Rob Mclennan's Blog, page 75

Touch the Donkey : interviews with Betancourt, Reid, Cadsby, Kolewe, Amadon, Kemp-Gee, Mellis + eckhoff/Dyck!

Anticipating the release in a few days of the thirty-ninth of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], why not check out the interviews that have appeared over the past few weeks with contributors to the thirty-eighth issue: Michael Betancourt, Monty Reid, Heather Cadsby, R Kolewe, Samuel Amadon, Meghan Kemp-Gee and Miranda Mellis. And even this hold-over interview from the prior issue with kevin mcpherson eckhoff and Kimberley Dyck!

Interviews with contributors to the first thirty-seven issues (nearly two hundred and fifty interviews to date) remain online, including: Junie Désil, Micah Ballard, Devon Rae, Barbara Tomash, Ben Meyerson, Pam Brown, Shane Kowalski, Kathy Lou Schultz, Hilary Clark, Ted Byrne, Garrett Caples, Brenda Coultas, Sheila Murphy, Chris Turnbull and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Stuart Ross, Leah Sandals, Tamara Best, Nathan Austin, Jade Wallace, Monica Mody, Barry McKinnon, Katie Naughton, Cecilia Stuart, Benjamin Niespodziany, Jérôme Melançon, Margo LaPierre, Sarah Pinder, Genevieve Kaplan, Maw Shein Win, Carrie Hunter, Lillian Nećakov, Nate Logan, Hugh Thomas, Emily Brandt, David Buuck, Jessi MacEachern, Sue Bracken, Melissa Eleftherion, Valerie Witte, Brandon Brown, Yoyo Comay, Stephen Brockwell, Jack Jung, Amanda Auerbach, IAN MARTIN, Paige Carabello, Emma Tilley, Dana Teen Lomax, Cat Tyc, Michael Turner, Sarah Alcaide-Escue, Colby Clair Stolson, Tom Prime, Bill Carty, Christina Vega-Westhoff, Robert Hogg, Simina Banu, MLA Chernoff, Geoffrey Olsen, Douglas Barbour, Hamish Ballantyne, JoAnna Novak, Allyson Paty, Lisa Fishman, Kate Feld, Isabel Sobral Campos, Jay MillAr, Lisa Samuels, Prathna Lor, George Bowering, natalie hanna, Jill Magi, Amelia Does, Orchid Tierney, katie o’brien, Lily Brown, Tessa Bolsover, émilie kneifel, Hasan Namir, Khashayar Mohammadi, Naomi Cohn, Tom Snarsky, Guy Birchard, Mark Cunningham, Lydia Unsworth, Zane Koss, Nicole Raziya Fong, Ben Robinson, Asher Ghaffar, Clara Daneri, Ava Hofmann, Robert R. Thurman, Alyse Knorr, Denise Newman, Shelly Harder, Franco Cortese, Dale Tracy, Biswamit Dwibedy, Emily Izsak, Aja Couchois Duncan, José Felipe Alvergue, Conyer Clayton, Roxanna Bennett, Julia Drescher, Michael Cavuto, Michael Sikkema, Bronwen Tate, Emilia Nielsen, Hailey Higdon, Trish Salah, Adam Strauss, Katy Lederer, Taryn Hubbard, Michael Boughn, David Dowker, Marie Larson, Lauren Haldeman, Kate Siklosi, robert majzels, Michael Robins, Rae Armantrout, Stephanie Strickland, Ken Hunt, Rob Manery, Ryan Eckes, Stephen Cain, Dani Spinosa, Samuel Ace, Howie Good, Rusty Morrison, Allison Cardon, Jon Boisvert, Laura Theobald, Suzanne Wise, Sean Braune, Dale Smith, Valerie Coulton, Phil Hall, Sarah MacDonell, Janet Kaplan, Kyle Flemmer, Julia Polyck-O’Neill, A.M. O’Malley, Catriona Strang, Anthony Etherin, Claire Lacey, Sacha Archer, Michael e. Casteels, Harold Abramowitz, Cindy Savett, Tessy Ward, Christine Stewart, David James Miller, Jonathan Ball, Cody-Rose Clevidence, mwpm, Andrew McEwan, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Joseph Mosconi, Douglas Barbour and Sheila Murphy, Oliver Cusimano, Sue Landers, Marthe Reed, Colin Smith, Nathaniel G. Moore, David Buuck, Kate Greenstreet, Kate Hargreaves, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Erín Moure, Sarah Swan, Buck Downs, Kemeny Babineau, Ryan Murphy, Norma Cole, Lea Graham, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Oana Avasilichioaei, Meredith Quartermain, Amanda Earl, Luke Kennard, Shane Rhodes, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Sarah Cook, François Turcot, Gregory Betts, Eric Schmaltz, Paul Zits, Laura Sims, Stephen Collis, Mary Kasimor, Billy Mavreas, damian lopes, Pete Smith, Sonnet L’Abbé, Katie L. Price, a rawlings, Suzanne Zelazo, Helen Hajnoczky, Kathryn MacLeod, Shannon Maguire, Sarah Mangold, Amish Trivedi, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Aaron Tucker, Kayla Czaga, Jason Christie, Jennifer Kronovet, Jordan Abel, Deborah Poe, Edward Smallfield, ryan fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Robinson, nathan dueck, Paige Taggart, Christine McNair, Stan Rogal, Jessica Smith, Nikki Sheppy, Kirsten Kaschock, Lise Downe, Lisa Jarnot, Chris Turnbull, Gary Barwin, Susan Briante, derek beaulieu, Megan Kaminski, Roland Prevost, Emily Ursuliak, j/j hastain, Catherine Wagner, Susanne Dyckman, Susan Holbrook, Julie Carr, David Peter Clark, Pearl Pirie, Eric Baus, Pattie McCarthy, Camille Martin and Gil McElroy.

