12 or 20 (small press) questions: Carleton Wilson on Junction Books

Junction Books is an independent Canadian chapbook publisher that was started by Carleton Wilson in 1999. In 2003, Junction Books also began publishing trade books in a poetry imprint with Nightwood Editions, and this was the sole activity of Junction Books from 2005–2012. In 2013, the chapbook publishing program was reintroduced, with the addition of Blaise Moritz as managing editor and Adrienne Weiss as copy editor.

Carleton Wilson is a poet, editor, book designer, and the publisher of Junction Books. He lives and works in the Junction, Toronto, Canada.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 – When did Junction Books first start? How have your original goals as a publisher shifted since you started, if at all? And what have you learned through the process?
I started Junction Books in 1999 and published 34 chapbooks within its first five years of operation, but in 2004 I had to put the chapbook publishing on hiatus for financial and personal reasons. I initially began Junction Books in order to publish new writers, mostly poets. However, there is no particular direction we will be taking with the renewed publishing program; we'll just publish writings we think would make great chapbooks. I did not know much about publishing before starting Junction Books, so the experience has taught me something in almost all areas of publishing, especially in design and typesetting.

2 – What first brought you to publishing?
I attended the Toronto Small Press Book Fair in 1997 or 1998, and I thought that it was wonderful that people were publishing at this grassroots scale. I did not realize before attending that event that being a publisher was a possibility for anyone. This inspired me to start Junction Books, and such grassroots publishing is still the most meaningful publishing to me.

3 – What do you consider the role and responsibilities, if any, of small publishing?
Generally, the wonderful thing about publishing at this grassroots level is that you can set your own role and responsibilities. If you have a particular vision you want to pursue with your publishing program, you can do so. I think publishers have a responsibility to the writers they are publishing to represent their work in best way they possibly can, given the resources available to them. Beyond that, the way a publisher goes about their publishing program is an individual expression of the vision they have, and that's the great thing about independent publishing, especially at the grassroots level.

4 – What do you see your press doing that no one else is?
When I started Junction Books, I published a lot of young writers who were in the literary scene at the University of Toronto, though that focus did broaden towards the end of our first publishing run. With respect to what is happening now, we will be printing and binding the chapbooks ourselves, and each publication will be issued in both softcover and hardcover chapbooks, available in a limited edition. Once the initial print-run is sold out, we will be issuing a print-on-demand version of the chapbook that will also be available only for a limited amount of time before being classified as out of print. We are also excited to begin publishing well-designed poetry broadsides that we hope will be of interest to people.

5 – What do you see as the most effective way to get new chapbooks out into the world?
The most effective way to distribute chapbooks is through events, either launches, readings, or book fairs. It's also helpful if the writer has a good number of family and friends who are eager to purchase their chapbook.

6 – How involved an editor are you? Do you dig deep into line edits, or do you prefer more of a light touch?
It really depends on the manuscript I receive, and even more specifically on the individual poems in a manuscript. I can have no suggestions for one poem in a manuscript and then the next page is filled with editorial suggestions for that poem. So I don't have any preconceived way of going about editing a poem or manuscript.

7 – How do your chapbooks get distributed? What are your usual print runs?
In the first years of operation, print-runs for chapbooks were usually around 150 copies, and the chapbooks were distributed through launches and the Toronto Small Press Fair. With our new publishing program, chapbook print-runs will be small, approximately 50 copies, which we will print and bind ourselves. And as I stated previously, if that initial print-run is sold out, we will issue a print-on-demand version of the chapbook for a limited time, either 6 months or a year, and then the title will become out of print and not available via print-on-demand any longer. Having been out of the indie publishing game for several years, I'm actually not really sure how much of a market there is these days for chapbooks, so I am being quite conservative in my estimates with production numbers, at least until I see what the market is like. Distribution will be through the usual ways, launches and small press fairs, though we will definitely look into selling items through our website.

