Liam Burke (he/him/himbo) lives in Ottawa,
Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. He is most recently the
co-author of
machine dreams with natalie hanna (Collusion, 2021) and
Orbital
Cultivation with Manahil Bandukwala (Collusion, 2021). His work has most
recently appeared in
Sepia Journal,
Bywords,
Sledgehammer Lit,
Roi Fainéant,
INKSOUNDS,
the Daily Drunk, and
Savant-Garde, and is forthcoming in Gutslut
Press,
Parentheses Journal, and
Rejection Letters.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what
first brought you here?
Thirty-one years! I was born here, and have put various plans
to leave on hold. The longer I stay, the stronger the art communities get here,
so perhaps I had better remain a while longer, just in case I have something to
do with it.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and
subsequently, the writing community here?
I first made connections with art spaces in Ottawa playing in
bands as a teenager. A little later, I spent a year hosting the open mic at Umi
Cafe, where I made friends with folks in the slam community. In my undergrad, I
was fortunate enough to take a poetry workshop with the untouchable Sandra
Ridley, which introduced me to Tree Reading Series and to Carleton's in/words.
Later, I became the assistant director of the dearly departed Sawdust Reading
Series, and a co-host of Literary Landscape on CKCU, alongside dear friends
Kate Hunt and Arielle Contreras.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers
shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
Early on in my writing efforts, I heard fellow
writers here speak about the importance of not attaching your value as an
artist to your productivity. Writing is one of those funny things where not
writing is seen as a necessary part of the writing process – like resting after
exercise, I suppose. I’m still struggling to internalize that advice properly,
as I’m sure many of us are, but I suspect I’ll be much more at peace with my
art when I can.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t
see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
It’s related to the above, but I see my fellow
writers here fostering a space where we can decouple our art from traditional
markers of success, like publication, awards and funding. Not getting those
things can be a blow to our confidence in our work, and it’s nice to see
friends elevating and celebrating friends even when we’re not on shortlists and
making Twitter news. I doubt this movement is unique to Ottawa, but I’m
grateful for how vocal Ottawa artists are about it.
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’ve been lucky to compose and perform music
backing the performances of a few poets here, including Manahil Bandukwala,
natalie hanna, and the poetry collectives vii and Yoko’s Dogs. I think those
performances made me more sensitive to the musical components of poetry; the
tones and cadence of language, especially read aloud. I think, generally, that
music does a great deal to ground, structure and develop a reading; the two
mediums are very emotionally responsive to one another, and converse well.
Q: What are you working on now?
I've just finished my masters degree in philosophy, which
concerned the role played by social media algorithms in online radicalization.
That ate up a lot of brain space, so not too much room for poetry. I was lucky
to get published a bunch last year by some very lovely journals, and was hoping
to ride that momentum into the new year, but school had to take over for a
while. I’m chipping away at a manuscript now about neurodivergency, mental
illness and chronic pain through the lens of gaming tropes, which I hope will
continue to shape up, so long as I am kind enough to myself through the
process.
