Wednesday 10 November 2010

Q&A with Jon Chapman

I love it when students want to know more about poetry, so I'm always happy to talk with them whenever I can. Jon Chapman interviewed me recently and posted our conversation on his blog... along with an old author photo that was taken when I was 27! (I remember that hair!)

Here's how our conversation started:
Jon Chapman: When did you know you wanted to be an author?

Paul Vermeersch: When I was a kid, I always sought out creative activities. I loved to write, but I also loved to draw. I had a subscription to National Geographic, and I liked to imagine that one day I would write stories about wildlife for them. But I also wanted to be a painter. I couldn't choose between painting and writing. In university I studied visual art and English, and when I gradulated I moved to Poland to teach at a college there. I thought I would paint a lot in Poland, but I didn't. I wrote a lot of poems, though, and when I came back to Canada a year later, I had most of my first book written. That's when I knew which path I needed to follow. I decided to devote myself to my writing, and I haven't looked back.

JC: What do you like best about being an author now?

PV: I don't really think of being an author much to be honest....


Read the rest here.

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