8 – How many other people are involved with editing or production? Do you work with other editors, and if so, how effective do you find it? What are the benefits, drawbacks?
Blaise Moritz has joined Junction Books as managing editor, and he will help me with the chapbook production. Also, Adrienne Weiss has agreed to be our copy editor and proofreader. I enjoy working with other editors, and it usually works out well. I believe it is important for me to include others in the publishing process, because it ultimately will be a benefit to the end product. When you have a good team working well together, then the responsibilities and stresses are shared and no one person is being ground down by the process, which happened to me previously. The challenges in this are mostly logistical, getting everyone together and on the same page, but they are easily surmountable if everyone is keen and excited about the project you are working on.

9– How has being an editor/publisher changed the way you think about your own writing?
I don't think editing and publishing has changed the way I think about my own writing in any meaningful way, outside of the fact that doing all of this editing and publishing has kept me from actually thinking about and working on my own writing. It doesn't help that I am a slow writer, which compounds the effect of the time spent away from it.


10– How do you approach the idea of publishing your own writing? Some, such as Gary Geddes when he still ran Cormorant, refused such, yet various Coach House Press’ editors had titles during their tenures as editors for the press, including Victor Coleman and bpNichol. What do you think of the arguments for or against, or do you see the whole question as irrelevant?
Generally, I have no issues with publishing my own writing, but I do think the question is relevant, and I do question myself about it occasionally. However at the grassroots level of publishing, I think the relevance of this question diminishes because the stakes are completely different than for publishers of full books where outside funding is part of the equation. If you start a chapbook press that also publishes your own writing, I don't have any problems with that, I've done it myself. I'm a big proponent of self-publishing at the grassroots level. I do think once you get to full books, things have to be weighed more carefully, but I still generally do not have a problem with it, as long as your book goes through as rigorous a publishing process as any other book would.

11– How do you see Junction Books evolving?
I don't know how Junction Books will evolve in the future; we just finished evolving into what we presently are. I believe the plan I have over the near future, publishing one or two chapbooks and a broadside per spring/fall season, is fairly sustainable, but beyond that I do not know. Maybe the future holds more change, but there are no plans for any at the moment.

12– What, as a publisher, are you most proud of accomplishing? What do you think people have overlooked about your publications? What is your biggest frustration?
With respect to the past, what I have found most fulfilling in my work with Junction Books is publishing the first collections of writers whose work I thought was excellent, but who were not being published elsewhere. Giving these young writers a literary platform by publishing their first chapbook is something that has been very meaningful to me. We'll see how things go with the new publishing program, but I have hope that it will be equaling fulfilling.

Most of the chapbooks I published are now out of print, and came out over a decade ago, so if you weren't active in the literary scene in Toronto before 2005, then all of my chapbook publishing work is probably unknown to you. So now I am essentially starting anew, and the first chapbook has yet to be published, so really at the moment there is nothing to overlook. The biggest frustration has always been in selling enough chapbooks to break even on a project. I've never found that an easy thing to do, which is why I am starting out small this time and will see how things go.

13– Who were your early publishing models when starting out?
Any publisher that was at the Toronto Small Press Fairs in the late 1990s was an inspiration to me. I loved that everyone was doing their own thing, and that showed me that it was possible for me to be a publisher as well.

14– How does Junction Books work to engage with your immediate literary community, and community at large? What journals or presses do you see Junction Books in dialogue with? How important do you see those dialogues, those conversations?
I don't really have an answer to these questions yet. As I said, Junction Books has been absent from the Toronto micro-press community for several years, and is just starting to wend its way back into the scene. But I am very much looking forward to building new relationships with writers and other micro-press publishers. Such relationships and dialogues are a real driving force for me to do this kind of work, so they are and always have been important.

15– Do you hold regular or occasional readings or launches? How important do you see public readings and other events?
No, at the moment we do not have regular events. I have not yet decided how we are going to do launches. It is important so we'll figure out something because a launch is, in my experience, where you sell most of a print-run. In the past I had big launches for chapbooks and invited local indie bands, like The Bicycles and Justin Rutledge, to play, but that was when I was launching 4 or 5 chapbooks at a time. I'm publishing on a smaller scale now so I will have to figure out what will work for us.

16– How do you utilize the internet, if at all, to further your goals?
I have a website (http://junctionbooks.ca) which includes information about our publications and a blog, and I started a Twitter account for Junction Books (@JunctionBooks), but I am not particularly adept at social media. We will also use a print-on-demand service, via the web, for printing chapbooks when the initial small print-runs have been sold out. I eventually would like to sell our chapbooks and broadsides through our website, but I will wait to see how sales at events go before moving in that direction.

