m a n y _ g e n d e r e d _ m o t h e r s : f i v e _ r e c e n t _ e s s a y s

many gendered mothers is a project on literary influence featuring short essays by writers (of any/all genders) on the women, femme, trans, and non-binary writers who have influenced them, as a direct or indirect literary forebear.

This project is directly inspired by the American website Literary Mothers, created by editor Nadxieli Nieto and managing editor Nina Puro. While we hope that Literary Mothers might eventually return to posting new pieces, our site was created as an extension and furthering of their project (in homage, if you will), and not meant as any kind of replacement.

We've now more than forty essays posted! Our most recent include:

S. Nadja Zajdman on Ruth King Porter

Hannah Brown on Rumer Godden and Frances Hodgson Burnett

Sky Gilbert on Ayn Rand and Elena Ferrante

Emily Ursuliak on Suzette Mayr [pictured]

Erin Bedford on Dervla Murphy

Please check out our submissions page for more information (we are seeking submissions! we even pay a small amount!). We've also a Facebook page!

We are also still accepting signed books for our upcoming fundraiser! and check out our Patreon page! All donations go directly to paying contributors.

Emily Ursuliak, Throwing the Diamond Hitch

Thickened spit clings to the bit and tries to drip, but stretches. The saliva necklace hanging from his horse’s mouth, a prize for the trip back, forty miles from the seismograph outfit. Stanley Burrell pulls out a package, bacon bound up, fat licks the paper wrapping darker. He passes it to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Burrell. She grasps his gift: the greasy cliché brought home. His coming now, a knot of luck in the rope that we blindly follow to learn the diamond hitch. Before he’d come, I asked our question, Mr. Burrell, his brother, unable to name any other, said only Stanley would know how to cross the lines, the knots to tie, for the diamond hitch.

Anne dissuades me from asking Stanley to teach us now. She says nothing when she spots me, darting forward, my mouth half-open to inquire. Our eyes meet and a slight shake of her head and that’s all that’s needed to keep me silent. The man is exhausted after all and the light is failing us anyway. The dusk stains its way up the trunks of the trees as we walk back to the buildings. We share his bunkhouse. Anne and I pile on the mattresses, Stanley lies on a bed of straw. He is the first to slip into dreams. First his breathing deepens, draws out in the length of its rhythms. Then the speaking starts, these soft mumbles Anne and I begin to listen for, interpreting his half-mouthed vowels. The two of us, too fascinated to sleep now, listening to all the odd things a man might say when dreaming. (“Two Kinds of Diamonds”)

Calgary poet Emily Ursuliak’s first trade poetry collection is Throwing the Diamond Hitch (Calgary AB: University of Calgary Press, 2017), one of the first two titles in a new poetry imprint produced by University of Calgary Press. In Throwing the Diamond Hitch, Ursuliak writes the 1951 road trip adventures of Phyllis and Anne, as she explains in the notes at the back of the collection:

Phyllis was my granny, and Anne was her best friend. The poems in this book are based on the travel diary they wrote during their 1951 ride. A few liberties have been taken here and there with some minor details, but the quotes accompanying the photographs are taken verbatim from the diary.

Phyllis and Anne remained lifelong friends. Whenever I saw them together it was like they were back in their twenties again, teasing each other and making quirky jokes. At my granny’s funeral, Anne spoke of their 1951 ride and what it had meant to both of them. At the time they told people they had wanted to buy horses, and wanted to take a horseback ride that lasted longer than a day. But Anne talked about how it was a last hurrah for both of them as single women before they settled down and got married. Anne said she hadn’t really known what she was in for when they left on the trip, but it gave her a deep sense of strength and independence that she drew from during her life.

Shifting between prose and lyric, diary entry and poem-sketch, Ursuliak combines fact and occasional fiction alongside archival photos, postcards, artifacts and direct quotations from her grandmother’s travel diary for an exploration of friendship and western adventure. Ursuliak writes her collection as a collage of individual moments and experiences along Phyllis and Anne’s journey, writing out less a linear narrative than a sequence of events, akin to a photo album of short sketches.

