Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I first moved to Ottawa in 1991, following my husband at the time and his job. I worked from home, and took evening classes in creative writing at the University of Ottawa. Under Nadine McInnis and Rita Donovan, I learned how to use breath to measure the beauty of a sentence. I joined a class writing group; I began to attend poetry readings--TREE, Dusty Owl. I helped to run Sasquatch for a while.
In 1999 I moved to Fredericton with my youngest child in tow. From the University of New Brunswick, I took: an undergraduate degree in comparative literature; a masters degree in English; and a physics professor as a dear husband and healer of the heart. When he died in 2015, my bruised heart and I moved back to Ottawa, where four of my five children live.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
As a little girl in Edmundston, I read the Telegraph Journal--the comics and Alden Nowlan. And so I knew writers existed, but I thought such an occupation required an anointing, a special designation by the powers that be. But, no; it turns out engagement is what does the trick. Ottawa's poets, short story writers, novelists, memoirists, creators of books, and book sellers--together create an excellent atmosphere for engagement with the written word.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
I remember being so moved by poetry at readings in Ottawa, that I would go home and bury my pen in my sock drawer. I knew I would never write as beautifully as they, and what's the point of giving the world another unwanted poem? But even though I was mired in self-doubt (and still am), I felt the addictive pull. Perfection is over valued; just to read, and to write, is enough.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
Ottawa has more--more writers, more reading series, more universities, more publishers, more festivals, than a small town, say. Within this 'more' is a critical mass of connections, of opportunities either to shine or to hide. Ottawa also has the sales and distribution boost of the twice-yearly Small Press Book Fair. These components are so valuable to a writer.
Still, I value the intimacy of the Fredericton writing scene: drinking beer in Ross Leckie's kitchen; meeting Antonine Maillet at Molly's Coffee House; catching the flare of insight that comes from hearing M. Travis Lane give an impromptu explanation of the long-form poem, while her beloved, blind companion, Davy, winds his furry way around our legs.
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?
Mostly I stand back and say, wow, to the love and talent that Ottawa writers apply to the art of writing. Then I do my own work.
Q: What are you working on now?
I am writing memoir, with a focus on Child Haven, Kaliyampoondi, a home for impoverished children and seniors in a rural village in Tamil Nadu, India. In 2017-2018, I spent six months wrapped up in that ancient, breathing culture, and I haven't been the same since.
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