17– Do you take submissions? If so, what aren’t you looking for?
Junction Books does not take submissions. We are only publishing two to four chapbooks per year, and most of our time and energy will be taken up with editing, printing, and binding those chapbooks. So we won't be accepting submissions anytime soon.

18– Tell me about three of your most recent titles, and why they’re special.
Since the most recent titles are several years old, I will talk about the first title that Junction Books will publish this spring. The chapbook is called Production 1060: The Oz Monologues by Adrienne Weiss, and the poems imagine the lives of Oz’s famous actors and their alternative selves both on and off set, further blurring the lines of identity, performance, and real life. The first broadside we will be publishing is a poem by A.F. Moritz.

Thank you for the opportunity to (re-)introduce Junction Books to your readers.

12 or 20 (small press) questions;

A series of author photos #2: rob mclennan by Brown, whist + Fowler,

I’ve been digging further around my archive, and have continued to discover artwork of me produced by various artists from across Canada over the past decade or two. Idid a previous post on such here.

I don’t remember when or how exactly I met Tim Brown, proprietor of brown comix and at least two dozen issues of obliviositer, which later on became the graphic novel Pulpspotter. I suspect it was around 1998, when I was doing a tour that went through Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, given that I know I met the guy and his catalogue has him in Bradwell, Saskatchewan. Perhaps we even met up (also) at a Canzine in Toronto? I know I have a t-shirt of his I purchased, a couple of issues of various things, and a copy of Pulpspotter, as well as this drawing I used on the back cover of at least one chapbook down the line. The same image also graced a broadsheet poster that Tom Snyders and I printed at his home studio in Vancouver, in May 1999. Whatever happened to Tim Brown?

Here’s another incredible sketch of me by the enormously talented emily whist (Rob Nelms), who I wrote about in my previous post. I never actually used this one for anything. I’m not sure why.

He once showed me a scrapbook of a series of comic strips he drew about the life of a cup of coffee which was absolute genius. I can honestly say that this guy had far more talent than he knew what to do with. He didn’t lack ambition, but no one was entirely sure where that ambition was directed, exactly.

Ottawa artist Tom Fowler [who did our “engagement photo” last year] has produced more than a few images of me over the years, including a wrap-around cover for my poetry collection bagne,or Criteria for Heaven (Broken Jaw Press, 2000), as well as a series of images used for posters to promote the semi-annual ottawa small press book fair. Usually Fowler would come visit me at the donut shop for a coffee, and sketch me as we were talking, to either leave me with the finished image, or bring a copy of such later on for me to put on a poster. This is the image he drew for the spring 2002 edition of the fair.

His blog will give you the best sense of what he’s been working on lately, but some of his other work includes an issue of Batman (in which he included a character wearing a t-shirt with the Broken Jaw Press logo), the Jango Fett one-shot for Dark Horse Comics, and some stellar work on Green Arrow and Venom. You should also check out his Mysterius.

Profile on Open Letter: A Journal of Writing and Theory, now up at Open Book: Ontario

My profile of Frank Davey's Open Letter: A Journal of Writing and Theory, with a few questions, is now up at Open Book: Ontario.

a new poem up at The Steel Chisel,

I've a new poem, "Bank Entire," now online in the April issue of The Steel Chisel.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Sara Peters

Sara Peters was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She completed an MFA at Boston University, and was a 2010 to 2012 Stegner fellow at Stanford University. Her work has appeared in Slate, Maisonneuve, This Magazine, B O D Y, The Threepenny Review, The Walrus, and Poetry. Her first book, 1996, was recently published by House of Anansi Press.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I'm not sure how my first book will change my life. I am so happy that I was able to publish one, in the first place. 

I hope that my most recent work is better than my previous work. And by better I mean clearer and more interesting.

My recent work does not feel much different from my previous work.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
My main reason is pretty typical: I liked how poetry could accomplish a lot in a small space.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I write very slowly, and my first drafts are terrible.

