Sunday, February 27, 2022

Six Questions interview #113 : Jacqueline Bourque

Jacqueline Bourque [photo credit: Carole R. Haché LeBlanc] grew up along the ocean shores of New Brunswick. She spent the better part of her career in Ottawa working as a communicator in the public sector. Her poetry has been featured in a number of anthologies and journals, including The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Queen’s Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review, and I Found It at the Movies. In 2019, she released a chapbook titled The Dune as Bookmark, published by Anstruther Press. Her debut collection, Repointing the Bricks, was published in 2021 by Mansfield Press.

Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? 

I came to Ottawa after graduating from Dalhousie University in 1973. My future boss, from Statistics Canada, travelled to Halifax to interview me over dinner. When dessert arrived, she offered me a job. After spending my childhood in Dieppe, a small New-Brunswick town, a job in Ottawa promised an exciting new life.

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

I wrote my first story on my mother’s Remington typewriter when I was nine. Though I kept writing, I eventually stopped when I took a job in a public sector organization. For over a decade, writing seemed no longer congruent with career demands. When trouble in my marriage started to brew, I was faced with an elemental unhappiness that propelled in another direction. In my case, across the hallway, in the  middle of the night, into my yellow painted study, to write lines that pulled me out of my silence. I showed a few pieces to a friend. A few days later, she handed me a journal and said “Fill it with poems.” I did.

I later signed up for an Ottawa-Carleton School Board evening course in poetry. I wound my way through Brookfield High School’s corridors searching for my classroom. When I found it, our teacher had arranged the small vintage wooden desks in a circle. Her name was Stephanie Bolster. Within two years, she shepherded us into producing chapbooks which we launched at the National Archives. When Stephanie left Ottawa to teach at Concordia, I attended Barbara Myers’ workshops. Then Lise Rochefort invited me to join the Ruby Tuesdays, a group of writers who meet weekly.

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

For me, writing is a solitary experience, so my writing group keeps me connected to other writers, and with the Ottawa writing scene.

The poets in my writing group motivate and inspire me. For instance, I dislike submitting poems to journals. But at the beginning of the year, Frances Boyle sets out to chalk up one hundred rejections. By so doing, she submits at least a hundred times a year, and gets published in the process. Her perspective shifted my views of that process.

Doris Fiszer (also a member of the Ruby Tuesdays) and I meet regularly to study poetry. We select a reading every week, then discuss it on Sunday mornings. Amongst the books we’ve covered, one chapter at a time, are Western Wind, by David Mason and John Nims, What the Poets are Doing, edited by Rob Taylor, The Next Wave, edited by Jim Johnstone, and Adam Sol’s How a Poem Moves. These poetry chats broaden the scope of my writing and encourage me to find new angles and develop new techniques.

Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow? 

The Ottawa writing scene is inspired. We hold our own poetry festival, VERSEFEST. The Ottawa International Writers Festival recharges our imagination, and the Tree Reading Series, a monthly event, has existed since 1980. One of my favorite reading series before the pandemic was organized by David O’Meara and held at the Manx, a bar on Elgin Street.

Ottawa also offers a host of art galleries and theatres. I find that seeing art, attending a play, or watching a ballet opens the door to my creativity.  

Nature helps me stay balanced and nourishes my writing. Within walking distance from downtown, there’s Lemieux Island, Dow’s Lake, the Arboretum, and Richmond Landing, to name only a few parks. One of my favorite walks is along the river in Parc de la rue Jacques Cartier. Gatineau Park provides green spaces interwoven with trails that wind through the forest.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work? 

I believe you can write anywhere. Travelling, for instance, galvanizes me.

As for being a writer in Ottawa, attending events like VERSEFEST exposes me to new work, which in turn, consciously or subconsciously, influences my writing.

At each Ruby Tuesdays session, one of the members takes their turn to share a few poems they found remarkable. The poems serve as prompts for a free-writing exercise. Both the poems and the exercise lead my work into new directions.  

When I’m in-between writing projects, I pack up pens, pencils, sketch pad and journal and head for the National Gallery. I sit in front of a sculpture or painting and draw or write. Frederick Varley’s portrait of Vera (1930) never ceases to stir me. I always return to my desk with fresh ideas.

Q: What are you working on now? 

