Robin Durnford was born in St.
John’s and grew up on the west coast of Newfoundland. She is the author of
three books of poetry: A Lovely Gutting
(McGill-Queen’s 2012), Fog of the Outport
(Jackpine 2013), and Half Rock
(Gaspereau 2016). She now lives in Montreal.
What are you
working on?
A collection called Gap-Toothed
Girl about the gaps and spaces in my
own identity (I literally have a gap tooth which I’m partly proud of and partly
ashamed of). The collection’s about the parts that don’t seem to fit. When I
look at other people they always seem so ‘together’ and whole and sure and
fully formed. They are who they are. I always feel uncertain. My identity
shifts all the time. One day I feel really feminine, the next I’m more
masculine. Most days I’m Sam’s mom, but I don’t want that to be my whole
identity either. I want to go out to dinner with my husband and have sex
afterwards. My commie-pinko politics has mostly stayed the same for the last
twenty years, but I don’t like checked box liberalism or leftism. I need to
have the power to dissent, to disagree, to be cantankerous, but also to be
loveable! The voice, though. I hope my poetic voice holds the poems, and so my
self, together.
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