Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought you here?
I’ve been in Ottawa all my life! I was born here. My parents emigrated from Serbia in 1998. They settled first in Montreal, but Ottawa’s where they were able to find work and set down roots, eventually raising both me and my little sister in this city.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I started writing when I was fairly young. I had a couple poems appear in youth anthologies, one of which was published by the Ottawa Public Library. That was my first “paycheck” for writing: I won an honourable mention in the library’s Awesome Authors contest and earned ten bucks. The contest, and the OPL, does an amazing job of showcasing young writers and artists in Ottawa. My first “official” publication was in Bywords.ca last October, and I’m very glad it happened that way: seeing my words appear in one of the cornerstones of Ottawa’s literary community just seemed like a fitting way to get started.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all?
It’s only recently that I’ve begun broadening my definition of “community”, after graduating from high school. In some ways, the pandemic is a terrible time to get involved, but it’s also helped me take steps I might not have taken otherwise. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to show up to readings or open mics if it took more than clicking a Zoom link. The writing community I’ve found in my first year at the University of Ottawa has also played such an important role in making me feel less isolated – it’s been great to attend events, contests, clubs, classes, and meet people virtually! I’ve discovered completely new ways to write – people are working on visual poetry, on experimental fiction, on comics, spoken word projects, and more. I used to think I needed to cultivate my own voice by sticking to a specific brand of writing, but encountering this variety of visions and ideas has made me question that. Why push myself into a box? Why not have many voices?
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
This is hard to answer because I’ve never lived anywhere else. I have travelled, but I can’t say I’ve ever had the opportunity to explore other literary communities. And I’m still working on discovering this one!
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 don’t think I’ve directly responded to Ottawa in any of my work – at least, not yet. In fact, I’ve spent a lot of time escaping it by writing about more exciting places. While I still don’t feel an urge to explore Ottawa in my work, it’s not as boring as I once believed. There’s a lot going on here, and I’m always inspired by people who propel change on a local scale. Ottawa has a strong human rights core, and some of my favourite initiatives are Cornerstone Housing for Women, the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, and Minwaashin Lodge. It’s motivating to interact with these local transformations and projects, to learn I can make a difference in a tangible way – this is something that comes across in the person I’m trying to become, rather than in anything I write. So far, I haven’t felt the need to write about what the Ottawa community has offered me. Just experiencing it has been enough.
Q: What are you working on now?
I’m working on whatever I feel like working on! I’m finally editing and revising some short fiction pieces I just haven’t gotten around to. And I recently took a class on experimental fiction offered by Stuart Ross during his time as writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa, so now I’m bursting with ideas to put to paper. I might even stitch together a fiction micro-chapbook. (On top of that, I have a science fiction novel I’ve been trying to finish for years… we’ll see if I get around to it!) I have so many ideas and a lot to do, but I think I’ll have fun with it all.
