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Amy Lavender Harris writes: "Terrible Beauty: The Poetry of Paul Vermeersch"

In her tenure as writer in residence at Open Book Toronto for May, 2011, cultural geographer Amy Lavender Harris takes a look at the evolution of my poetry over my first four collections. Here is a sample:

Paul Vermeersch has had a long and instructive apprenticeship as a poet. His first published poems began appearing regularly in respected poetry journals in the late 1990s, around the time he founded the I.V. Lounge reading series in Toronto. For about a decade Paul has been the poetry editor with Insomniac Press. During this period he has published four trade collections: Burn (ECW, 2000), The Fat Kid (ECW, 2002), Between the Walls (McClelland & Stewart, 2005) and The Reinvention of the Human Hand (McClelland & Stewart, 2010).

In each collection there is a measurable, and pleasurable, improvement in his craft. Over time Vermeersch's poems grow tighter, even more terse. Many of his early poems are descriptive, seemingly autobiographical. They find meaning in prosaic, if pointed events: the death of a dog, a kid who shoots himself with his uncle's gun, the psychological consequences of childhood obesity. These poems are fascinating and often powerfully written, a kind of southwestern Ontario Gothic that reads like a poetic counterpoint to the stories of Alice Munro. 

Read the rest here.

George Murray interviews me, sort of.

George Murray subjects me to his "questionless book interview" at Open Book Toronto.  Check it out.

Introducing NewPoetry.ca

George Murray, the driving force behind the popular book blog Bookninja.ca, is back with a new project: NewPoetry.ca.

Right now it's just a mission statement, but the future of this initiative looks promising. Here's a sample of what Murray proposes: 

A magazine that proposes themed issues, then builds them by inviting poets and performers from all genres and forms to interpret as they will.

The web is the first medium that I know of that can accommodate most, if not all, of the forms currently out there. Through text, image, audio, video, and multimedia, as well as whatever new technologies are to come, NewPoetry.ca will publish the best of everything we can find: lyrical, visual, dub, sound, narrative, formal, hip-hop, surreal, automatic, recitation, aural, slam, flarf, algorithmic generations… and whatever is to come!

We’ll do this by bringing in key representatives from as many fields of production as we can, many of whom previously found themselves on opposite sides of the editorial pages. We’ll ask these people to bring us the best from their forms and styles for each issue. And we’ll see what comes.

For too long a lot of the poetic discourse in Canada has been squelched out by a handful of shrieking personalities pushing their own aesthetic agendas. I welcome a level playing field where those with different approaches to poetry can build something together rather than squabble over whose aesthetic values are more valid. Right now, it's only a statement of principles, but I'm enthusiastic to see what develops here and to participate when I can.

Ozymandiashay

ybay Ercypay Ysshebay Elleyshay 
ranslatedtay ybay Aulpay Ermeerschvay

Ihay etmay ahay ravellertay romfay anhay antiquehay andlay
Owhay aidsay: Otway astvay andhay runklesstay egslay ofhay onestay
Andstay inhay ethay esertday. Earnay emthay, onhay ethay andsay,
Alfhay unksay, ahay atteredshay isagevay ieslay, osewhay rownfay
Andhay inkledwray iplay, andhay neersay ofhay oldcay ommandcay
Elltay atthay itshay culptorsay ellway osethay assionspay eadray
Ichwhay etyay urvivesay, tampedsay onhay esethay ifelesslay ingsthay,
Ethay andhay atthay ockedmay emthay andhay ethay earthay atthay edfay.
Andhay onhay ethay edestalpay esethay ordsway appearhay:
"Ymay amenay ishay Ozymandiashay, ingkay ofhay ingskay:
Ooklay onhay ymay orksway, eyay Ightymay, andhay espairday!"
Othingnay esidebay emainsray. Oundray ethay ecayday
Ofhay atthay olossalcay eckwray, oundlessbay andhay arebay
Ethay onelay andhay evellay andssay tretchsay arfay awayhay.

Jeff Latosik on Open Book Toronto for March

I know I haven't been posting much here lately, but as some of you know, I'm busy completing the thesis for my MFA, and that is taking up a lot of my mental energy. I hope to be a more active blogger when it's completed.

In the meantime, fellow poet and good friend Jeff Latosik will be the Writer-in-Residence at Open Book Toronto for the entire month of March. Check what he's doing here.

A Christmas present from Johanna Skibsrud

In the Globe and Mail today, 30 writers are asked to talk about their favourite books of the year. Giller Award winner Johanna Skibsrud has some kind things to say about my lastest collection. Thanks, Johanna!

I read Vermeersch’s latest collection in a single sitting, which I don’t do very often. The language is dense, but there’s such a strong rhythmic pull to it – to me, gloriously reminiscent of James Dickey – that you just get carried; at times, it feels as though it’s being spoken to you by the most captivating and enlightened tent preacher. There’s also a deep empathy in Vermeersch’s work that helps to remind me what poetry – what language – is, or should be, about.

Read the whole piece here.

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.