Baglow received his PhD (Glasgow) in 1973 for his work on MacDiarmid,
and a second MA (in anthropology, from Carleton University) in 2010. He served
on the Executive of the Public Service Alliance from 1988-2003, and since then
has done a lot of odd jobs. He currently publishes semi-regular book reviews in
the Literary Review of Canada, and
continues to write poetry, which never comes easily.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
My family moved to Ottawa from Montreal in 1965. I flunked out of McGill that
year, and went to live with them. I`ve been here ever since, except for
1970-73, when I was doing graduate work in Scotland and England.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I first started writing poetry when I was 18, if I remember rightly. Awful stuff, but you have to start somewhere. I have to admit that to this day I was never a part of a “writing community” in Ottawa, although I know some of the players. For me, poetry has always been a solitary occupation. I find that, if I read other poets, my work shows undue influences for a while. If I were to trade drafts and receive “constructive criticism,” my work would cease to be entirely my own. I am my toughest critic, in any case.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
See above. I was invited to a poetry circle once. I guess that confirmed me in my preference for writing solitude.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
Well, every city is different. Having little interaction with local writers, I can’t speak to what is happening here in those circles. I know and get on with some local poets, but not enough to be aware of trends and preoccupations.
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?
Well, sure. Being in this city, the seat of government, affects me in spite of myself. Mass protests against government policy (which I attend from time to time), my work in union leadership (PSAC), the assault of the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” etc., can’t help but shape themes and responses. But most of my work is fashioned in a deeply personal space.
Q: What are you working on now?
Another poetry manuscript, and, if I can force myself, making some
headway on an oneiric novel.
I like to work by the manuscript. This head-on-wall sending of poems to
magazines and receiving rejections six months later (but a sprinkling of
acceptances, to be sure), is a mug’s game. I haven’t got a broad theme, yet,
but my last book didn’t have one, so…
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