Susan J. Atkinson’s poems have won a number of
awards, including first prize in the National Capital Writers Contest in 2019.
Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Antigonish Review, Arc
Magazine, The Dalhousie Review, Bywords, The New Quarterly,
Room, The Peter F. Yacht Club and ottawater. Her first
full-length collection, The Marta Poems, will be published by Silver Bow Publishing.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa and
what first brought you here?
I moved to Ottawa when I was 18. My
father was a computer engineer and when the computer industry collapsed in
England, he was recruited by Bell Northern Research and we made the great trek
across the pond. Although my mum said we were only coming for a year, here we
are decades later! After university I returned to England, but the economy was
in near disaster and I missed everything about Canada, and so returned to
Toronto where I began my career in the film industry. It would be 15 years
later that I returned to Ottawa to make a home with my family. Honestly, we
moved here on a wing and a prayer. I left the film industry and the hustle and
bustle of downtown Toronto in the hopes of creating a slower, more idyllic
childhood for our daughters.
Q: How did you first get involved in
writing and subsequently the writing community here?
I began writing and submitting poetry
to journals back in the early 90s while I was in Toronto. Coincidentally, one
of my first acceptances was in The Carleton Arts Review, while rob was
the editor (thank you, once again, rob!). I was definitely isolated back in
those days, using the “Poet’s Guide to Publishing”, as my bible. Despite
working in a creative industry nobody was talking about poetry, it was always
scripts and plays and novels. My big break into the Ottawa writing community
was winning a poetry competition back in 2004 (or so). Christopher Levenson was
the judge and at the reading/reception he asked if I had any more poems. Within
days I sent him some sample work and he was kind enough to take it along to a
poetry critique group that he was involved with. The group has now, all these
years later, evolved into The Other Tongues, and still meets monthly with a
number of the members from those earlier days still connected. A couple of
years ago I was blessed to be able to join the incredible Ruby Tuesdays (cannot
find words to express the gratitude and honour of being a member of such an
outstanding collective of female poets). Around the same time I was invited to
join the VerseFest planning committee. This has been, and is, a fantastic
opportunity to be a large part of the poetry community. The wonderful Monty
Reid had approached me to see if I could head up bringing a children’s poet,
and hopefully some school involvement to the Festival. This opportunity, as you
can imagine, has been rewarding on every level.
Q: How did being in such a community of
writers shift your thinking about writing – if at all?
The caliber, the talent, the knowledge
of the poets from both The Other Tongue group and the Ruby Tuesdays has
certainly elevated my own writing but not only as a craft but from a place of
critical thinking and poetics. Being in a community of writers broadens one’s
reading, not only of poetry and poetics but of all genres. I think becoming
part of a writing community validates one’s own writing and somehow shifts it
from the private pages of journals and notebooks into a public domain. For
myself, this transition also added weight to my writing. I took my writing and
the writing process much more seriously and over the years have grown to view
it as a delicate craft that needs constant coaxing and nurturing.
Q: What do you see happening here that
you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide or allow?
I’m not sure I’m much of an authority
to comment on what’s happening in other cities, when it comes to the poetry
scene. My only other experience of writing was while living in Toronto and back
then I really felt like I was living in my garret, which essentially I was for
a while, except it was a bachelor apartment at the bottom of the house! What I
do feel I have the authority to say is Ottawa is home to an unbelievable
network of talented poets who are only too willing to support and mentor. I am
afraid to name names for fear that I will unintentionally miss someone. What I
find striking about our writing community is how new and emerging voices sing
alongside established, experienced writers and that there is a true feeling of
hands being offered and a resounding gesture of there’s always room for one
more in the life boat.
Our city is blessed with some
incredible reading series, an international poetry festival and free workshops
offered through our public libraries, which again, are led by some of the best
Canadian poets writing today.
I think it’s important to look at the
Tree Reading Series and how hard poets in our city have fought to keep it
going. I think that represents how important a space for poetry is to this
city. I don’t think you would see these passionate efforts in too many other
places. In fact we should rename ourselves “City of Poets”.
Q: Have any of your projects responded
directly to your engagements here? How have the city and community, if at all,
changed the way you approach your work?
Funnily enough the collection that I
have just completed, “The Marta Poems”, which will be published by Silver Bow
Publishing, was inspired by a neighbour who lived a couple of doors down from
me. When we moved to Pansy Avenue there were quite a few families with young
children and as parents, we had the great pleasure of watching our children,
along with the others run wild up and down the street. Marta was one of those
neighbours. I would often sit on her porch and she would tell me all kinds of
stories. I would go home and feverishly write down all that I could remember.
It didn’t take long for me to realize she had become an unlikely muse and the
heroine of her own story (much of which I admit grew to be rather fictious!)
Not sure I am answering the question directly, but The Marta Poems were borne
out of this relationship, so, it is safe to say the community shaped my
writing. If we didn’t live where we live, I would never have met Marta and the
poems, the collection would never have existed.
Q: What are you working on now?
At the moment I have a few balls in the
air. I am thrilled “The Marta Poems” will be published in book form and am
excited about the journey that lies ahead. I am also finishing up a couple of
chapbooks. One entitled the small book of loss, and the other, the
Birthday Party, The Tourist and The Mariachi Player. I am also working on a
fifth children’s book in “The Little Witch Series” and a collection of
children’s poems for use in the classroom.
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