12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jake Byrne
Jake Byrne is a writer based in Tka:ronto, ckaToronto. Their first book of poems, Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin,is available now from Wolsak & Wynn's Buckrider Books imprint. DADDYis forthcoming with Brick Books in 2024. Find them at @jakebyrnewritessomewhere on the Internet.
1 - How did yourfirst book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compareto your previous? How does it feel different?
My first chapbook didn’t change mylife very much – well, it did, but in the normal way that time changes thingsfor you. It was nice to get a nod from the bp Nichol shortlist, but I would saymy life quickly returned to what it had been previously.
Things feel a little different forthis book – but I’ve felt ‘career momentum’ before that went nowhere, so I’mnot going to count any chickens prior to hatching. All I will say is that itfeels nice to feel so supported as I get to accomplish a dream I’ve had sincechildhood.
2 - How did you cometo poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
Horrific attention span. Poetryinvolves the types and durations of concentration I am naturally suitedtowards. It also is still a lot of fun. Writing prose has always felt laborious.
3 - How long does ittake to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially comequickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to theirfinal shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
It takes seconds to start anyparticular writing project, and just as long to abandon them. Some poems comefully-formed, quickly: those are the bolt-of-lightning poems. Then there areones that are formed over months, years, often with little active work, just mymind slowly composting an idea or image until one day it coalesces. These arethe long poems I tend to end my books with.
4 - Where does apoem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end upcombining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" fromthe very beginning?
I have no idea of telling where onebook ends and another begins, other than they tend to have different ‘feels’ tothem. Many of the poems in Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin werewritten at the same time as poems from DADDY, for example, but tome, there’s no way of mistaking one for the other.
5 - Are publicreadings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort ofwriter who enjoys doing readings?
I enjoy readings, as a poet I think you must MUST be down to hang out.Novelists are the industrious introverts of the literary world – for poets, allwe have are our communities.
6 - Do you have anytheoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are youtrying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questionsare?
I guess, ultimately, I am only trying to answer one theoretical question,which is the question of theodicy: why does suffering exist? If God exists,why does God permit suffering and evil?
I guess I’m just kind of culturally Catholic that way.
On the level of technique, prosody trumps all other considerations forme, 99.9% of the time.
My poetics derives from sound, not from image. All considerations such aslogic, fact, or whether a word is ‘best’ or not will be overturned in favour ofa syllabic pattern that sounds ‘right’ to me.
The other things I am interested in are primarily the art of artifice andits corollary, sincerity and vulnerability, or the appearance thereof, and Ihave some very minor concrete leanings in that I prefer to think of the whole page,including its white space, as my canvas. You may continue to expect some weirdgrammatical and formatting stuff from me in the future.
7 – What do you seethe 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 the role of a writer, or the role of any artist, is to bothattempt to describe and reshape the reality you live in, and to encourageothers to have the courage to do the same. It takes a great deal of courage tolive honestly.
8 - Do you find theprocess of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Essential. I consider myself a sharper editor than a writer and alwayshave. It would be hypocritical of me to respect the process when I’m on one endof it but not the other.
9 - What is the bestpiece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
This is not a piece of advice I’ve heard, but rather one I’ve witnessedand observed: in a small industry mostly consisting of friends passing the same$500 back and forth between each other, the relationships you form are everything.Kindness and collaboration provide better returns than competition.
10 - What kind ofwriting routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does atypical day (for you) begin?
I have no fixed writing routine. Myonly rule is that when I hear the call, I write it down, no matter how horribleor artless it seems in the moment.
I have long fallow periods, sometimes up to eighteen months, where Ibarely write at all. But the urge comes back, it always does, and then I maketime for my notebook.
11 - When yourwriting gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a betterword) inspiration?
I’ve gone through enough of these cycles that I no longer worry aboutthis or attempt to force it.
I redirect attention to my life and try to live it, and after a few weeksor months of that the poems start flowing again.
12 - What fragrancereminds you of home?
I grew up in a fragrance-free household, for the most part.
I guess certain soaps and cleaning products, or maybe the ginger cookiesmy mom made for us in the fall in the nineties.
I wear a lot of scents myself now in adulthood, so I still don’t have afixed ‘home’ aroma!
13 - David W.McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other formsthat influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I’m only a poet because I couldn’t cut it as an actor, novelist,rockstar, playwright, director, or painter.
14 - What otherwriters or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside ofyour work?
Everything is grist for the mill,but I’ve always been someone interested in responding to the art of others, andthat includes
15 - What would youlike to do that you haven't yet done?
16 - If you couldpick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, whatdo you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
17 - What made youwrite, as opposed to doing something else?
The path of least resistance.Bookworm child, author adult. Oh and the fact I had a really really powerfulexperience of being the day I wrote my first word, which is probably the mostvivid memory I have from my early life.
18 - What was thelast great book you read? What was the last great film?
Great book? A Queen in BucksCounty by Kay Gabriel.
Great film? I’ve been having one of my little obsessions about DavidLynch’s Inland Empire, and have watched it about thirty times sinceNovember of 2022. One day I will simply grow tired of it and never watch itagain.
19 - What are youcurrently working on?
Surviving my debut book tour. I have three to four book ideas ready to gobut I think I’m going to need a period of rest and recovery before I can startthinking about those.