4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
A poem usually begins with me really not wanting to write a poem, at all. I am never working on a “book” from the very beginning...just a lot of individual things.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I am always thrilled to do public readings, in the sense that it is wonderful and flattering to be invited to do so. But I am a very nervous, self conscious reader.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I have lots of theoretical concerns. I think everyone has a different notion of what the current questions are.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I think the role of the writer depends on the individual, and the type of work s/he is doing, so it's hard for me to generalize.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I find it essential.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Something too personal to record here.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to critical prose)? What do you see as the appeal?
I don't write critical prose. I did when I was in school, and I had the same problems with it that I have with writing, in general: that is, I am reluctant and avoidant and have difficulty starting and finishing.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I don't have a writing routine. But I think having one would help. I want to design one over the next few months.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
The eternal wellspring of my own guilt re: not writing.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Rotting wood.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
All of these, and more.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
To name just one contemporary writer: Frank Bidart.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Become a less anxious person.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I don't think of writing as my occupation. I'm mostly a teacher. And probably if I didn't write, I would still be a teacher.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I don't know.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
The last great books I read were unpublished manuscripts by my friends Erica Ehrenberg and Miriam Bird Greenberg. The last great movie I saw was A Family Finds Entertainment by Ryan Trecartin.

20 - What are you currently working on?
Nothing!

[Sara Peters launches 1996 in Ottawa as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival's Anansi Poetry Bash on Saturday, April 27, 2013 with Michael Crummey and Adam Dickinson]

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Deborah Poe, the last will be stone, too

endless rebirth

nails and teeth

organs flesh and bone

dusk reverie rabbit then deer

hard substance of body, the earth

sweat bile and blood

tears fat and mucus

jellyfish

fluids, water

body mechanisms fire

physical warmth, aging

fireflies at night

the scattering sparks

breathing

in the belly

the crepuscular crow

energy, movement

pink light on black pavement

when the body’s fire dissolves into wind

thin paper’s fragility

skin cools

mouth nostrils and ears

the rhythm circles, repeats

from the feet upward to the heart

the dissolution of elements

beyond the physical body’s slow ring

In her third trade poetry collection, the last will be stone, too (Ithica, NY: Stockport Flats, 2013), Hudson Valley poet Deborah Poe composes a study of death in four sections: people, place, animal and ghost. Originally produced as four chapbooks as part of the dusie kollektiv #5, part of the strength of this collection is in how the multiple voices come through the text, from one piece of fading text across bold, from a series of italicized choruses and a poem in binary, or in more subtle ways, wrapped underneath and across straighter lines. Through composing lines in italics, it is as though Poe has composed a poem within the poem, commenting on the main line of the piece and responding to it. Even the preface, the poem “death mix” (called “tract” in the table of contents), is entirely chorus, written nearly as a kind of foreshadowing, writing:

stone, wherever you look, stone

in the passages, passages

let the grey animal in

O one, o none o no one, o you

As Poe writes to open her lengthy “notes” at the end of the collection, “The title of this collection is based on a quote from Nadezhda Mandelstam’s Hope against Hope (Athneum Publishers 1970): Once, resting by the pile of rocks, [Osip] said, ‘My first book was Stone, and my last will be stone, too’ (399, emphasis mine).” In a second collection composed as a “last book,” Poe uses erasure, lyric, ekphrasis, lists and the prose-poem in a collage of forms, each reaching toward some kind of unknowing, writing the conflict between comprehension and the impossibility of what might come, and the foreshadowing of death, the great equalizer. Throughout the collection, she weaves references to how the ancient Egyptians saw death to more than a couple of quotes from Nadezhda Mandelstam and other cultural counterpoints, each exploring death towards an accumulation of lyric on the subject, presented as a book-length essay-poem. As anyone knows, any book about death can’t help but be also a book about life, as one can’t exist without the tension of the other. In the hands of Deborah Poe, the last will be stone, too is a poem tightrope-taut.

le passage

No one asked if Magritte’s bowler-hatted homme was autobiographical. This is not a dream; it’s a vision. Past the sign, the significance. Winter sky. She doesn’t face you because she steadies an end. Cloth wrapped around her lower half, she hunches. The way forward is precarious. A body worn thin. She confronts dead sky. Flat panels—space between ground. Broken earth ocean. You come to nude body. Beauty is convenient. A set jaw line signals a smile. She’s gone spine. Shadows on twisted stairs rise behind. She has said all she has to say. All there is to do now is scream.

