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.
Q:
How long have you been in Calgary, and what first took you there?
A:
I was born in Calgary. I did my undergrad at the University of Calgary and then
returned to the city after grad school in Montreal.
Q:
How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing
community in Calgary?
A:
In my first year orientation at the U of C, I discovered creative writing
classes. No one had told me such a thing existed. I applied with a portfolio in
my second year and got in. I’m still friends with a lot of the people I met in
those classes. After graduating, I was the Fiction Editor for filling Station Magazine, and when I
returned from grad school, I became involved with the magazine again.
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 was my first writing community – I hadn’t realized such a community
could or did exist. Mostly I was just excited to have found other writers.
My
return to Calgary has felt different. When you’re a student, you have a built
in, automatic community of sorts. Now as a “civilian,” I’ve had to search out a
community, and help foster it as well. I’m fortunate to have found a group of
people with whom I share an aesthetic sensibility. The writing community here
is integral to my life, socially and creatively.
Q:
What do you see happening in Calgary that you don’t see anywhere else?
A:
There’s a certain enthusiasm and energy here that infuses the community. A
willingness to experiment and try new things. Perhaps it’s a reaction to (what
was) a conservative political landscape or maybe it’s just an extension of the
city’s ethos.
Q:
Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements there?
A:
Calgary itself appears in a lot of my fiction. Some of the stories in the
collection I’m currently working on deal with the 2013 flood; some deal with
the boom/bust economy. In 2015, I wrote a chapter for Noir on 8th, a collaborative novel that is set in Calgary’s East
Village.
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I’m writing a collection of short stories and a series of linked stories.