As well, there is something curious to the construction of her collection through poetry, as opposed to made into a novel, non-fiction title or play, yet including elements of fiction and theatrical performance that reads as a narrative, and could easily be adapted, say, into a staged production. This structure is reminiscent of those early works by Vancouver poet Michael Turner—Company Town (Vancouver BC: Arsenal Pulp, 1991), Hard Core Logo (Arsenal Pulp, 1993) and Kingsway (Arsenal Pulp, 1995)—all of which were originally produced as poetry titles, with the second of these, obviously, later adapted into a feature film (and subsequently a graphic novel). In an interview posted at Touch the Donkey, Ursuliak discussed the structure of the collection, writing: “I’m relentlessly attracted to the idea of narrative and it’s interesting for me to explore how I might tell a story through poetry as opposed to fiction.” In the end, the book exists as an intriguing portrait of these two fiercely independent women on an unlikely and unusual journey, portrayed through monologues and character sketches. Part of what fascinates through this collection is the multiple structures the book holds, suggesting a myriad of directions Ursuliak’s work could move in, subsequent to this. Could she write a play, a novel, a collection of lyric poems? Where might she go next?

Welcome to Banff

A CONVERSATION WITH A PARK WARDEN

you cannot camp anywhere but in a campground

you cannot bring your horses to the campground

you cannot leave the horses

you cannot leave

until we say you can

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Emily Ursuliak

Emily Ursuliak’s first collection of poetry, Throwing the Diamond Hitch, has been released by the University of Calgary Press. She is passionate about libraries and making radio content about literary things for her show Writer’s Block on CJSW. She will be teaching two upcoming workshops for the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society: Writing with the Senses, in the summer, and Truth, Lies and Historical Fiction, an eight week course that will run next September.

1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
After trying for a few years to get a book published, I don’t think it’s surprising for any writer to have doubts about whether or not it’s any good, or if they should maybe just chuck the whole thing and start over. I knew the process would take time, but I definitely had doubts about whether my book would ever see the light of day. There’s something very special about seeing your work bound as a physical object. It’s definitely made me feel more “legit” as a writer.

Now that I’ve found a home for Throwing the Diamond Hitch, I’m trying to finish up another project I’ve been working on at the same time, a novel about Elizabeth Siddal. I’ve also written a few poems for a new book inspired by fashion designer Alexander McQueen. I think both of these projects are a lot darker and more disturbing.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I also write fiction and alternate back and forth between the two, but I definitely did come to poetry first. I started writing poetry when I was really young, before I was even in school. The first distinct memory I have of writing is probably when I was about seven. I had a fistful of looseleaf in one hand and a pen in the other and I was trying to find a quiet place on our acreage where I could get away from my little brother because I wanted to write a poem about how the wind made the trees move. I have no clue why I wanted to do that though, I feel like maybe it could be a combination of things. Poetry was always very present in my family on my mother’s side. At family gatherings it isn’t unusual for aunts and uncles to recite poetry around the campfire after a few glasses of wine have been enjoyed. I also grew up in rural central Alberta where there’s a lot of rolling hills and dramatic skies, and there’s something poetic about that landscape.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing 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 think the timeline varies a lot for each project. I do like to sit with an idea for awhile before I start working on it though. I’m a bit of an overly optimistic dreamer and I have a tendency to get really overexcited about an idea, and then the next day feel like it’s absolutely ridiculous and stupid. If an idea for a project manages to stay with me for a few months or more then I feel like it’s safe to invest my time into.

Sometimes the writing comes quickly and sometimes it comes slowly, it really depends on the day. I do tend to make a lot of notes for projects. For Throwing the Diamond Hitch I was in a sense “adapting” a travel diary into a collection of poems, so it was a matter of reading the diary and then taking notes about moments I wanted to turn into poems.