The forthcoming thirty-ninth issue features new writing by: Robyn Schelenz, Andy Weaver, Dessa Bayrock, Anselm Berrigan, Noah Berlatsky, Rasiqra Revulva and Alana Solin.

And of course, copies of the first thirty-seven issues are still very much available. Why not subscribe? Included, as well, as part of the above/ground press annual subscription! Which you should get right now for 2024!

We even have our own Facebook group. It’s remarkably easy.

Erín Moure, Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser, Bishop, Grimké (de Castro, Vallejo)

My review of Erín Moure's Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser, Bishop, Grimké (de Castro, Vallejo) (Toronto ON: House of Anansi Press, 2023) is now online at periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Amy Ching-Yan Lam

Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer. Her debutcollection of poetry Baby Book , was published by Brick Books in spring 2023.Also available is Looty Goes to Heaven (2022, Eastside Projects). From2006-2020 she was part of the artist duo Life of a Craphead.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does yourmost recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

This book, whichis my first, both came out of major changes in my life and also changed my lifein major ways. I began writing it during a period of transformation, in my workand in my relationships, and I couldn’t have anticipated how much the act of writingwould also help that transformation along. This was my first time writingpoetry, and there’s something about figuring out how to work in the form ofpoems that changed my brain and my capacity for feeling. It made me moresensitive.

2 - How did you come to visual art first, as opposed to,say, fiction, poetry or non-fiction?

Actually, Ialways wanted to be a writer, throughout my childhood. So when I went touniversity I studied literature and writing. But I was so disappointed andrepelled by my graduate program in creative writing (at Concordia, FYI) that Isought escape from it and wanted to find other outlets. So I stumbled into thevisual arts through the world of zines and DIY publishing and performance, andat the time, I found it so much more free than what I was encountering at gradschool. I put aside writing and literature for basically a decade, to doperformance and film and visual arts projects, and then finally came back to itin 2018.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writingproject? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Dofirst drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work comeout of copious notes?

