Amanda Earl : tonight at IFOA's Poetry Now! and some interview answers:

Amanda Earl reads tonight at IFOA's Poetry Now! And through such, she (and some of her co-readers) have even answered some interview questions. Good luck, Amanda! We hope she wins!

The Calgary Renaissance: an interview with Paul Zits

Edited by derek beaulieu and rob mclennan, and designed by Chaudiere co-publisher Christine McNair, The Calgary Renaissance highlights some of the diverse and astonishing experimental poetry and fiction that has emerged out of the past two decades of Calgary writing. An essential portrait of some of the most engaged and radical of Canadian writing and writers from one of the country’s most important literary centres. You can order a copy directly, here.

For further (ongoing) interviews with contributors to The Calgary Renaissance, check out the link here.

PaulZits received his MA in English from the University of Calgary in 2010. Massacre Street (UAP 2013), the product of his creative dissertation, went on to win the 2014 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. In addition to serving two terms as Writer-in-the-Schools at Queen Elizabeth High School in Calgary, teaching creative writing to students in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, Zits is a regular instructor with the WGA’s WordsWorth Camp at Kamp Kiwanis. Zits is currently a teacher with the Calgary Board of Education.

Q: How long were you in Calgary, and what first took you there?

A: I lived in Calgary for ten years (2005-15) and originally came specifically to study creative writing at the University of Calgary. I’ve recently been hired by the Calgary Board of Education, and am looking forward to returning. I’m hoping that the feeling is mutual. It’s a community like none other, and I miss (many of) the people.

Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community in Calgary?

A: Calgary’s writing community is the community that I cite when asked to locate the context in which my writing emerged. My association became somewhat automatic, through my studies in creative writing at the University of Calgary; however, the community as I saw and understood it initially, seemed quite exclusive, inaccessible. I recall hearing the names of — & attending events featuring — writers like kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Larissa Lai, Jason Christie, Natalie Simpson, Naomi Lewis, Jordan Scott, Sandy Pool, Weyman Chan, Robert Majaels, Suzette Mayr, & Christian Bök & feeling pretty shabby. With time I became attached, & I’m truly fortunate to call many if not all of these people my friends. They’ve personally & artistically (individually & collectively) made a tremendous impact on me and my work.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? What did Calgary provide, or allow?

A: The Calgary community not only shifted my thinking about writing, it gave me the best possible examples of what good writing is and can be.  It has consistently demonstrated to me what a strong community of writers looks like. I think that being channelled through a creative writing department anywhere is really going to alter someones arc as a writer. And I also felt like the program itself became a direct entryway into the larger community. I remember my first introductions to the work of, for instance, Jordan Scott (Blert), Jason Christie (i-Robot), & Natalie Simpson (Accrete and Crumble), and getting the sense that Calgary was producing some writers with really advanced sensibilities with respect to the craft of poetry. It was greatly rewarding to learn from them and to eventually share some of their same spaces. Finally, the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program and places like the Banff Centre have always been strong drivers for the sharing of ideas, making the Calgary community a real centre for artistic growth. I remember fondly being present for readings by poets like Sina Queyras, CA Conrad, Kenneth Goldsmith, & Charles Bernstein (to name but a few) whose influence continues to shape my thinking and writing.

Q: What do you see happening in Calgary that you don’t see anywhere else?

A: From my experience — that is to say from my little experience, comparatively — I would say that Calgary’s community is quite integrated, that the people who are producing the most interesting work are those that happen to be the most invested in the community at large, and seeing that this community remains progressive. These are the people who are collaborating actively, are sharing their work and ideas, are volunteering at literary events, are invariably attending readings and launches, and are supporting both the established and non-established members of the community. I won’t suggest that this is unique to Calgary, but you see it happening there with great force and with purpose. And all of this is happening with a tremendous amount of attention being paid to innovation. Calgary is not a city whose writers are ever really satisfied with the status quo. It is a centre of near constant invention and reinvention.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements there?

A: All of them, without question. My projects respond most often to what I read, and what I read has been and continues to be shaped in large part by the community. This may in fact sound like a more “indirect” engagement, but I assure you, the way that books are shared and circulated throughout the community makes this influence quite direct. That seems almost too redundant to mention. More directly, Massacre Street (University of Alberta Press, 2013), wouldn’t exist in its final iteration without the counsel of my thesis supervisor Christian Bök, someone that I came to Calgary specifically to work with. Leap-seconds (Insomniac Press, 2017) is an amalgam of my influences, everything from, more broadly, Surrealism to Conceptualism, to, more specifically, literary montage to the Nouveau Roman. “Exhibit,” my latest, recently completed manuscript, is shaped by influences as varied as Sina Queyras, CA Conrad, Eileen Myles, and Solmaz Sharif. Sina Queyras was the 2007-08 Canadian Writer-in-Residence with the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program, and made a salient impact on the community during her short stay; while, CA visited the city in 2013 during a month-long residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony. “Exhibit” benefitted greatly from my reading and rereading of CA’s Book of Frank, an influence I connect directly to this visit.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I answer unenthusiastically, only because it feels like I’m being asked to commit to a project at a very early stage. But regardless: I am working both &/or either on a work of ecopoetry (using mistranslated text, cut-ups and montage) or a work of fiction (exploring the relationship between an indifferent educator and a child in a suicide pact).

Amanda Earl reads at Poetry NOW: 9th annual Battle of the Bards! March 29,

Chaudiere Books author Amanda Earl reads as part of the 9th annual Battle of the Bards!

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - 7:30 PM
Poetry NOW: IFOA Weekly
Brigantine Room
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto M5J 2G8
Cost: $10, Free for Supporters & Students
1 stage. 20 poets. 1 winner.

Our popular poetry competition returns in 2017 to feature readings by 20 of Canada’s emerging and established poets.

IFOA Director Geoffrey E. Taylor, Juno award winning recording artist and dub poet Lillian Allen and 2016 Poetry NOW winner Chris Chambers will select the night’s winner. NOW Magazine’s Susan G. Cole will host.

Winner will receive an automatic invitation to read at the 38th edition of the International Festival of Authors AND an ad for their book and IFOA event in NOW Magazine!

Poetry NOW is presented in partnership with NOW Magazine.

For ticket information, and author bios, check out the link:
http://ifoa.org/events/poetry-now-9th-annual-battle-bards

Other participating readers include: Majlinda Bashllari, Susie Berg, Ronna Bloom, Susan G. Cole, Glen Downie, David B. Goldstein, Julie Cameron Gray, Jill Jorgenson, Patricia Keeney, Jennifer LoveGrove, Owain Nicholson, John Nyman,Chris Pannell, Marilyn Potter, Nicholas Power, Concetta Principe, Lisa Richter, Stuart Ross, Kilby Smith-McGregor and Dane Swan.