Six Questions interview #39 : Laura Farina

Laura Farina is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Some Talk of Being Human (Mansfield Press, 2014) and This Woman Alphabetical (Pedlar Press, 2005), as well as the chapbooks, Diagnostic Tool (Gaspereau Press, 2017) and Choose Your Own Poem (above/ground press, 2019). Her picture book, This is the Path the Wolf Took is forthcoming from Kids Can Press. Laura is the recipient of the Archibald Lampman Award, and has appeared on the longlists for both the ReLit Award and the CBC Poetry Prize.  She coordinates the creative writing program at Simon Fraser University, and creates writing for social engagement projects as part of The Imprint Collective.

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

I grew up in Ottawa. My family moved to the city when my father got a job with the federal government in the early 1980s.  I left in 1999 to go to university.  I returned for a year or so in the mid-2000s to recover from my education. I left again to bounce from place to place in a haphazard manner until I finally settled in Vancouver over a decade ago.

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

I’ve written poems since elementary school. As a teenager, I was in the Literary Arts program at Canterbury High School, which is where I was first introduced to Ottawa’s amazing writing community.  It was crazy to me that I could read and admire someone’s book, and then they’d show up to my classroom and answer my most pressing questions. The mentorship that I received from Ottawa-area writers helped me keep submitting endlessly to Fiddlehead, and stop trying to end every one of my poems like Michael Ondaatje.  The other writing students I met at Canterbury are still some of my best editors and friends.

 

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? 

It has taken me a long time to understand that I am my best creative self when I’m actively part of a writing community. After leaving Canterbury I struggled to write for a long time.  I kept thinking that I needed to figure out a way to write “on my own”.  I think I was picturing some silent attic, where I’d discover my own brilliance surrounded by expectant silence. The reality is that I write best when others are creating nearby, or when I have some gentle deadlines imposed by folks who know and support my writing. 

Being part of various writing communities over the years (in Ottawa, but also in Toronto, Banff and Vancouver) has shown me that writing is so often a conversation and silent attics are just for muttering to yourself.

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

The writing community in Ottawa is welcoming and kind.  When I moved back after university my first book was about to come out.  I sent a quick email to Arc Magazine, introducing myself and asking if they had any volunteer positions.  They welcomed me as an associate editor and were endlessly patient about showing me the ropes. 

Also, the best piece of gentle criticism I ever received as I writer came from Ottawa’s own rob mclennan.  When he reviewed my first book he wrote “Is there any particular reason why this is a poet in town that hasn’t been reading in any of the open sets or featured readings that I've seen or heard of? Is there any particular reason why she has been hiding out?”  No, there was no good reason other than mild shyness, and a penchant for watching Law and Order reruns instead of going out and meeting other writers.  Point taken, Mr. mclennan.  I’m grateful that I was called on this and I like to think I’ve changed (slightly).

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? 

No matter how many years I live in Vancouver, I’m always being told that my poetry is “so Ontario”.  I don’t see it, but I guess it’s there. 

Q: What are you working on now? 

I’m almost finished a collection of poems that has something to do with mysteries and detection.

Six Questions interview #38 : Maha Zimmo

Maha Zimmo is a Canadian Muslim womanist born in Libya, and of Palestinian roots. In her poems, the titles are the last thing you come upon. In this way, the poet pulls the reader into the disjunction and confusion first and second generation immigrants experience as they forge personal and cultural identities, often forcing the reader to take a second look at the poem, so that they might receive and understand the work in a different light, as many must do when facing Other.

rose-water syrup is her first book of poetry, and was published in 2019.

She holds a Master of Arts in International Legal Theory; is a former political analyst for several online journals including rabble, has been writing for 15+ years at onefemalecanuck.com, and is currently the resident advice columnist at Chai Latte Diaries, as well as a regular contributor at sister-hood magazine. Her poetry has been featured in ARC Poetry Magazine, Cosmonauts Avenue, METATRON Press, Across the Margin, Ottawater Poetry Journal, Taj Mahal Review, and Rise Up Review.

Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?

My family immigrated to Ottawa 41 years ago when I was four years old. We came because, as many immigrants do, we had no choice. My family is Palestinian, and Israel used one of its many 'bureaucratic' tactics to revoke my father's Palestinian Hawyah (identity card), as one of their means to ethnically cleanse the Occupied Territories.

Because we had no home, my father chose what was the best. That was Canada.

Ottawa, because one of his siblings was also here.

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

I have been writing my entire life. I would say that there was never a time when I didn't write and so I cannot in good faith give you a start date, other than: What I have always been is a Writer first.

I submitted to Ottawater poetry journal. After acceptance and publication there, I was invited to read my poetry to the Ottawa crowd and so I did. Terrified, but met with the absolute warmest space.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?

It has not.

