12 or 20 (second series) questions with Courtney Bates-Hardy

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the authorof Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery(ChiZine Publications, 2016), and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press,2013). Her poems have appeared in Event, Vallum, Room,PRISM, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal, among others. Shehas been included in The Best Canadian Poetry 2021 and nominated for thePushcart Prize. She is queer and disabled, and one third of a writing groupcalled The Pain Poets.

1 - How didyour first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent workcompare to your previous? How does it feel different?

My first book,House of Mystery, was proof that I could do it, I could write a book andget it published, and people would even read it. My second book, AnatomicalVenus, was different from the first because I really wanted to take my timewith it and be picky about the poems I included in it. House of Mystery wasvery inspired by fairy tales and the ways I could mix them with stories from mychildhood and young adult years. Anatomical Venus became much moreconcerned with the chronic pain I was experiencing after being in several caraccidents and I started to write about disability and pain through the lens ofmovie monsters and anatomical art.

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

I can’t recallif I wrote a poem or a short story first when I was young, but I kept goingwith poetry in a way I didn’t really with fiction or non-fiction. It’s muchmore difficult to find sustained amounts of time for fiction and non-fiction,so I’ve stuck with poetry. I love poetry and what I can do with it that I can’tdo with fiction or non-fiction, and my brain tends to think in poetry-sizedchunks, so it works out pretty well.

3 - Howlong does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writinginitially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear lookingclose to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

It reallydepends on the poem. Some poems come quickly and appear looking close to theirfinal form, some need more notes before I even start writing and go throughmultiple drafts, and other poems change completely from conception to finaldraft and might not even look like the same poem.

4 - Wheredoes a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that endup combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book"from the very beginning?

Typically, Ihave an overarching idea for a book in mind but it might shift and change as Istart writing the individual poems and do more reading and see what comes up.

5 - Arepublic readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sortof writer who enjoys doing readings?

They should bemore a part of my creative process. I try to read my poems out loud while I’mediting to get a sense of them but reading them for an audience gives moreinformation about how the poems are landing—what lines are working, what partsare funny, which poems resonate. But there are always some poems that I’llnever feel comfortable reading at a public event, if I feel they’re toopersonal or too emotional to read though. I enjoy doing readings, although I doget nervous. I’m always happy to hear from the audience about what resonatedfor them, even if it’s just in the “hmms” and “aahs”.

6 - Do youhave any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions areyou trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the currentquestions are?

In AnatomicalVenus, I wanted to answer the question about disability posed by AmandaLeduc that I included as the epigraph to the book: “What sort of happy endingcan be found in constant struggle?” The final poems in the book are my responseto that question.

7 – What doyou see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they evenhave one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?

I writebecause I enjoy it and because I like to create meaning and art out of my lifeand my interests. If other people read my work and feel that I have capturedsomething that they have felt or experienced, that makes me happy. If they readmy work and it shows them something they haven’t felt or experienced before,that also makes me happy. I’ll leave the question of the Role of the Writer inModern Society to the philosophers and greater writers than I.

8 - Do youfind the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (orboth)?

I find itessential. I need an outside eye to tell me what they see in the work and whatthey don’t. Sometimes I need that extra little push to put something on thepage that I’ve been dancing around in a poem. I worked with Jennifer LoveGroveon Anatomical Venus, and her feedback was immensely helpful.

9 - What isthe best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

My supervisorfor my Master’s thesis was Kathleen Wall, and she told me that if I ran into aproblem or a block in my writing, to put it in my back pocket (figurativelyspeaking) and let my subconscious work on it for a while before returning. It’sserved me well.

10 - Whatkind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How doesa typical day (for you) begin?

I don’t have aregular writing routine. Work takes up a lot of my time and energy, which iswhy it took eight years to finish and publish my most recent collection. Iwrite when I can, when inspiration hits, when I go to writers’ retreats, and wheneverI can type something into my notes app.

11 - Whenyour writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of abetter word) inspiration?

My reading.I’m always reading something, so I’ll turn to other books for inspiration or tolearn more about something I would like to write about.

12 - Whatfragrance reminds you of home?

The smell ofmy girlfriend’s hair, my cat’s fur, and good food cooking on the stove.

13 - DavidW. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other formsthat influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

Absolutely,you name it: visual art, film, tv, nature, science, music, ballet, on and on. Someof the inspiration for poems in Anatomical Venus came from the tv showsPenny Dreadful and Hannibal; monsters from Godzilla, Hellboy II, The Bride ofFrankenstein, The Blob; and anatomical art by Ercole Lelli, Eleanor Crook, JaquesFabien Gautier d’Agoty.

14 - Whatother writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your lifeoutside of your work?

Oh mygoodness, so many. Amber Dawn for her queer poems, Amanda Leduc for her writingabout disability and fairy tales, Joanna Ebenstein for writing about thehistory of the anatomical Venus in the first place, Sandra Ridley, Katherine Lawrence, and Jennifer LoveGrove for helping to shape the collection atdifferent stages in the process. I’m also endlessly grateful to my writinggroup, The Pain Poets.

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

I’d like to goon a writing retreat at Banff, I’d like to be guest editor for a literarymagazine, and I’d like to publish some of my non-fiction someday.

16 - If youcould 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?

Considering myfull-time job is in marketing and communications, I don’t know that I would bedoing anything else except writing. I thought about other things: teaching,publishing, library sciences, but they all circled around writing or reading insome way. If I could write full-time for myself, that would be a dream cometrue but that will have to wait until I can maybe, someday, hopefully retire.

17 - Whatmade you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I loved anykind of art growing up, but writing drew me in because I felt like I was betterat it than things like drawing or painting. I had a poem published in theschool newsletter in grade one, and that was it, I’ve been chasing that highever since.

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

I recentlyread Jes Battis’ forthcoming collection of poetry, I Hate Parties, andI’m very excited to read at their launch in September. It’s a beautifulcollection, so tender and meaningful, all about growing up queer and autistic. Ialso loved Joelle Barron’s new collection, Excerpts from a Burned Letter (historicallesbians!), Emily Austin’s Gay Girl Prayers (queered Biblical poems!),and Kayla Czaga’s Midway (stunning poems about complicated grief).

I just watchedAlien: Romulus in theatres, and I loved it. I’m a big fan of the Alienmovies, so I was pleased to see a new Alien movie that was so much fun to watchand paid tribute to the previous installments. Monkey Man with Dev Patelwas another great one I watched recently that was a total surprise.

19 - Whatare you currently working on?

I’m working onmy next collection of poetry, which doesn’t have a working title yet. So far,it’s about my experience of coming out as queer and polyamorous and reckoningwith the religious trauma of my past while also celebrating the joy and care ofhaving two loving partners. I’m doing a lot of reading on queer and lesbianfigures from the past that I think will come into the collection in ways thatremain to be seen. It’s a fun stage to be at and one of my favourite parts ofthe creative process.

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