12 or 20 (second series) questions with Emily Osborne

Emily Osborne is the author of Safety Razor (Gordon HillPress, 2023) and Biometrical (Anstruther Press, 2018). Her poetry, shortfiction and Old Norse-to-English verse translations have appeared in journalssuch as Vallum, CV2, Canthius, The Polyglot, The Literary Review of Canada andBarren Magazine. Emily’s poetry has been shortlisted for several prizes, andwon The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry 2018. Emily has a PhD inOld Norse Literature from the University of Cambridge. She lives on BowenIsland, BC, with her husband and two young sons.

1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life?How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feeldifferent?

My first chapbook (Biometrical, Anstruther Press,2019) and full-length collection (Safety Razor, Gordon Hill Press, 2023)definitely came as a fulfillment of a life-long goal. As a child I wrotecopious amounts of poetry and stories and always dreamed of publishing a book.When I was focusing on my academic studies, that drive was directed into publishingarticles and working on a critical book. After I decided to leave academia in2016 and focus on my creative writing, one thing that was emotionally difficultwas all the partial academic article manuscripts and book manuscripts I knew Iwould likely never publish. Holding my first chapbook and book took away a lotof that sting. And I am now working on a book that uses the knowledge I gainedduring my PhD studies in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, which feels likeanother fulfillment and justification that the years in dusty libraries werenot for nought. But more on that below!

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

I grew up in a house filled with books of poetry. My motheris a poet who did a PhD in Modern American poetry. The seeds were sown early. Ilove crafting prose as well, but poetry has always felt like the most naturalhabitat for me. After finishing a PhD and postdoctoral fellowship where Ifocused on poetry, it isn’t surprising that I was first inspired to writepoetry once I turned my attention back to my creative writing.

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’m definitely a snail, picking up little bits of dirt andpine needles as I inch along. Often I will think through a draft for a longtime, mulling over an idea, researching and taking notes, thinking upinteresting vocabulary. I make copious notes. Then, when I sit down to actuallywrite, the process can be very quick or very slow. Most poems I will edit alot. I’m a perfectionist regarding vocabulary and rhythm and work with imagery,bending and shaping an image until I feel it’s doing all it can. Most poems Iwill workshop with a writing group or with my husband, and then re-edit.

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

I quite enjoy readings and find it very helpful to see howaudiences respond to my poetry when read aloud. One of the things I miss aboutworking in academia during my PhD and postdoctoral years at Cambridge and UBCis the opportunity to lecture. I absolutely loved sharing material withstudents and seeing what kinds of insights and questions they brought to thetexts. For me, one of the benefits to hearing an author read their work is thatyou can (hopefully) hear some background about the piece and learn about whatmakes that author tick. In my experience, a minority of people find thisannoying and prefer to hear the poem or prose alone; most, however, enjoy thechance learn about the author and context. And the opportunity afforded byreadings to meet new writers and readers is always amazing. I only wish I hadthe chance to do more readings, but right now, living in a remote location withtwo little kids means I cannot do as many as I would like.

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

Essential and (at least so far), not at all difficult! Todate, editors have only suggested minor changes to my poems, but all feedbackand affirmation is incredibly helpful. On my chapbook I worked with Blair Trewartha and onboarded all of his suggestions. Same story with my full-lengthbook where I worked with Shane Neilson. While a suggestion to change a poem cansometimes feel jarring, every time I have stepped back and thought about how Ican use that suggestion to make the poem better, the result has been a betterpoem.

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

Curiosity is one of the most powerful tools a writer canpossess.

This, to me, has been so much more valuable than the moreoften repeated advice, “Write what you know.” Sometimes I think people getstuck on this latter advice about writing what they know, and cannot movebeyond it, essentially writing the same poem over and over. Or else, the poemdoes not contain enough meat in it because it fails to address otherperspectives, circumstances, etc. I think the most effective writing occurswhen you are curious enough about a subject that you will assess it from many angles;even if it’s something you already know about, there is so much more to learn!

12 – What fragrance reminds you of home?

Scents that remind me of my childhood home in SouthernOntario are: snow, hot tarmac in summer heat, freshly-baked bread, Ivory dishdetergent.

Scents that remind me of my current home on Bowen Islandare: damp pine needles, cedar wood, my husband’s light roasted coffees, variouschildren’s breakfast cereals gone soggy.

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?

Scientific facts are constantly inspiring me with ideas forpoems and stories – it’s a challenge to elegantly work these amazing factsabout the universe or the body into art, to engage in this dialogue between theways the world works on our perceptions and the ways language works on ourperceptions. My debut Safety Razor has lots of science sprinkledthroughout, touching on memory, weather, DNA, linguistics, and ultrasoundwaves. I’m the kind of person who loves learning new things and loves findingconnections among things I hadn’t previously viewed as connected. Film andvisual art often find their way into my poems as well, although in a generalsense as opposed to directly ekphrastic works describing a painting or filmscene. Perhaps ekphrasis will be a future project!

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

For writing, I would love to write both an adult fantasynovel and a children’s fantasy novel. I have ideas for both, but not enoughtime to write them at present! Also I would love to write and publish morecriticism and reviews

16 - 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?

In an alternate life, I am a professor of Old English andOld Norse Literature. In a second alternate life, I am an art historian. In athird alternate life, I am a ballet dancer. In a fourth alternate life, I am aprofessional chocolate taster. About this last one, I’m only partly serious. Ieat way too much chocolate and have been described many times as a “hound dog”because I have very sensitive faculties of smell and taste.

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

Most of my reading or tv-viewing time these days is with mykids, and I’m therefore obliged to select from kid-friendly material. Myhusband and I just finished reading the kids E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Webat bedtime. I avoided reading this as a kid because I couldn’t get “into”animal stories. I grew up in a house where severe allergies prevented us fromhaving pets and I didn’t develop relationships with animals until later inlife. Wow, what a powerful story! I found myself smiling and teary throughoutand impressed by the championing of humility, a virtue which seems largelyforgotten these days.

The last great kids’ film I watched was The Song of the Sea(2014). Breathtaking visuals, spot-on narration, with a story that is bothcomplex and simple to allow children to engage on many levels. My 4yo wanted towatch this over and over and, for once, I didn’t mind the repetition!

19 - What are you currently working on?

Finishing off a draft of an anthology of translations ofskaldic poetry – a form of verse composed in Scandinavia between the ninth andfourteenth centuries. I’m so excited about sending this out to publishers andsharing this genre with the world. To date, there is no easily accessible andlyrical anthology of this genre, but it is incredibly fascinating and rewardingto read. These are the actual words of the Vikings and their descendants, andtheir poems give us a view of Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia that isdifficult or impossible to find elsewhere.

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