When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?
Oddly enough, when I’m feeling burnt out on poetry my go-to reads are the prose works of poets, be they essays and fiction. Especially the short stories and critical writing of Roberto Bolaño, his prose writing is consistently playful, snarky and inventive in ways that usually get me writing poetry again.
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
I’m currently taking a class that’s all about the relationship between English Romanticism and medical science, so I’ve been getting to read lots of Keats and Coleridge (never a bad thing). Whenever I have a minute to spare, I’m also chipping away at/dipping into Paterson by William Carlos Williams and “A” by Louis Zukofsky. I’ve been worried that my style has becoming a bit staid lately, so coming back to these experimentative modernist writers has been helpful.
How do you know when a poem is finished?
I’m not certain if I believe a poem is ever entirely done. I really enjoy the process of editing my work, going over every poem dozens of times (sometimes over the course of several years) and making corrections, changes, trying new things with lines, style, word choice etc. Even when a poem is published, I will still come back to it and play around with it, letting it grow and change as I do as a writer.
What are you working on?
Just now I’m editing the manuscript for what I hope will become my second book, called Cold Pastorals. Having grown up in a village in Nova Scotia, I’m interested in the ways that rural and small-town life are (mis)represented in literature, art, and film, especially now, as the pandemic and urban housing crisis seems to be sending plenty of young urbanites “back” to “the land”. I was fortunate enough to receive a grant with the Winnipeg Arts Council to work on Cold Pastorals with a professional editor, which has been a great experience.