I think I’m aslow writer in the sense that I need lots of time to receive and gather ideasand images, and then fast in the sense that composing the drafts can happenpretty quickly. But then I need a lot of time again, to let the drafts sit andcome back to them later to edit, and then time to repeat this editing phasewith multiple poems in relation to each other for as many times as possible.

4 - Where does a poem or work of fiction usually begin foryou? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a largerproject, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?

For poems, Icollect notes, and I start from there.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creativeprocess? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I think there’ssomething important about speaking the poems out loud, and having people listento them. The speaking and listening creates a special space. I don’t want totake that for granted.  

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind yourwriting? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? Whatdo you even think the current questions are?

Writing seemslike one of the few tools that makes sharing or expressing an interior worldpossible. It’s a way of representing lived reality. And lived reality—actuallives—are so repressed all the time.

I also thinkthat any use of language is at least a little bit magical, in the sense of thespeech act, like the act of naming, or the act of promising. It’s a way to makespells.      

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being inlarger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writershould be?

I’d like to behumble and not have an exaggerated sense of my importance. I also can’t standwriters who claim not to have political positions. So I guess I am of twominds: I don’t think writers have roles, but I also think that some writers arevery bad at their roles.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outsideeditor difficult or essential (or both)?

I always needother people to read my work and help me figure out what’s going on. I reallyvalue having other artist friends read my work and sharing the process withthem. As a triple Virgo, I love a good critical eye.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (notnecessarily given to you directly)?

I once heardJohn Giorno respond to the question of “How to make it as an artist” with theanswer “You have to ruin your life,” and it comes to mind often. I think it’strue in the sense that your life will no longer make sense to most people (ie.ruined) but it will also be a lot better (ie. ruined in the romantic sense, ofhaving a more full relationship to the forces of change).

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres(poetry to fiction to visual art)? What do you see as the appeal?

Sometimes Iwonder why I work in so many different genres and if it would be simpler andmaybe more financially intelligent just to do one thing, but I enjoy thesolitary work of writing as well as the collaboration inherent in other artforms.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or doyou even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

No comment.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn orreturn for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I findinspiration in other artists’ work and lives. And I also like to read abouthistory, because I always find it so strange and interesting how people havelived and how transformation happens.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Carpet.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for yourwork, or simply your life outside of your work?

Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Bob Flanagan, Donald Rodney… so many other artists who havewholeheartedly expressed their lives and struggles through their work, and thework of my friends.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Go on a reallylong hike.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, whatwould it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doinghad you not been a writer?

Unfortunately, Ithink I could enjoy being a lawyer.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was thelast great film?

I just watched The World is Family, a beautifuldocumentary by Anand Patwardhan about his parents and their lives and colonialrule and nationalism in India, and it made me cry all the way out of thetheatre.

20 - What are you currently working on?

I’mworking on a book called Property Journal,where I kept a diary for a year writing down every time the topics of realestate or housing came up in conversation or in my life. It’s being publishedby Book Works in 2024.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Mary Ruefle, The Book

 

THE BARK

I took my dog to the lake,he stood at the water’s edge and barked, the echo of his bark came back and hebarked at it, again and again he barked at his own echo, thinking there wasanother dog on the other side of the lake. Welcome to poetry, I said.

Itwould be impossible not to absolutely delight in the lyric gestures of Bennington, Vermont poet, essayist and erasure artist Mary Ruefle’s latest, a collection ofshort and shorter prose and prose poems simply titled The Book (SeattleWA/New York NY: Wave Books, 2023). Ruefle is the author of well over a dozenfull-length titles, most recently Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2010), Madness,Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures (Wave Books, 2012) [see my review of such here], Trances of the Blast (Wave Books, 2013) [see my review of such here] and Dunce (Wave Books, 2019) [see my review of such here],and this latest collection offer pieces that sit within a wide gradient, from prosepoem to the very short story and everything in-between. There is somethingquite magical in the way her pieces exist within this collection, this “book,”offering the notion of genre as something wonderfully fluid. Within compactlines and wonderful flow, she offers intimate and lyric slivers of life andthinking, meditations on ordinariness that is never truly ordinary, orspectacular simply because of that ordinariness. The variations on her prosestructures hold an enormity, packing nuance into every phrase. “That book saton my various shelves for decades until I got around to it,” she writes, toopen the piece “THE BOOK,” “and then it seemed to be written especially for me.I hope this provides some hope to the other unread books surrounding me who arewondering what will happen to them when I die.” There is such a joy withinthese sentences, these phrases, one that appreciates and explores with such alevel of curiosity and wonder combined with a deep and abiding wisdom that itis it be envied. Writing on a misquoted haiku, and seeking the advice offriends as to which version they prefer, the “correct” version or the narrator’smis-remembered variation in the piece “THE HEART, WHAT IS IT?,” she writes:

