Cassidy McFadzean : part five

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

Lucie Brock-Broido is a poet with a singular vision and aesthetic. I was so grateful to encounter her work early in my career, and realize that I could write to my obsessions and follow my curiosities wherever they make take me.

Cassidy McFadzean : part four

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

Certain poems have meant a great deal to me at different times. One poem I would recommend and that I have returned to for consolation and fortitude is Anne Boyer’s “What Resembles the Grave But Isn’t.”

Cassidy McFadzean : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

It is a struggle to stay in good mental health, especially most writing is done in isolation and the process often involves confronting self-doubt and reckoning with difficult ideas and/or trauma. This is especially daunting for those living under the poverty line, and is further compounded by recent discussions of abusive men in the literary community. At the same time, poetry is often what I turn to in times of difficulty, and so for me this urgency is what makes pursuing poetry worthwhile.

Cassidy McFadzean : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

I was drawn to poetry out of a love for language itself. In poetry, words can be the focus of a piece, and I found in poetry an art form that celebrates the esoteric, the archaic, the enigmatic. This is why most of my writing participates in the lyric mode; I find the combination of music and meaning that occurs when certain words are recited in a certain order to be incredibly moving if not magical.

Cassidy McFadzean : part one

Cassidy McFadzean is the author of Hacker Packer (M&S 2015), winner of two Saskatchewan Book Awards and a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Cassidy was born in Regina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently lives in Toronto.

Photo credit: Julie Mannell

What are you working on?

I’ve just started a series of poems about mental illness and treatment I underwent this past year. I’m also attending residencies in to Yerevan and St. Petersburg this coming spring and am planning on writing about the Caucasus and post-Soviet region. I’m hoping to somehow bring these two ideas together.