I recently completed fourteen sonnets inspired by Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. At the time, I was reading Catherine Graham’s Her Red Hair Rises With the Wings of Insects, a book that Jean Van Loon (a member of the Ruby Tuesdays) recommended to me. Catherine begins that book with a series of sonnet-like poems. I thought the sonnet form might be the right container for these poems.

The Next Wave introduced me to Evan Jones. Evan’s prose poems fascinate me. He uses form adeptly and his introduction of mythology has a striking effect.

My grandmother recently appeared to me in a dream. As a child, I rarely heard her speak. Yet in my dream, she held the persona of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. I’ve since written twelve prose poems about her, portraying her, at times, as Leto, the Greek goddess of motherhood.  

 

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Six Questions interview #112 : Albert Dumont

Presently Albert Dumont is Ottawa's English Poet Laureate for two years. He has served his community on the Grandparents Counsel for Well Living House, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto since September 2017. He was one of 13 Elders on the Elders Advisory Committee of the Ministry of the Attorney General from October 2016 to 2020. He worked as Elder for the Parole Board of Canada at Elder Assisted Hearings from November 2013 to March 2017. He was employed by Correctional Services Canada for three years as a spiritual advisor for the Indigenous men incarcerated at Millhaven Institution’s J Unit located near Kingston, ON.

He is an activist, a volunteer and a poet who has published 5 books of poetry and short stories. In recognition for his work as an activist and volunteer on his ancestral lands (Ottawa and Region) Albert was presented with a Human Rights Award by the Public Service Alliance of Canada in 2010. In January 2017, he received the DreamKEEPERS Citation for Outstanding Leadership. Albert has dedicated his life to promoting Indigenous spirituality and healing and to protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples particularly those as they affect the young.

Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?  

I arrived in Ottawa in 1973 to live and work. At the time, I was a dysfunctional, violent and immature young man with absolutely no sense of direction. Alcohol and bar room brawling were pretty much my way of life. However, in 1973 I was a union-card carrying bricklayer, working on highrise and subdivision worksites. Employment for men who worked with cement and mortar was plentiful in Ottawa at that time.

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

I loved writing ever since I learned how to put a story together as a school boy in the 1960's. Writing fun, mind-blowing compositions in grades 5, 6 and 7 was a favourite thing for me to do. Poetry writing only began for me in 1993 when I wrote a poem in celebration of 5 years of sobriety. The editor of The Glebe Report got a hold of my first poem and contacted me to let me know how powerful she felt the poem was. "Keep writing poetry," she advised. I did!

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

I remember attending poetry readings in the basement of the Royal Oak and eventually suggested to the organizers that they might want to consider bringing me in as a guest poet at some point in the future. I had read some of my poems at their open mic at every opportunity and believed I had a small following. Sadly for me, the folks in charge of the poetry group didn't see it that way. My style of poetry writing I guess, didn't emotionally and spiritually connect with how poetry is defined in the world they live in. So I decided to organize my own poetry circle (specifically for poets of Indigenous bloodlines) which I call the Pagahamatic (the sound the drum makes) Poetry Circle. A lot of Indigenous people who joined up benefitted greatly because of the circle.

Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?  

In Ottawa, I see a rare open-mindedness. The white-skinned citizens of Ottawa, I believe, are far less likely to 'hate' or 'despise' the minorities living among them as much as folks of other large cities do. Ottawa provides many parks for outdoor poetry readings. I see restaurants, bars, church basements, halls etc. who open their doors to poets, often without charge.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?  

I truly believe that Ottawans are interested in human rights in general and true to reconciliation efforts being made with the Indigenous Peoples. I have received a lot of support from citizens who stand with me in my activism. We will eventually change the name of the SJAM Parkway at some point. I'm very confident of it.

Q: What are you working on now?  

I am personally editing poems titled 'I am a Human Being' which were sent to me via a competition I organized as English Poet Laureate for Ottawa. The poems will be featured in a book (same title) and hopefully launched in the spring of 2022.

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Six Questions interview #111 : Naomi K. Lewis

Naomi K. Lewis is a Calgary-based fiction and non-fiction writer, editor, and creative writing instructor. Her books include Cricket in a Fist (2008) and I Know Who You Remind Me Of (2012), and she co-edited the anthology Shy (2013) with Rona Altrows. Her 2019 memoir, Tiny Lights for Travellers won the Vine Award for non-fiction, the Pinsky Givon Award for non-fiction, and the Wildfrid Eggleston award for non-fiction, as well as being shortlisted for the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award and the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction. She is the 2022 writer-in-residence at MacEwan University.

Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away? 

My family moved to Ottawa in 1983, when I was seven; before that, we lived in London, England, where my mother grew up, and then the Washington, DC area, where my father grew up. I went to elementary school, high school, and university in Ottawa – formative years – and then left for Toronto when I was 23, basically on a whim. Since then, I’ve lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and then Edmonton, and then landed in Calgary thirteen years ago. My parents still live in Ottawa, so I visit a couple of times a year; at least, I do when there’s no pandemic stopping me.

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

I left Ottawa the moment I graduated from my undergrad at Carleton, and I had barely started writing yet, then. Or, I should say, I hadn’t started showing my writing to anyone, or trying to engage with ‘real’ writers. Looking back, I wish I had been able to connect more with other writers in Ottawa, when I was young, in the late 90s, but I was afraid of writers and considered them magical creatures from another realm. Also, I remember that at the time I’d only ever heard specifically of one Ottawa writer, some guy called Rob McLennan.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since? 

In Toronto, I worked for an academic book distributor for two years, and had some exposure to writers and the publishing industry for the first time, and I started taking creative writing classes at U of T, so that was the first time I met other people interested in writing and publishing books. My instructors told me about grad programs for creative writing, which I’d never heard of before. I applied to several, and almost moved to Alaska to do an MFA, but I ended up going to New Brunswick to do an MA in creative writing. That was the first time I immersed myself in a community of writers. It made all the difference in the world to be able to talk about the highs and lows of the writing life, and well as the nitty gritty of writing itself, and since then, I’ve always sought out the writing community wherever I live, especially here in Calgary, where I’ve found that community especially welcoming and enthusiastic (when there isn’t a pandemic). I love the support and intellectual stimulation that a writing community provides. On the other hand, it’s possible to get caught up in socializing and talking about writing, instead of actually writing. At least it was, before the pandemic.

Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow? 

Ottawa is where I became myself in a lot of ways, so the city is part of me in a profound way.

I wish I could answer this question better, but I haven’t lived in Ottawa for 22 years. The International Writers Festival is certainly wonderful.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work? 

Yes, my first novel, Cricket in a Fist, is set in Ottawa and Toronto, and I also set some of the stories in my collection I Know Who You Remind Me Of in Ottawa. I also write a memoir, Tiny Lights for Travellers, so of course Ottawa’s in there, too. When I think of adolescence, there’s always an Ottawa backdrop. I’m writing a novel now that’s partly set in Ottawa as well.

Q: What are you working on now?

I’m working on a novel, but I can’t jinx it by saying anything more!

 

Sunday, February 06, 2022

Six Questions interview #110 : Peter Darbyshire

Peter Darbyshire is the author of the books Please, The Warhol Gang and Has the World Ended Yet?, as well as the Cross series of supernatural thrillers under the pen name Peter Roman. He lives in a safe house outside of Vancouver, where he misses Ottawa deeply — but is still traumatized by the Ottawa winters he experienced! Follow him at peterdarbyshire.com.

Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away?

PD: I came to Ottawa from Toronto to work at the Ottawa Citizen, back in ye olden days when newspapers were still hiring instead of downsizing. I was only in Ottawa for a couple of years, but it was an amazing time where I was able to write lots of columns about books, take part in the local literary scene and meet all sorts of fascinating characters. As you may know, Ottawa has its share of characters….

This was around the same time that I published my first book, Please, which chronicled the life of a young man who drifts through a hallucinatory world of celebrity wannabes, addictive relationships and strange contract jobs. So when my strange contract job at the Citizen ended I decided to drift on back to BC, where I’d grown up. I guess I felt that siren song to return to my origins. Also, I almost died from wind chill one day while crossing an Ottawa parking lot, so it seemed prudent to get out before the next winter finished me off.
 
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?


PD: Well, like many writers I’d been writing since I was a kid. Eventually I decided I wanted to do more than Lord of the Rings fan fiction, so I went to university for an English degree to study other writers and see what I could pick up. When I began, I was working nights at a grocery store and taking classes in the day. Needless to say, that wasn’t sustainable, so I quit my job and enrolled in university full time. Oh, to be young and carefree again….