I have a lot of different notes for my novel too: my initial research notes, a colour-coded chapter breakdown of the book and notes to myself about what I’m hoping to achieve for each revision. I go for long periods when I’m not able to work on the novel, so if I don’t have reminders for myself I just end up looking at the 270-some pages I have and think “What was I doing with this again?"

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?
I’ve definitely gravitated towards the “working on a book” strategy for poetry. I find it reassuring to have some overall concept that I can break down into different poems. I have written little one-off poems, but I’m not sure that they’ll ever end up in any book. Who knows, maybe these little poems I’ve written here and there will jump out at me ten years from now and totally up-end my entire strategy.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I really enjoy readings! So much of being a writer is writing this thing and then hoping that some day somebody reads it and likes it, but it’s not like you get to actually be there when they do (unless you’re planning on stalking people who buy your books). When I read something out loud I get to hear what impact it has. And sure, sometimes things fall flat and audiences can be fickle and you have to either learn from that, or not take it personally, but when people laugh, or cringe at something I’ve written it’s really rewarding.

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 definitely identify as a feminist and that does impact what I’m writing about and how I approach the topic. In Throwing the Diamond Hitch, and in the novel I’m working on, I’m interested in telling women’s stories and telling them in more complex, nuanced ways. I’m also just interested in people in general, their beliefs, the way they see themselves versus how they actually are, their driving motivations, etc.. I’m very character focused in my work and the questions change depending on the character.

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 don’t think there’s one all-encompassing role for a writer to have. I think the role is going to depend on the writer. Some writers are provocateurs, some are nurturers, some are activists. I guess I see my role as being someone who observers, interprets, and records moments from life. Hopefully by recording my interpretations someone will gain something, even if it’s just entertainment. I don’t have any control over what someone will take from something I’ve written though. I can only hope that I’ve given them something of value.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I worked with Helen Hajnoczky for this book and her feedback was extremely helpful. I think one of the major challenges for this collection of poetry is that the poems have to work together to tell a story, and Helen was able to give me feedback that assisted with strengthening the overall narrative as well as the individual poems.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
I’ve been watching Chef’s Table lately because I enjoy learning about creative processes in a field entirely different from mine. One of the episodes was about this buddhist monk, Jeong Kwan, who is also known as a chef. This is what she had to say about her approach to creativity: “Creativity and ego cannot go together . . . You must not be owned by the environment you are in.” I think I was way too “owned by my environment” when I first came to Calgary.

Some of the mentorship I received when I first arrived in Calgary was very focused on winning awards and getting accolades and talking yourself up. I went from being very unsure of myself as a writer to being a little too sure of myself due to compliments given to me. In the last couple of years I’ve been focusing on trying to find my way to some kind of middle-ground. I don’t think it’s healthy to put yourself down as a writer, but being too cocky is also toxic. Awards are lovely, but I don’t want to think of them as some kind of end goal for my work, because I feel like its important for me to love writing for the sake of writing itself. I think creating for the sake of winning an award isn’t going to lead to a satisfying creative life.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?
There’s a bit of recalibration that happens when I switch back and forth between the two, but I enjoy how the two inform each other, and also the differences in scale. For poetry I often feeling like I’m building a tiny ship inside a glass bottle, whereas fiction feels like taking a horse out into a wide-open field and letting him gallop.

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 wish I had a routine. It’s changed a lot over the years. Right now my routine is: try to balance multiple part time jobs and a second graduate degree for four months and then write like a mad fiend for the three week semester break I have in-between. It’s not ideal, but I feel like getting a Masters in Library and Information Science will give me the kind of job that will allow me to be a writer while still living a relatively comfortable life. 

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Walks help a lot. Because I grew up in a rural environment I need to escape from the city sometimes. I’m lucky because I have a lovely park within walking distance and when I want something a little less manicured and a bit more wild I drive over to Nose Hill park. From a distance Nose Hill looks like a bunch of arid hills, but it's full of secret woodland pockets, wildlife, and explosions of prairie wildflowers.