David said he didn’t likeeither version because he didn’t like the haiku to begin with—it was full oftoo many words and “not enough emptiness.”

My opinion was that ifsomeone wanted fewer and fewer words and more and more emptiness they shouldn’tbother with poetry at all, they should neither read it nor write it but simplylive their lives, walking through the city or the forest without a thought tolanguage. I knew in my heart that the outer world was without written languageand that pages of writing were ultimately meaningless, I knew all that, but I alsoknew that humans are particular and often lead long lives and try to do thingsthat make them happy, and that writing was one of those ten thousand things.

 

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Shannon Bramer

Shannon Bramer writes poems, plays and short fiction.She is the author of Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children , illustratedby Cindy Derby, and several poetry collections for adults, winning the Hamiltonand Region Arts Council Book Award for her first book, suitcases and otherpoems. Shannon’s plays include Chloe’s Tiny Heart Is Closed (forchildren) and The Hungriest Woman in the World. In 2020 Book*hug presspublished TRAPSONGS , a collection of Shannon’s plays. Robot, Unicorn, Queen , illustrated by Irene Luxbacher, is out this month with GroundwoodBooks. She lives with her family (and two beautiful old cats) in Toronto,Ontario.

4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you anauthor of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are youworking on a "book" from the very beginning?

It's a little bit of both at this stage; poems always startwith a word or a line or a voice stuck in my head, but once a few have arrivedI usually notice something tying all the little pieces together and an idea fora book happens.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to yourcreative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I love giving readings; I am always exceedingly nervousabout the before and after (small talk and socializing!) because I am on theshy side, but something happens when I occupy my work and have anaudience--it's electrifying and so much fun. Readings always help me refinepoems as well. I often read to test audiences (the kids I work with!) and learnwhere things work rhythmically, emotionally and also where things land (ordon't!) in terms of the humour in my poems.  

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outsideeditor difficult or essential (or both)?

Editors are amazing and essential. Editors are attentive todetails, they ask important questions, they push you to see your work fromdifferent angles. I have also found that having an editor helps a writer unpackand articulate why they might make certain choices. I've been blessed withincredible editors over the years: Alana Wilcox, Jen LoveGrove, Nan Froman andlast but not least, David Derry, my husband--who is one of the best writers andtoughest editors out there!

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (notnecessarily given to you directly)?

Travel--you have to travel, Shannon. My NanaBramer always said that. And I think she's right; and I've tried to do thatboth on and off the page.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres(general poetry to poetry for kids)? What do you see as the appeal?

I think having children and working with children means thatI am immersed in a world of language and conversation and observations that Iam always internalizing. I love kids as much as I love poetry. I love listeningto them, I am dazzled by their ideas, sensitivities, bravery, humour--so I lovetrying to make them laugh, feel, and think with poems. I want to help them seethemselves, how beautiful they are, how funny, how much they teach the adults.They are not always easy to impress, so writing poems for them is a delightfuland thrilling challenge.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of your childhood?

Cigarette smoke! My mama is a long-time smoker of manycigarettes.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come frombooks, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature,music, science or visual art?

All of the above for me! I get a little obsessed withsomething--a variety of mushroom, or a painting, or a song or an artist--and Iwill pour my heart into finding out as much as I can about it/them. Theobsessions often lead to poetry.