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

There is a small and committed community of artists here which, only because I have no others to whom I might compare them, I simply hope continues to grow and engage more artists in all genres.

More specifically, I would like to see the Writer's Festival dedicate and commit a regular series to only local Ottawa talent.

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 write from emotional experience, and root myself in my Faith (Islam), and so inevitably Ottawa is the backdrop in all pieces.

That written, and more to your point, I am here in Canada occupying land.

My poetry speaks to the fragmentation of being a false Other, an immigrant, someone indigenous to another land / Palestine, occupied by (also) White men, while I sit here occupying the land of this soil's Indigenous community.

This is, bluntly: fucked.

It is also something to which I am absolutely beholden in terms of making certain that I acknowledge and reflect on it. Which I do. Most notably in rose-water syrup, my poetry collection published last year.

Q: What are you working on now?

Several different projects, none of which I am ready to discuss. But always, I am writing.

Six Questions interview #37 : Helen Robertson

Possible which, definite bitch, and full time disaster Helen Robertson is a genderqueer trans woman moving through the lifelong process of accepting how lucky they’ve been; using poetry to excise their ire and sorrow — hopefully turning it into something worthwhile.

They have work published or forthcoming in CV2, The Fiddlehead, The Puritan, and The /tƐmz/ Review and others.  They are the secretary for Tree Reading Series and are a reader for Bywords.

Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?

I’ve actually lived in Ottawa all my life.  What kept me here though, honestly, is a sense of inertia.  While I’ve toyed with the thought of moving to Toronto (ha! look at that rent, no thanks) and Montreal I’m not likely to follow through.  The main reason I’ve considered it is because Ottawa may be a queer friendly city but it is not a particularly queer city.  I kinda feel like (and I know this is a massive generalization) that the community in Ottawa is skews towards queer university students and assimilated LGBT2QIA folk working in business or government.  If I want Ottawa to get queerer the least I can do is stay.

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

I actually got into writing when I was young.  I remember, specifically, a grade five poetry unit where I discovered I had a bit of a knack for it.  (Thinking back on what I was writing then it was surprisingly similar in mood to what I do now.  I could be a tad of a sad kid.)  After that I continued writing for a while and eventually wound up going to Canterbury.  At the time though I kept trying to actively move away from poetry.  While I, largely due to procrastination, developed the ability to write poems quickly I was focused on moving towards stage plays, then short stories, then novels.  This continued until my mid to late twenties.  Honestly, it wasn't until then that I came to the realization that poetry was my medium.  (I may eventually give an honest go at some other forms again but for now I’m happy with growing my poetry.)

As for the community I have Ben Ladouceur and Amanda Earl to thank.  A few months after I started writing again I decided to go to open mics.  Ben was very encouraging and when Tree needed new board members he asked if I was interested.  I then hosted our Pride event last year where Amanda asked if I was interested in being a reader for Bywords.  I'm not usually the most forward person so I'm very grateful that they both chose to approach me.

Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?

Honestly, I'd say that, more than anything else, it allowed me to even further embrace the direct and curt nature of my writing.  Receiving positive feedback about those poems really helped me accept that element.

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

To be honest I can’t say what is happening here that isn’t happening elsewhere.  I haven’t lived elsewhere and I have not even visited Toronto in… gosh, I think seven years now if not more.  One thing that I have heard though, and definitely experience as well, is that the poetry community here has a strong sense of comradery.  If there is any “competition” it is not centered around being better than someone else but rather a feeling of motivation garnered by watching your friends and peers find success.

That sense of community is definitely one of the big things that Ottawa provides.  However, I think that one thing that Ottawa offers for me in particular is a dearth of trans poetry.  While I, obviously, do not think that is a good thing I can’t deny that it has most likely been beneficial for me.  It allows me to fill a niche, one I would have been trying to fill anyway (as I said my poetry is unsubtle,) and thereby draw attention to myself by being one of the few people in Ottawa writing on the topic.

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?

The only project that I can say has is the collective VII.  When lockdown started I approached some folk about writing some exquisite corpse poems together as a way to keep community and fight against boredom.  Everyone enjoyed it enough that we’ve just kept going and so we made VII.

Q: What are you working on now?

For personal projects right now I’m trying to get multiple chapbook manuscripts together so I have a few to send out.  The one I’m working on right now is centered around sex and sexuality because the COVID lockdown has got me in *ahem* particular moods.  I’ll also soon be starting the next section of my erasure of “The Man Who Would Be Queen” a, let’s say, less than friendly academic text about trans women.  The first suit of this erasure is actually going to be appearing in The /tƐmz/ Review.  I am also continuing to work in VII.  VII in fact has a chapbook “Towers” coming out next year with Collusion Press.

I’m hoping that after I get a couple of solo chapbooks accepted I can start getting together a full length but honestly I might be getting ahead of myself there.