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Richard Van Camp

Richard Van Camp is a proud member of the Tlicho Dene Nation from Fort Smith, NWT. He writes and published in every genre. You can visit him on Facebook, Twitter and at www.richardvancamp.com. His latest collection of short stories is Godless but Loyal to Heaven (Enfield&Wizenty), and his new baby book is Little You (Orca Book Publishers). If you want to read his comic book on sexual health, it’s right here: http://www.thehealthyaboriginal.net/comics/KMD.pdf. If you want to read a lovely and erotic short story he wrote, you can here: http://www.themedicineproject.com/richard-van-camp.html. If you want to read a literary story he wrote, you can do so here: http://walrusmagazine.com/article.php?ref=2007.11-fiction-richard-van-camp&page=1&galleryPage=. If you want to see the trailer for The Lesser Blessed, you can do so here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD0bNnpAA8U. Mahsi cho!

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Having The Lesser Blessed come out in 1996 was terrifying. Ask any of my friends. I seem to recall calling Billeh Nickerson and demanding that he not buy the book. I think it was like this: “If you love me, Billeh Nickerson, you will not buy this book.” Try and figure that out. Was it fear of success? I think it was fear of the unknown. I had fired my first arrow of light into the sky for the world to see, and I was so scared someone would call it an ugly baby. But, looking back, how can anyone call anything you put heart, soul, blood, tears, heartbreak, heartache, lust, love, hope and all you have left and even more you didn’t know you even had on bloodied knees forward in supplication?

You can train for years with the craft of writing and take workshop after workshop or class after class, but no one can prepare you for your first book to come out. It’s like talking about giving birth. Talk is cheap until you feel those first undulations. (Look at me: talking about childbirth. What the hell?) Where was I? Oh yes! You worry you may have done something “wrong.” I kept waiting to get grounded by someone. The Lesser Blessed is now a movie with First Generation Films (thank God!). It only took seven years for this to happen and the movie will be reaching film festivals, movie theatres, Movie Central (and other TV channels, I am sure) this year.

Now, 10 books later, and I’m always interested in how my books are being received. Facebook and e-mails are generous from fans, friends and family, but I’m noticing so many less reviews from recognized national newspapers and literary magazines. I don’t take this personally. I think it’s safe to say all of these publications are swarmed by larger publishing houses. It’s amazing how GoodReads is the RottenTomatoes for books now.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I write in all genres and, if I’m lucky, I’ll write one good poem a year. I think poetry is the most natural voice in the world.  We speak poetry; we dream poetry; music is poetry and music is my everything: I’m listening to “Grandloves” by Purity Ring right now as I write this, and it’s like a blur of butterflies passing through and behind my eyes in figure eight loops. I get dizzy with music and that’s soulpoetry, isn’t it? You also don’t have to know any “rules” when it comes to poetry. It just is. Take it or leave it. The short story is so complicated and easy at the same time. Do I write this story backwards? Hmmmm. Where can we implode someone? Has everyone had their say? Can anyone surprise us? What’s on the wall behind the body?

3 - How long does it take to start any particular project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
A great question: some things come in a rush: some stories are drafts that I start and will finish years or months later. The key is the story is the boss. I can’t force anything. The best that I can do to cultivate a story is listen to a lot of music, visit as much as I can, recognize the moment where a story may come from a stranger, read work that challenges me, watch a lot of movies. Basically, I inhale with my soul for as much as I can and pray that when I exhale there are stories for sharing. There are stories in my head I’ve been thinking of for years, and I know they’ll come when the time is right. I’m a patient man and a grateful one. 