15 - What other writers or writings are important foryour work, or simply your life outside of your work?

There are so many writers that have been important to meover the years; I have a few close friends who are writers and I am so gratefulfor the ways they inspire me and also cheer me on when I need it. My husband,Dave, is the most important, to be honest. He knows when I'm not working enoughon my writing I can get very down; he pushes me through those slumpy phases.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

Practise mandolin consistently and learn how to play morethan one song!

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing somethingelse?

I love writing and I have needed writing my whole life. Likemost writers I have always done other things alongside writing. I am a motherof three, I work in a nursery school, I teach poetry, I've been a lunchroomsupervisor and a bookseller. I am also a passionate cook; cooking is a kind ofpoetry for me and when I'm cooking I become hyper-focused in the same way thatI do when I'm writing poetry.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was thelast great film?

The Vegan Chinese Kitchen by Hannah Che. The recipesare as beautiful as the stories and photography in the book. The first one tocome to mind is Little Orphans, written by Newfoundland playwright andfilmmaker, and directed by Ruth Lawrence. It's a love letter toSt.John's, and explores what it means to show up, as mother, as a friend. It'san austere but tender film that broke my heart.

20 - What are you currently working on?

I'm working on the edits for a new book of poetry for youngaudiences, forthcoming in 2025. It's called Nightmare Jones and I am soexcited about it because it will be for slightly older kids. There's scorpionsand monsters and lots of spiders in this book. All the best things.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Michael Flatt, I Can Focus If I Try

 

Lost in the full stop offascination, I see a fly land on the window screen and choose not to attack it.My own screen at present a darkened android face. Is this a failed lyric or afuse? Please don’t show me how big the future child is with your fingers. A dustingof snow brings out the detail in a treeline, as driving through the mountainsdistorts our perspective, cinematically.

Iwas curious about the latest by American poet, critic and publisher Michael Flatt, his full-length I Can Focus If I Try (Toronto ON: knife|fork|book,2023). Currently a PhD candidate in the Poetics Program at the University ofBuffalo, Flatt is also the author of Absent Receiver (SpringGun Press,2013) and, with derrick mund, Chlorosis (The Operating System, 2018). Entirelya collection around seeing, looking and the limitations and possibilities ofperception, the lyrics that accumulate into I Can Focus If I Try work upto a boundary of perception. The book is built as a quartet, a progression, of fourindividual sequence-sections; the collection begins with prose sentences andprose blocks, focusing on the body of the text, that eventually evolve, acrossthis quartet, into a literal outline, articulating an absence. Flatt offers aself-description of his poetry on his website, writing: “My work seeks toexamine the formal boundaries of traditions involving the codex and the lyric.Themes include fraught relationships with the environment, the digital, and theother.” And yet, this is very much a book on the combined elements of seeing,looking and perception itself. “What do we do with these gaps in our beauty?” Flattasks in its opening piece, set at the top of an otherwise empty page. The poemsseek, and seek out beauty, seeing the gaps that exist between and amideverything else. His four numbered sections offer structural shifts from thecore of the lyric prose sentence into text clusters, pulling the words andphrases apart and, finally, setting his text as that literal outlinesurrounding the empty page, focusing the gaze, perhaps, on that absent,outlined middle. “And now a scene from something like nature,” he writes, aspart of the opening section, “unabstracted, providing an unobstructed view / ofdeer grazing by graves.” There is almost something theatrical in his structures,something of the performative gesture across the arc of this collection;something that wishes both attention and participation.

