a story of their own.

No, I really don’t believe in that kind of stuff – I find it limiting. Alone time is my only requirement.