Kathleen Klassen is an emerging writer who discovered poetry as a source of healing after injury. Her poetry has been published with Bywords, Rise Up Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, ottawater, Dissident Voice, geez magazine, Gyroscope Review, Alternative Field, Paper Dragon, In/Words Magazine and Press, Coven Editions and Cathexis Northwest Press.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I came to Ottawa as a university co-op student in the early 90s. After finishing my B Ed, I taught at a local high school for a year and then moved to India for further studies. Upon my return to Canada, I moved back to Ottawa and have lived here since that time.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I taught high school drama and coached improvisation for over 20 years; to some extent, I have been involved in storytelling for as long as I can remember. Though I worked with students collaboratively on scene creation and script writing, I had little personal interest in writing. In 2014, I sustained a head injury; everything familiar to me disappeared. The only way for me to get through some excruciating nights, was to turn on the lights and write out my brain. I had to get thoughts out of my head so they could live somewhere else. Writing was just another strategy in a small arsenal I was discovering in order to survive. There were many nights like this. Nights with the lights on and a pen.
Another reason for writing was to track my healing progress (or lack thereof). Not seeing any improvement from one day to the next, one week to the next, I thought it might help to observe my symptoms and level of functioning over a longer period of time. The only clarity I had at the time, was an awareness that to make any sense of this experience, I’d eventually have to turn those difficult moments into some kind of creative art. It was in this place that poetry emerged.
I have been pretty isolated since I started writing so haven’t been particularly involved in the writing community. I have attended a few workshops and a small poetry group when I am able but ongoing symptoms make this kind of engagement difficult. I suspect it’s not an easy community to infiltrate when one is living in a cave (unless one has a bat-suit, mask and cape). Until I find such attire, I’ll keep dressing in the shadows of pixels and ether.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
Participating in workshops has made me aware of how little I know and how difficult it is to write poetry. You might think you’ve come up with something moderately insightful, only to realize on second read that it is fabulously crappy. Also, who wants to read a list of horrible symptoms? Not even me, as it turns out.
The teachers I have met have been amazing – gentle in their guidance, even when it was clear that I had no idea what I was doing. (The generous Francis Boyle comes to mind.) The same is true of other poets/participants – always warm and welcoming. My memory of workshop #1:
Teacher: (kindly) Is there a reason your work is center-justified?
Kathleen: Yes…Yes! A very good reason! I had to fit it on this glass art that I am also creating to avoid the pits of hell! The straight line of a margin was impossible to replicate by hand and made my brain explode! (Crying – not due to the politics of margins generally, but because her emotional-brain-command-center had been quite hijacked – she shows her glass art – the justification for her fabulously centered words. Participants smile and nod.)
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
I can’t comment on the writing scene elsewhere as I am still learning the landscape, but I have found the local opportunities to be encouraging. Workshops at the Ottawa Public Library and publishers like Bywords, In/Words Magazine & Press and ottawater have inspired me to keep writing. I appreciated working with Arc’s Poet-in-Residence program – much gratitude to David O’Meara. I will be reading at The Ottawa Writers Festival and this interview is an example of the many ways in which seasoned writers are giving voice to newcomers. Thank you for this opportunity!
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 blame the river. Or credit the river. There is some kind of creative magic that emanates from natural spaces and for me, that place has been the Ottawa River. If a poem is a mystical jigsaw puzzle, I think the river contains its pieces. Throwing thoughts my way, it’s as if the river hands over a few edge pieces and says “now run along and fill in the rest.” I keep telling her that I could use a mentor for the filling in part, but alas…
As for the city, I have always been impressed by the creativity, spark and wisdom of my former high school students. They have been integral in shaping who I have become. Even though teaching feels like a lifetime ago, there is more to explore in the creative thread that connects me back to teaching.
Q: What are you working on now?
I am working on two chapbooks but struggle with concentration and organization (not to mention computer screens, decision-making, submission requirements). It is much easier for me to focus quietly on just one poem. This is one of the reasons that poetry has been good for me – I can check in and out in small increments.
I want to learn more – maybe take some courses. Am considering Gerunds and How They’re Killing Poetry or perhaps The Oft-Maligned: Bringing Cliché Back! (taught, of course, by JT – the more apologetic one.) I could definitely use Poetry 101: Left-Justification and Other Quick Fixes!
I am also looking for a Bat-Cape. And a mentor. Or maybe just a butler.
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