Six Questions interview #149 : Katherine Lawrence

Katherine Lawrence [photo credit: Saskatoon Public Library] is the author of the young adult novel-in-verse Stay, and three poetry collections: Never Mind, Ring Finger, Left Hand, and Black Umbrella. Stay received the North American Gold Moonbeam Award for Children’s Poetry and was nominated for two Saskatchewan Book Awards: Poetry, and Children’s Literature. Never Mind was nominated for the Saskatchewan Book of the Year, and the City of Saskatoon Book Award.  Lying to Our Mothers was nominated for the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry. Ring Finger, Left Hand won the Saskatchewan Book Awards’ Brenda Macdonald Riches Best First Book Award.

Katherine was born in Hamilton, Ontario. She has lived in Saskatoon for over thirty-five years with her husband and their two daughters.

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

I moved from Hamilton to Ottawa in 1974 to study at Carleton. I graduated in 1978 with a BA in English. I moved back to Hamilton when I was offered a job at The Hamilton Spectator.

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

I started out in journalism at Carleton but transferred into English because my heart was in literature. I later worked as a journalist. I thought I could write poetry while supporting myself as a reporter, but I was too exhausted at the end of my workdays to keep writing at night. I was also adrift without a community of supportive writers. It took me two decades to build what I left behind in Ottawa.

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? 

Ottawa introduced me to people who encouraged me, at a young age, to keep writing poetry. Christopher Levenson was instrumental, not only as a professor but as a friend. He put me in touch with a writers’ group that included the late Carol Shields, among others. Robert Hogg was another poet/professor who nudged me along through books and readings.

These people led me to books that I would never have found on my own.

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

I was introduced to vibrant poetry readings downtown and on campus. I moved into writing groups and workshops. It was an exciting time for me. I knew that I wanted to write but I had not realized how important it was to find a community of support.

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? 

My new book, Black Umbrella, is a poetic memoir that returns to many of the people and places I met in Ottawa: my future husband; my long-time friend and former roommate; and the fabulous Rideau Canal.

Q: What are you working on now?

I am in the research phase of a project that looks at the power of female friendships and women’s sexuality.  Not sure if the research will take me into poetry or prose. Stand by!