Edited
by derek beaulieu and rob mclennan, and designed by Chaudiere co-publisher
Christine McNair, The Calgary Renaissance highlights some of the diverse and
astonishing experimental poetry and fiction that has emerged out of the past
two decades of Calgary writing. An essential portrait of some of the most
engaged and radical of Canadian writing and writers from one of the country’s
most important literary centres. You can order a copy directly, here.
For
further (ongoing) interviews with contributors to The Calgary Renaissance, check out the link here.
Eric Zboya is an experimental poet and visual
artist who lives in Calgary’s bedroom community of Cochrane, AB. Zboya’s work
has been published and exhibited in a wide variety of chapbooks, literary
journals, magazines, anthologies, art galleries, and museums throughout North
America and Europe. He was a finalist for both the 2013 Robert Kroetsch Award
for Innovative Poetry and the 2013 Alberta Magazines Showcase Awards selection
of poetry.
Q:
How long have you been in Calgary, and what first took you there?
A:
I was born and raised in Calgary. Currently, I live in Cochrane, which is a
small town just outside of Calgary.
Q:
How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing
community in Calgary?
A:
My first introduction to writing occurred in Junior High and High School. I enjoyed
it at the time, but it wasn’t until my early 20’s when writing really started
to peak my interests. The writing I produced during that period reflected my
literary curiosities at the time; so much of it resembled the overwrought and
hyperbolic language of Kazantzakis and Rushdie, all of which was no good. I
played around with poetry as well; but again, what I produced really reflected
the sources one finds at Chapters (Frost, Byron, Tennyson, Wilde, etc). When I
hit the age of 32, I came to the realization that without more formal literary
training everything I would continue to produce would be nothing more than
trash. So, I enrolled at the U of C and snatched up a first class honours
degree in English Lit. It was here at the U of C, through much experimentation
and exploration, and through the mentorship of many wonderful professors, that
I began to develop as a writer. Subsequently, these professors, along with
their literary connections, opened me to Calgary’s writing community.
Q:
How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing,
if at all? What did Calgary provide, or allow?
A:
Calgary’s community has opened me up to the idea of experimentation, and has
shown me avenues of writing that I would have never thought possible. These
avenues sometimes raise an eyebrow or two, I will admit, but it’s fun to
produce work that goes outside the box. How else are you supposed to grow as an
artist if you don’t experiment?
Q:
What do you see happening in Calgary that you don’t see anywhere else?
A:
I believe that Calgary very much belongs to the school of conceptualism. This
is not to say, of course, that other regions in the country do not practice or
experiment with this aesthetic, but Calgary really represents itself as a hub
for a bit of the abnormal.
Q:
Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements there?
A:
I believe that most of my projects reflect, in some way, the conceptual
aesthetics of Calgary.
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I have a project on the go that promises to be more words than visuals, which
is a first for me. There will be some visual elements to the manuscript,
naturally, but the collection will consist mostly of lines and stanzas, and all
that other nonsense. It’s going to take some time.
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