I also like to read books about writing or creativity. I’ve just started Elena Ferrante’s Frantumaglia. I really love how she talks about her writing process. I really hope that that idiotic Italian reporter hasn’t mucked everything up for us and that she’ll continue writing.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
While I love my little basement suite where I currently live, and the city of Calgary in general, “home” is still my parent’s acreage in central Alberta where I grew up. The smell I associate with that place is the smell of our horse barn, which I spent a lot of time in as a kid. Our barn has a whole collection of different scents: the musty, leafy smell of hay and straw, the rich scent of leather from the tack room, the earthy/clover smell of horses, and of course horse manure, which I don’t really find that unpleasant smelling to be honest. I always used to tell city people that came to visit us to think of horse manure as “reconstituted grass.”

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?
I’ve already mentioned how watching Chef’s Table has been an unexpected source of inspiration and I think I’m inspired a lot by creativity outside of “writer world.” My boyfriend is a musician, we collaborated together for one of the poems I read at my launch: he composed music to go with my reading. Working with him on that process, as well as watching him work on his own projects, has been very inspiring to me.

Another collaboration that came out of this book was the book trailer that my brother made for me. My brother is a cinematographer and filmmaker and talking with him about telling stories on film is always really interesting to me. A couple of years ago we did a sibling writing retreat at a secluded family cabin and it was a great opportunity for us to swap stories about our creative processes.

Outside of writing I also have a plethora of creative hobbies, probably too many really. I play the djembe, am part of a fusion belly dance troupe, do handcrafts, such as felting and knitting, and I’ve also got back into drawing, which is something I haven’t done for awhile. I think all of those things find their way into my work somehow.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I did a writing retreat with Lawrence Hill (Larry) last April and that was a really rejuvenating experience for me. It was an historical fiction retreat, which I wanted to attend since my novel is set in Victorian England. Larry’s writing style is very different from my own, so I was a bit concerned that he wouldn’t get what I was trying to do with my book and would tell me that my writing style was too weird. I had the complete opposite experience with him. Not only did he completely get it, but he was very enthusiastic about it, and able to point out areas where I had made mistakes that were working against my intention. I was really impressed by not only his mentorship abilities, but also the way he acted towards everyone in our small writing intensive and the larger creative community at The Banff Centre. He is a very generous, giving person and also very humble and grounded. He’s definitely become someone that I look up to and a role model for the way I want to comport myself as a writer.

I mentioned I was reading Elena Ferrante’s Frantumaglia earlier, her writing and her approach to the writing life are really fascinating to me. I think fame, while being enticing, can also end up being quite toxic, so her decision to be anonymous is very intriguing. I’m looking forward to reading more of her fiction as well. So far I’ve only managed to get my hands on her novel Troubling Love, but I was so impressed by how uncomfortable she makes you feel as a reader, and sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint how exactly she has achieved that effect. I’d like to read more of her work to delve into that a little bit deeper, since I’m often trying to make readers feel uncomfortable in my current projects.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I feel like there’s a lot of potential ways to answer that question, but what I most want to do right now is finish my damn novel. Novels take time, and I don’t want to rush it, but at the same time I have new projects I want to start working on and I can’t start in earnest on them until I get this current one finished.

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 wanted to take psychology as a minor when I was a undergraduate student, but wasn’t able to. I think I might have enjoyed being a therapist, because I find people really fascinating and would have found it rewarding trying to help them discover alternative ways of dealing with issues.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
Writing is an obsessive compulsion for me. I feel better when I’m actively engaged in it and feel frustrated when I’m not able to do it. Sadly it’s not something I feel I can make a living at, so I often am “doing something else,” which currently consists of working at a library and trying to get an MLIS so I can get a better position at the library. Luckily I love libraries almost as much as I love writing.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I read Mischling, by Affinity Konar, back in the fall. As important as I think narratives about the Holocaust are, I’m not generally drawn to read them. I had to read Mischling for a radio interview and I’m really glad I did. It’s about twin sisters who become a part of Dr. Mengele’s “zoo”. The book is devastating and difficult to read at times, but the voices of those two characters are so strong and unique that you can’t help but be drawn into the book.