Lindsay Turner, The Upstate

 

what would it be like tostay here forever

we went up a mountain andwent up a fire tower

the seasons themselvesfelt annulled like a marriage

it doesn’t matter if itwas never gone through with (“Tennessee Quatrains”)

Thefollow up to her full-length debut, Songs & Ballads (Brooklyn NY:The Prelude Press LLC, 2018)) [see my review of such here], is Cleveland, Ohio-based poet and translator Lindsay Turner’s collection The Upstate (Chicago IL:The University of Chicago Press, 2023). The Upstate is a collection of lyricsthat seem to be composed from a place of wisdom and experience, albeit onehard-won and hard-earned, offering lines worn and clear and present. “Why doesn’tanyone here speak for their own life,” she writes, to close the opening poem, “Planning,”“Once in South Carolina there was a flood behind the storage units / Once it wasbelieved relief from was a thing in store /

Sorry to interruptyour peace. No it’s my job just to sit around soaking up beauty like a sponge. Thetall weeds blew in circles, a big gull flew by. Black shards from a campfire. Everybody’sthinking there might not be much else left soon. Burnt shards. No everybody’sthinking that.

Get ittattooed on your calf or your forearm. The only being on the rocky outcrop,some things present in their outlines while the others sink into the sea. The otherthings dissolve in toxic fog. The other things are sold in pieces so small you couldn’trecognize. Everybody’s thinking it. speculated on all you ever loved. Told tobe itself properly or it couldn’t exist. We all did it.

The days fellout light and hardwood. We almost didn’t recognize it.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Tom Cull

Born and raised in Huron County (Treaty 29 territory), Tom Cull currently resides in London, Ontario near the banks of Deshkan Ziibi on traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lunaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations.Tom works at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority and teaches creative writing at Western University. He is the author of two books of poetry, Kill Your Starlings (Gaspereau Press, 2023) and Bad Animals (Insomniac Press, 2018). Tom was poet laureate for the city of London from 2016 to 18. He is the director of Antler River Rally, a grassroots environmental group he co-founded in 2012 with his partner Miriam Love.

1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first chapbook -- What the Badger Said (Baseline Press, 2013)-- was a life changer! Karen Schindler makes beautiful books and is a brilliant editor. That she was willing to invest her time in my poems gave me a huge boost in both confidence and stick-to-itness. Her editing was also the crash course in poem-making that I needed.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I came to prose first. I wrote odds and ends of stuff that didn't really go anywhere. I think, maybe, that those first attempts at stories/non-fiction were actually poems trying to be something else. When I did start writing actual poems the form just felt comfortable, natural--the right fit. At that time (back in grad school) I was reading for comprehensive exams and while I loved reading fiction, it was the poetry (modernist/contemporary) that really sparked something. I'm really attracted to the density/precision/distillation of poetry. Poetry is like a well-made multitool: all that utility, craft, and mechanical dexterity packed into something you can hold in your hand.  
 
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
The writing comes quickly and the editing takes forever. I'll write a full draft in a sitting and then I'll tinker with it before I take it to my writing group. After its first rodeo, I'll stitch it back together and then take it back to the group. Once I get it to a good place, I'll put it away until it is time to send out. At that point, I'll have another go at it to make sure I'm happy with it.

4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I've never started a writing project with a book or end point in mind. Even my chapbook with my friend Kerry Manders (Keep Your Distance: https://longconmag.com/collusionbooks/digital/2x4two/keep-your-distance/) began as a poetry exchange that we then crafted into a concept/book. This is what I like about writing poetry -- you can build towards a book in a modular fashion. The book is then shaped after the fact. I know some poets begin with a book/concept and I would like to try that. But so far, it has been a process of one poem at a time.  

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love public readings. An audience is a gift. I always feel humbled and grateful that folks are willing to listen and respond. I also like readings because I can add some of the connective fibres/stories that exist alongside the poems but don't make it into the poems themselves. Often, I see the readings as an opportunity to add back in  what the editing process took out. That editing process is necessary and it shapes the poem so it can stand on its own in a collection, but a reading allows me an opportunity to add some 'tell' back into the 'show.'  I also like how readings give you an opportunity to bring out some of the rhythm and musicality of the poems. You have to be careful not to go overboard on both of the above (over-read or over-talk) but I do love sharing my work in this way.  
 
