Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away?
I spent five years studying at the University of Ottawa, where I did first my BA then my Master's degrees in English literature. I grew up in Saskatchewan, but had always wanted (like so many Westerners) to go to university in "the East". This was in 1989. In 1994 I left for Toronto, where I did my PhD. Toronto always felt too big, however; I missed the National Capital region. Now I live in Kingston, so I get back to Ottawa more often than I did in those Toronto years.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
While part of the U of O English students' society—small as it was—I participated in and helped organize on-campus coffeehouses where I read some of my poetry. I'd been writing for years, and in my fourth year at U of O I won the Books in Canada student writing award, which included $1000 and publication in that lovely journal. At that time I was interviewed on CBC's "All in a Day" (when the office was in the Chateau Laurier, I think?) It was a big thrill. Doing two degrees in literature had the usual combined effect of inspiring me, and dispiriting me (a bit) by introducing me to so much fantastic literature.
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?
Now I live in Kingston, where a vibrant community of writers thrive. Teaching at the Royal Military College, including creative writing courses, has brought me in contact with some of these local authors–such as Helen Humphreys, Steven Heighton, and Diane Schoemperlen (who at present is mentoring me as I finish a novel through the Humber creative writing program. I regularly do open mic poetry readings, including those recorded for Queen's University radio program about poetry, "The Journey Continues".
Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow?
I am not bilingual, although people frequently assume I am because of my name. Ottawa's bilingualism encouraged me to think more of and in French, which always enriches and complicates one's own first language in useful, challenging ways. I also loved the University of Ottawa, the English program, and also had friends who were pages in the House of Commons–all very enriching experiences.
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?
I still have friends in Ottawa, as well as former professors who have encouraged me in what I do creatively for nearly thirty years now. Over the years I've sent things to Bywords, as someone who has lived in Ottawa, and seen those pieces published there, which is lovely. The same is true for Arc Poetry Magazine. Funnily, I'm now the faculty advisor for an RMC student-run bilingual arts journal called Arch–related to the physical arch through which the Officer Cadets march, most solemnly, upon entering, and graduating from, the Royal Military College.
Q: What are you working on now?
I'm working on the aforementioned novel, tentatively titled The Boy in the Chimney. It's about chimney sweeps' boys and an automaton in the eighteenth century (that century being my academic research specialty). I hope sometime to get back to poetry, the muse of which seems to flit back less frequently nowadays. I'm acting chair of my department right now, so bureaucracy might be blocking her with its horrid hooves and horns!
No comments:
Post a Comment