How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
I mentioned George Slobodzian and Bryan Sentes: Bryan taught me literary criticism at Dawson College. George teaches at Dawson, too, but I only got to know him outside of school—in fact, mostly as the result of a visit to his cottage in Slovakia. As a poet, Bryan taught me how to read things. George, on the other hand, taught me how to write things. In their presence I am always the pupil first, and that will not change as long as they live.
I also make a point of regularly attending poetry readings in Montreal, open mics and such, in order to test the waters for certain poems, gauge my ability to perform them, and also, of course, in order to see what other people are doing in the city. I have been a regular attendant at the Accent Reading Series, a bilingual (now unofficially multilingual and definitely multivocal and otherwise polymorphous) event curated by Devon Gallant and Luc-Antoine Chiasson. There is always something interesting going on at Accent events. So far, it has evolved into a kind of meeting ground for poets and other writers from diverse horizons: sexagenarians and millennials, Concordians and McGillians, MAs and MFAs, Anglos, Quebecois and Acadians—it is always ready to accept more and different people, and is steadily growing for this reason.
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