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
"Concern" is a good way of putting it. I think art/poetry is innately theoretical in that it asks questions and plays with ideas. My concerns are ecological; I'm interested in relationships among things/people/plants/creatures and relationships to home and place. How we dwell well in our dwellings.  

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I think there are as many roles for the writer as there are writers.  One important role is to ask and struggle with that very question. Some would say that their role is to have no role -- that they owe themselves to the work and that the rest is of secondary importance. I get that--it is important for art to resist instrumentalism. On the other hand, I do think poetry and the poet can have a role in society/culture/the civic sphere. I was the Poet Laureate for the City of London (2016-2018). It was a great two years. I enjoyed writing and reading for specific occasions--this helped me see how poetry can crystalize a moment, can concentrate into language a shared space and time, can focus and provide a vehicle for shared emotion, can frame civic concerns in new and subversive ways. The existence of the poet laureate comes from an idea that art and artists have a role in shaping civic space and discourse. Every writer does this in one way or another.  Near the end of my tenure as PL, I was asked to write one "legacy" piece. Instead of writing a poem, I worked with a group of artists, community members, and institutions to organize a three day summitt centred on the river that flows through this city and the traditional territories of this place. We called it "The River Talks: Gathering at Deshkan Ziibi" -- It was a confluence of people whose work, lives, concerns, cosmologies, histories, art, and activism centre on or are defined by the river. I felt very grateful and honoured to be a part of this event -- it fit with how I understand/imagine my role as a writer.  

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Both! They go hand in hand. The difficulty and challenge of outside editing helps forge a much stronger poem.  

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Reading is an essential part of writing. Also, don't be a jerk.

10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I write in the pockets of time I can find. I do have a monthly poetry workshop--It forces me to, at the very least, write one poem per month.

11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Sometimes the field just needs to lay fallow. Reading is always a good way to get back into writing. Going to poetry readings is another way. Galleries/exhibitions/performances can also get the blood pumping. Probably the best thing to do is not to sweat it and just go for a walk. Staying inside your brain is not good when things are stalled. Get outside and go on an adventure.

12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Fresh-cut hay, WD-40, chainsaw oil, roasted chicken, manure, burning leaves.

13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Nature, science, and visual art are big influences. Many of the poems in Kill Your Starlings were inspired by gallery visits (The ROM, AGO, National Gallery, Biodiversity Gallery at UWO). Nature is a major preoccupation --both in terms of the living world, but also in terms of how nature is represented in cultural artifacts (in car commercials for example). At UWO, I teach a nature writing course (You're a Strange Animal: Writing Nature, Writing the Self). We spend a large portion of each class outside exploring campus (the river, arboretum, forests, parking lots). We also visit the McIntosh Gallery, go on guided tours with biologists, and speak with Indigenous knowledge holders. We explore UWO's zoology collection, collect and identify benthic macroinvertebrates (stonefly larvae, dragonfly nymph, beetles, etc ) from the river, interview trees, collect garbage--we go on adventures. I encourage my students to research--to learn about the many ways we can approach and understand the living world.

14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
My editor, Andrew Steeves, at Gaspereau Press recently sent me two beautiful Gaspereau books: Wendell Berry's Notes: Unspecializing Poetry, and Aldo Leopold's Wherefore Wildlife Ecology. Both are terrific. Today I'm diving into Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron.  Two books that I read over a year ago but keep bubbling up in my mind are Elizabeth Kolbert's Under a White Sky: The Future of Nature and Kathryn Yusoff's A Billion Black Anthropocenes Or None. I'm always reading fellow London poets and I'm really looking forward to picking up Kathryn Mockler's new book Anecdotes (Book*hug Press). Annie Dillard is the best, and if you really want to blow your mind, read The End of Everything by astrophysicist Katie Mack--I don't really understand a word of it, but it does give me a sense of my complete insignificance--which I find both comforting and terrifying.  

15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Swim in Lake Superior, win a squash tournament, write the perfect poem, buy a farm with my partner and rescue animals.

16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
In school I wasn't strong in math or science, but I would love to be a biologist. I ran in the 2019 Federal Election for the Green Party, so the job of Prime Minister was also on the table.

