Six Questions interview #14 : nina jane drystek

nina jane drystek is a poet, writer and performer based in Ottawa. her poetry has appeared in train poetry, Canthius, talking about strawberries, the DUSIE: Tuesday poem, Bywords, in/words, ottawater, small talk and Window Cat Press, as well as in self-published chapbooks, and chapbooks and broadsides by & co. collective, of which she is a member. she is a member of the sound poetry ensemble quatuour gualuour, and creates performances of her own. if you have ever lived in the same city as her you have likely seen her riding a red bicycle around town. you can find her @textcurious

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

i grew up in ottawa, but left to live in montreal for four years to complete my undergrad at concordia, and then lived in guelph for a year doing my master’s degree. when i was sick of academia i went to central and south america for a few months and when i came back, i had no idea where to set down. so, i came home and have been back since 2013.

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

i started writing for myself when i was a pre-teen. it was an outlet for that confusing time around puberty, and i was obsessed with the backs of teen magazines where they had calls for people to submit their lyrics to record labels, i don’t think i ever came up with something that good but i always dreamed i could – i’ve always made up songs while i’m going about my business… at that time, my two good friends were also supportive and interested in writing so we would spend time together writing things and sharing them. then i decided to apply to canterbury high school for the writing program and i got in. because we were a class of students committed to writing, i kind of always had this sense of a writing community, and one where writing was supported – i’m very privileged and grateful for this. this is also how i gained an appreciation for reading and listening to poetry out loud because we were encouraged to share starting in grade nine.

i got a sense of the literary community in ottawa through canterbury too. my teacher mr. fitz really encouraged us to get out and be part of the community. i attended and volunteered for events at the ottawa international writers festival and saw many of the writers i know from the present-day ottawa community there for the first time (that includes you rob because you’ve been around forever). going out and being a part of the community, i also got access to some unique opportunities as a teenager, such as reading with wayson choy.

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

i’m an extrovert and community of all kinds is very important to me. but it took me a while to realise that. i’ve been around fellow writers i was young. like i said, sharing my writing in grade seven and eight was really important and in high school my class was one brought together by writing.

while i did study creative writing in university, my immediate community wasn’t made up of writers, it was actually all musicians which gave me a different sense of community – one that was more performative, more punk and that has definitely had an impact.

though i didn’t mesh as much with writers during my undergrad, i was on the student council in my department for a while and there i organised some student readings and hosted events such as zine making workshops. this was the first time i really partook in the literary community at university, and, while it was small, i loved bringing people together to co-create and share. i also got into dramaturgy on a project that focused a lot on co-creation and that led to my master’s in theatre studies, where there was a different sense of community but one that was co-dependent.

it was after i got out of the writing community entirely that i realised part of what i wanted to do was to help shape these communities, this is what led me to some of the work i’ve done since then – the ottawa writers festival, tree reading series, working with arts network ottawa and now working on a new series.

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

i know not all people would agree with me, but i find ottawa’s writing community to be very welcoming. there are people of all levels and disciplines working on their craft here and because so many people do not go out (this is a unique downside of the city) i have found that when you do go out people want you to come back. also, it’s a small community which makes it easy to get to know people.

ottawa also has a bunch of different little arts communities and groups and i think there is a lot to explore, though it’s not quite as obvious in other cities. the ties between the communities are tighter and i find it less intimidating to attend these events, especially if you tend to go out and do things on your own. there is tons of creativity here and i think people are hungry to try and do new things which is exciting.

on a personal note, ottawa provided me with familiarity and stability, which is very helpful when you are settling into a place.

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?

this is a big and tough question. having worked for the writers festival and tree reading series, i had the opportunity to see and experience the writing and ideas of many amazing and talented writers. i really appreciated and enjoyed the a/b series when it was going on and had the chance to see performers i never imagined would come to ottawa. these experiences have all informed my writing in way or another, but also the work of organising for some of them took away from the time to create. but i’m starting to get that back.

right now i am working on sound and visual poetry, which honestly might not have become a thing if i hadn’t attended a performance of messagio galore and met jw curry – i had not run into poets doing this kind of work in any of my schooling, except at guelph where there was an experimental music branch of our department. i’ve said it before but this helped me find a kind of writing i was looking to do but hadn’t fully accessed yet.

following that performance curry and i stayed friends and when he wanted a new band i was the first to jump on the wagon, we then brought chris johnson and alastair larwill, and spent quite some time trying to find a lady to join our bandwagon which we found in the fantastic conyer clayton. we went on to put a show together and tour tour a bit, and recently curry, chris and conyer have been incredibly willing to work with me on vocalising some of my concrete and sound poetry works.

i’ve also had the opportunity to meet many other writers and we’ve collaborated and will collaborate on many more projects. i’m thinking here of conyer clayton and manahil bandukwala who i’ve toured with and collaborated with separately as well as through & co. collective. there are also the women who worked with me to bring sachiko murakami’s piece to life on two occasions and i am so grateful for their time and patience as i directed my first impromptu group performance.

i just wrote a whole paragraph with so many names but i’m not sure it really answered this question, all to say there are many people here who i am grateful to know that make up the community. and currently i am meeting people in the community’s in other cities who are also super fantastic and here i am rambling again. ok.

Q: What are you working on now?

that’s an interesting question, the answer is a lot of things. this winter i am taking a workshop with sarah burgoyne in montreal which has been really awesome – we have focused a lot on embodiment in poetics and this is something i am very interested in exploring in my own work – i mean i already to in terms of how it relates to voice but we are talking about writing and thinking so it’s quite exciting.

i am in the process of editing some recordings of the knewro suite (published by simulacrum press) because for me, my visual poems often have a sonic element – that is the embodiment part for me, and i realise not everyone sees that when they read the poems which is why they need to be recorded.

i’m experimenting with looping to make poetry more performative. i’m figuring out what else i can do with visual poetry and how to use graphic design tools to facilitate this.

i’m also starting a new quarterly interdisciplinary reading series in ottawa with ellen chang-richardson called riverbed, which we are very excited about!