4 - Where does a poem or story usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
Ask my agents and publishers: I’m probably a bit of a nightmare to work with because I’m impulsive and driven and ache for dialogue with ideas, but I’ve learned that everyone on my team is my first line of defense against impulse, and what I may think as clever or something that we can work on…well, they’ve all found a way to inspire me to work on my finest manuscripts and to focus on what’s working. I find that novels or novellas I’ve started years ago are now gorgeous short stories. The spirit of them survives. I can’t explain it, but it seems I like to write novels or novellas and then realize that the true gem was a chapter that deserves to be cut and blanketed around and nurtured back in a new way, the true way.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love readings because none are the same. As a storyteller, the crowd is the boss. I may hit the stage thinking I know what I want to read, but if the performer before me has bored them to tears, I’ll not read and I’ll share a hilarious story to get everybody back for the next performer. If I’m the sole presenter, I’ll open with stories of hilarity and inspiration and end with a reading of a short story that I know will devastate them. I’d rather people know who I am before I demolish them with something literary. (And I mean demolish as in pulverize emotionally in a sensual way, of course. :))

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I had a student say to me in a classroom years ago that I write about “Devotion”, and I think she nailed it. In fact, “Godless but Loyal to Heaven” was originally called “Devotion” to honour this. I still write about what’s breaking my heart in the world. “The Moon of Letting Go” was such a feminine work. I’m told it’s my best. “Godless but Loyal to Heaven” is so ferocious and it’s so masculine and now that we’re back in print with the softcover, I’m so looking forward to hearing and reading how it’s received. I notice that my new collection that I’m working on right now, tentatively called “Night Moves”, is more of a celebration of life. It’s not so hard-core. Not everyone deserves to be punished in the way I tore so many characters in half in Angel Wing Splash Pattern, The Moon of Letting Go, or “Godless…”. I’m thrilled that the voices and characters are going easier on me and each other this time around.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I can only speak for myself. I’m so happy that I don’t see anyone doing what I’m doing right now in literature: I’m working in all genres and enjoying growing older with my characters. I do have readers who have all of my work who care deeply about what me and my characters are up to, and it’s actually them that I think of when I get to work every morning when I’m writing. The role of the writer will always be to publish their absolute best and hope it finds an audience. I’ve been so lucky with my production team that they’ve only allowed me to Red Rover only my best Over! (Sorry: was that lame? Ha ha.)

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I’ve been so lucky to work with some very tough editors who I respect immensely: Barbara Pulling, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Maurice Mierau, Andris Taskans and Heidi Harms of Prairie Fire. If anyone gets a chance to work with them, do it. They are bouncers to a brawl you’ll be grateful you were in.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Robert Creeley’s “Form should echo content.” I think about this every day.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?
Very easy because I respect what each force is. I trust what I feel when it comes to packaging what I’m working on.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Get up, put coffee on, get the house quiet before putting the tunes on, get to writing (2 hours max), the rest of the day is for inhaling, business, and getting the house ready for our family. Simple!

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Music, movies, photography, friends, family, community, toy collecting, libraries, Whyte Ave. here in Edmonton, walks, listening, helping, feeling and sifting my way through the world every day.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Wherever my sweety is. If I can Kunik or “sniff” her, then I am home.

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Music, photography, movies and great artwork. Also, sitting through presentations pretending to listen.  I get such great thinking done!

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I’m a huge graphic novel collector and just about everything that IDW Publishing is putting out these days speaks to me. I love magazines and zines. I can sit for an hour in any magazine shop and just turn the pages, and they literally inspire me so completely. I just can’t wait to get to work on my own stuff after sitting with so many art forms. Just looking at a stack of magazines gets my blood roaring.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I love specialized projects like Continuum’s 33 1/3 series. I keep wanting to write one of these for The Cure’s Disintegration album and have tried twice but no dice (so far). Robert Smith and Continuum, I could write you something so beautiful if you’d let me! I’m a huge fan of photography and I’d like to have more opportunities to share my own without getting into trouble. For example, my toy photography. I love it but have been told not to publish it because of copyright infringement. Remember how Gollum suffered without his “Precious”? Well, I’m like that with my toy photography. I want to share it with everyone but worry that lawyers will sue me if I do. “Preciousssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhh!”