17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I've never thought of writing as in opposition to something else. I do a lot of things in addition to writing (work two different jobs, run a river cleanup organization, serve on boards). I don't know if I could ever be just a writer because my writing comes from the other stuff I do (this doesn't mean that I wouldn't like much more time to write).

18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Sneaking in two books: Shaun Robinson's If you Discover Fire, and Liz Howard's Letter in a Bruised Cosmos.  Movie: I Like Movies

19 - What are you currently working on?
I was recently part of a group show at Museum London called GardenShip and State (https://www.gardenship.ca/garden-ship). The collective is planning for a new show in 2024, so I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing for that. I'm hoping to work with Michelle Wilson on an installation that combines text and materials recovered from the river. I'm also currently writing a poem about electrofishing.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

rob mclennan, natalie hanna + Nina Mosall launch ARP titles in Winnipeg!

I'll be launching my latest poetry title, World's End, (2023) alongside ARP Books authors natalie hanna ( lisan al'asfour ; see my review of such here) and Nina Mosall ( Bebakhshid ) in Winnipeg on Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 6pm, aceartinc, 206 Princess Street. Might we see you there?

the ottawa small press book fair, autumn 2023 (29th anniversary!) edition: November 18, 2023

 span-o (the small press action network - ottawa) presents:

    the ottawa
    small press
    book fair

autumn 2023
will be held on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at Tom Brown Arena, 141 Bayview Station Road (NOTE NEW LOCATION).

“once upon a time, way way back in October 1994, rob mclennan and James Spyker invented a two-day event called the ottawa small press book fair, and held the first one at the National Archives of Canada...” Spyker moved to Toronto soon after our original event, but the fair continues, thanks in part to the help of generous volunteers, various writers and publishers, and the public for coming out to participate with alla their love and their dollars.

General info:
the ottawa small press book fair
noon to 5pm (opens at 11:00 for exhibitors)

admission free to the public.
$25 for exhibitors, full tables
$12.50 for half-tables
(payable to rob mclennan, c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9; paypal options also available

Note: for the sake of increased demand, we are now offering half tables.
To be included in the exhibitor catalog: please include name of press, address, email, web address, contact person, type of publications, list of publications (with price), if submissions are being considered and any other pertinent info, including upcoming ottawa-area events (if any). Be sure to send by November 9th if you would like to appear in the exhibitor catalogue.

And hopefully we can still do the pre-fair reading as well! details TBA

BE AWARE: given that the spring 2013 was the first to reach capacity (forcing me to say no to at least half a dozen exhibitors), the fair can’t (unfortunately) fit everyone who wishes to participate. The fair is roughly first-come, first-served, although preference will be given to small publishers over self-published authors (being a “small press fair,” after all).

The fair usually contains exhibitors with poetry books, novels, cookbooks, posters, t-shirts, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, scraps of paper, gum-ball machines with poems, 2x4s with text, etc, including regular appearances by publishers including above/ground press,  Bywords.ca , Room 302 Books, Textualis Press,  Arc Poetry Magazine ,  Canthius ,  The Ottawa Arts Review , The Grunge Papers, Apt. 9, Desert Pets Press, In/Words magazine & press, knife | fork | book, Ottawa Press Gang, Proper Tales Press, 40-Watt Spotlight, Puddles of Sky Press, Invisible Publishing, shreeking violet press,  Touch the Donkey , Phafours Press, etc etc etc.

The ottawa small press fair is held twice a year (apart from these pandemic silences), and was founded in 1994 by rob mclennan and James Spyker. Organized/hosted since by rob mclennan.

Come on by and see some of the best of the small press from Ottawa and beyond!

Free things can be mailed for fair distribution to the same address. Unfortunately, we are unable to sell things for publishers who aren’t able to make the event.

Also: please let me know if you are able/willing to poster, move tables or distribute fliers for the event. The more people we all tell, the better the fair!

Contact: rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com for questions, or to sign up for a table