The last great film I watched was Le Week-End, a very charming movie about an older couple who travel to Paris to reignite the spark in their relationship. I thought it did a brilliant job of capturing the beautiful and painful messiness that is life.

20 - What are you currently working on?
I feel like this won’t come as much of a surprise at this point in the interview: the novel.

Outside of writing I’ve also been working on making my first wet-felted cloche hat. I’ve had this dream of making my own hats for awhile, and after a couple of years of learning and practicing, I think I might be able to make it happen this spring. 

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

rob mclennan interview : Writer's Block CJSW

Emily Ursuliak was kind enough to interview me over at University of Calgary's CJSW radio program Writer's Block. You can now listen to the interview here.

Touch the Donkey supplement: new interviews with Briante, beaulieu, Kaminski, Prevost, Ursuliak + hastain,

Anticipating the release next week of the fourth issue of Touch the Donkey (a small poetry journal), why not check out the interviews that have appeared over the past few weeks with contributors to the third issue: Susan Briante, derek beaulieu, Megan Kaminski, Roland Prevost, Emily Ursuliak and j/j hastain.

Interviews with contributors to the first three issues, as well, remain online: Catherine Wagner, Susanne Dyckman, Susan Holbrook, Julie Carr, David Peter Clark, Pearl Pirie, Eric Baus, Pattie McCarthy, Camille Martin and Gil McElroy.

The fourth issue features new writing by: Maureen Alsop, Stan Rogal, Laura Mullen, Jessica Smith, Lise Downe, Kirsten Kaschock, Gary Barwin, Chris Turnbull, Nikki Sheppy and Lisa Jarnot. And, once the new issue appears, watch the blog over the subsequent weeks and months for interviews with a variety of the issue's contributors!

And of course, copies of the first three issues are still very much available. Why not subscribe?

We even have our own Facebook group. What the what-what?

new from above/ground press: Schapira, Brockwell, Baker + Touch the Donkey #3

THE MOTIONS
Kate Schapira
$4
See link here for more information

Images from Declassified Nuclear Test Films
Stephen Brockwell
$4
See link here for more information

Abject Lessons
Jennifer Baker
$4
See link here for more information

Touch the Donkey #3
with new poems by Gil McElroy, j/j hastain, derek beaulieu, Megan Kaminski, Roland Prevost, Emily Ursuliak, Susan Briante and D.G. Jones.
$6
See link here for more information

keep an eye on the above/ground press blog for author interviews, new writing, reviews, upcoming readings and tons of other material;

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
September/October 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy of each

and don’t forget about the 2015 above/ground press subscriptions; still available!

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal (above). Scroll down here to see various backlist titles (many, many things are still in print).

Review copies of any title (while supplies last) also available, upon request.

forthcoming items by derek beaulieu, Jason Christie, Pearl Pirie, Gil McElroy, Gregory Betts, Kemeny Babineau, ryan fitzpatrick and Elizabeth Robinson!

new from above/ground press: Ursuliak, Baus, Dyckman + Touch the Donkey

Braking and Blather
Emily Ursuliak
See link here for more information
$4

THE RAIN OF THE ICE
Eric Baus
See link here for more information
$4

Susanne Dyckman
Source
See link here for more information
$4

Touch the Donkey #2
featuring new writing by Julie Carr, Catherine Wagner, Susanne Dyckman, Pearl Pirie, David Peter Clark, Susan Holbrook, Phil Hall and Robert Swereda.
See link here for more information, as well as a direct link for ordering
$5

keep an eye on the above/ground press blog for author interviews, new writing, reviews, upcoming readings and tons of other material;

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
July 2014
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy of each

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal (above). Scroll down here to see various backlist titles (many, many things are still in print).

Review copies of any title (while supplies last) also available, upon request.