While in university I ended up meeting the writers Paul Vermeersch and Jonathan Bennett, and we formed a writing group with some other similarly misguided souls. That community and regular commitment to writing was crucial to all of our development as writers (and likely as human beings as well), and I think you could really trace the start of our careers back to those first meetings.

That kind of carried on after university. We all moved to Toronto and got involved in the writing community there, and Paul and I were roommates and ran the IV Lounge Reading Series for a time. It was really a magical period, the poverty aside. That led me to the writing community in Ottawa when I moved there, although that whole job thing did sometimes get in the way of literary events.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since?

PD: The older I get, the more I think that finding your community of fellow creators (and it’s a different community for everyone) is one of the most crucial things for being a writer. I didn’t really have a community for a long time after I moved to Vancouver, because I was working full time and raising young children and so on. I began to really struggle with my enthusiasm for the writing life. Partially it was because I didn’t have much time to write because it turns out having kids is like taking on another full-time job. But I also struggled because I was really alone in a lot of ways. Of course writing is a solitary profession at the best of times, unless you’re counting the imaginary people you dream up as companions. No judgement from me! But it’s very easy to get preoccupied with the business side of publishing and sales figures and all that when you don’t have anyone to share the creative process with or even simply talk about writing.  

A big factor for me in getting my love of writing back was when fantasy author Sebastien de Castell invited me out to his writing group after I hosted a panel he was on at the Vancouver International Writers Festival. It’s a great group of writers — and people! — and I’ve really clicked with them. Just taking part in that regular writing and feedback process sparked my creativity again when I didn’t really understand how close the flame was to going out. I’ve written a couple of books since I joined the group, and I don’t know they would have happened if it hadn’t been for the group. I certainly don’t think they would have been as good.

Also, if you hate my new books when they come out, just blame my writing group.

Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow?

PD: I think Ottawa is a perfect city in a lot of ways. It’s a nice size — big enough that it’s got pretty much everything you need without being too big. It’s an urban centre with all that has to offer, yet it’s surrounded by some of the most beautiful nature you could ask for. But I think the real thing that Ottawa has to offer is its culture. There’s just so much happening in Ottawa given it’s the nation’s capital and all. Every second person you encounter is a creator of some sort of another, and there are so many cultural industries where you can have a meaningful career. Ottawa is a place filled with people who recognize that culture is just as important to our society as health care or universities or spirituality or you name it. There’s probably an argument to be made that culture intersects with all of these things….

Plus, there are all the endlessly fascinating buildings. I miss just walking around Parliament and pondering the peculiarities of that edifice! Also, Beaver Tails! You can’t get a good Beaver Tail in BC. Maybe it’s the spices they use in Ottawa. Or maybe it’s simply that a hot glob of dough just tastes better when you’re in fear of dying from -20 weather with a wind chill that makes it feel like Hoth.

Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?


PD: Well, it’s a complicated answer, as inspiration usually is. My book The Warhol Gang, about a neuromarketer turned professional accident victim turned media cult figure, was largely inspired by many of the news stories I read while working at the Ottawa Citizen. It’s really a novel about the headlines of tomorrow, and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been at the Citizen and been exposed to all that source material. And some of the stories in my post-apocalypse collection Has the World Ended Yet? were also written in Ottawa, and their weirdness probably has something to do with that time as well.

But the answer to this can really be found by summing up my earlier answers. I can’t point to one of my works being *directly* affected by the city itself. I have written no murder mysteries set in the halls of Parliament, for instance. (Although that would be a good setting for a mystery!) It’s more that my time in Ottawa helped create and reinforce that sense of community that’s run through this interview. My opportunity to write books columns for the Ottawa Citizen and engage with culture that way, the writing series that brought creators together and exposed them to new ideas, the cultural industries and government support that meant culture was taken seriously and creators had a chance to make a living at it — all these things combined in me and others to help nurture us when we perhaps needed it most. Sometimes the difference between giving up on writing and carrying on to finish that next book can be as simple as a good review or a well-timed grant or even a chance encounter at a reading series with another creator. I think Ottawa is a unique and incredibly important place for Canadian culture and its impact is felt across the nation. I wish there were more Ottawas across the country! Better Beaver Tails for all! (You can keep the wind chill, though.)
 
Q: What are you working on now?

PD: Well, now I’m thinking I should be working on a murder mystery set in Parliament….