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I don’t even want to imagine a life without me being a writer. How boring would I be? But you’ve asked a great question and I would have been known as a great storyteller.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
No one was telling my story about growing up in the north. I wrote something that I wanted to read. I always take that approach: Richard, write something you would like to read.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
The last great book I read was IDW Publishing’s Cobra: The Last Laugh. It’s a prestige hardcover now for around $50.00 or $18.00 on the Comixology App. It’s about a GI Joe operative named Chuckles who infiltrates Cobra only to realize the full fucking horror of who they are and what they’re capable of. I think about that story every single day. I’m doing an interview for the Danforth Review with the writing team and artist just so I can get a little closer to the source. I need to touch the source, rob!! Last great movie: Punch Drunk Love (off the top of my head.) Drive was great. Biutiful was just so devastating and ugly and gorgeous. I also thought Clooney’s The American was great for the tone it set and followed right until the end. On the Ice blew me away, too. I need to watch all of these again!

20 - What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a new short story collection and a small comic book (that I’d like to include in the collection but worry most publishers won’t want to spend the time or moolah inserting it called “Sword of Antlers.”) I want my next book to be a bit of photography, poetry, short stories, a novella or two and this mysterious illustrated story. That feels most like me and that would feel so right: to have a celebration of the voices and characters that have chosen me. I’d be so proud of that. Now who wants to dance?

[Richard Van Camp reads in Ottawa as part of the ottawa international writers festival on Sunday, April 28, 2013]

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

Ongoing notes: late April, 2013

I’ve been going through boxes upon boxes, continuing to send my literary archive to the University of Calgary (recently I received from them a healthy-sized tax receipt for the boxes I sent them last year), and discovered this letter from Calgary’s own Jason Wiens, which I quickly slipped into a folder and tucked into a banker’s box, ready to make its way west into the bowels of archive.

What a strange process all of this is.

Might we see you at the Ottawa international writers festival this spring? We’re missing a good part of it, unfortunately, due to Christine’s reading in St. Catharines, and then the Skanky Possum reading we’re doing together in Toronto.

And don’t forget all these readings Christine is doing over the next few weeks, heading west and even further west. And the above/ground press, Chaudiere Books and ottawa poetry newsletter blogs are far more active than they used to be.

I’ve got a chapbook forthcoming with Gaspereau Press. Watch for it.

Denver CO: From Future Tense Books comes Sommer Browning’s The Presidents and Other Jokes (2013), an odd collection of terrible jokes and comics.

16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

After John Wilkes Booth shouted sic semper tyrannis, bystanders reported hearing a dying Abraham Lincoln mutter, That’s what she said.

The author of a trade collection of poems and comics, Either Way I’m Celebrating (Birds, LLC, 2011) [see my review of such here], Browning blends a sharp wit with groaners, she writes a terrible joke for each American President, and includes further terrible jokes.

20. James Abram Garfield (1881)

James A. Garfield served a mere 200 days in office, yet consumed the most lasagna of any president.

The jokes for the Presidents seem the strongest of the collection, but even the terrible jokes through the rest of the small collection make this chapbook more than worth it. The deadpan humour and strange twists remind a bit of Sarah Silverman, but without all the cursing, and some even have the echo of koans.

            True or False: Michael Jackson.

I am very grateful for Sommer Browning.

England: I’ve read a couple of works by European writers over the past few years, each of whom remind me a bit of Fredericton poet Joe Blades; might there be an overlap of influence there? Certainly something worth looking into. I recently got my hands on Nigel Wood’s chapbook N.Y.C. Poems (Newton-le-Willows UK: The Knives Forks And Spoons Press, 2011). Wood is the editor/publisher of the British poetry journal Sunfish, one of my favourite European poetry journals.

            we hit the Brooklyn Bridge

at 90 miles an hour

                                    a mesh of steel

                                    & white light

            flashing by

                            a lonely jazz

                            satellite transmission

    cutting

            through my heart

                        on the sidewalk

            the ghost of Albert Ayler

                shuffling by,

                                    water

    running from his shoes

                        folding the fading

                                    shreds of dawn

into sonic prayerbooks

            to leave inside our skulls

& offering the creator

                                    a beauty no-one

                  has ever

                        heard before

Wood’s N.Y.C. Poems is exactly what they claim to be, poems written as sketched journal entries, wandering through this foreign, famous city and writing postcards to himself as poems, much in a similar vein to Joe Blades’ Tribeca (above/ground press, 1997), a chapbook produced while Blades lived and worked in New York. Wood’s chapbook-length poem sequence, nearly forty pages in length, maps the city through various means, and through the entries, come the occasional gem, a line that makes the whole piece worthwhile.