How did you first engage with poetry?
I read the poem "Babi Yar" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko in a magazine. His work focused on war atrocities and denounced antisemitism. It was the 1970s. In blue ink I wrote the poem into a red notebook.
And he was more than a poet - he was a citizen taking a stand. Searching for a tombstone, a historical marker, but finding nothing. It took him two hours to write the poem that begins:
“No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone. I am afraid.”
Three decades later I publish my first poetry book, Blue Poppy (Coracle Press, 2009). I dedicate the book to my late mother Magda Kovács.
I am artistic director of The Yellow Door Reading Series. Visual Arts Centre Reading Series. And Argo Bookshop Reading Series. Recipient of the Quebec Writers’ Federation 2010 Community Award.
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