How did you first come
to poetry?
My first “real” poems began the year I moved to Canada, in 2014. I was seventeen, full of confusion and angst, and journaling provided a great channel for that energy. Those rambles became (not very good) poems, but I kept at it. When I started university in 2015, I was immersed in the poetry city that is Ottawa. From going to reading series such as Tree and Sawdust to volunteering with In/Words, I heard, read, and encountered amazing poets. This tie of poetry to community is definitely what drew me to poetry, and has kept me here.
How does a poem begin?
Lately I’ve been interested in building poems from folklore. This weaves in stories, songs, dances, histories, and geographies that are passed down through generations and breathe through us today. I see writing poetry as a way of continuing this method of carrying forward stories in contemporary languages and modes. So the poem starts through Google searches, through searches in book indices, through conversations with people about the nuggets of information they know about the story. It starts long before any actual words form on a page.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
Publishing a chapbook allowed me to see my poems as a collective for the first time. The commonalities between my poems, the metaphors and phrases I relied on, the structures I stuck to – I was able to confront the weaknesses in my writing, and have pushed myself since then to step out of what is comfortable. Since publishing two chapbooks, I’ve started thinking about my work as a sequence rather than individual poems thrown together.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
Definitely the latter. I’m completing my undergrad at Carleton right now, and have been working co-op jobs as part of it. So writing has to fit into the spaces between school, work, and other hobbies. I’m also a visual artist, and balance that with writing consistently. I’m also constantly involved in projects with other people. One project is an indie romance anthology of short stories that I’m working on with the Eighteen Eleven Collective, a group of writers I workshop with at Carleton. Once we finished writing the stories for the anthology, we started working on marketing, layout, illustration, launch dates, and other logistics.
This past July and August, I was working on a literary-visual project in Karachi, Pakistan, that is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. The project, Reth aur Reghistan, interprets folklore from Karachi and Sindh, and I will interpret them poetically. However, during the two months I was in Karachi, my project partner (and sister) Nimra and I were interviewing people, conducting fieldwork, and researching every day. I didn’t manage to fit writing, for the project or otherwise, into that schedule. So sometimes writing has to take a back seat.
That being said, poetry is still a central part of my day-to-day. With the project I mentioned above, the end goal is to produce a manuscript of poems. Right now, I’m still synthesizing the data and sharing it in the form of blog posts on a website, sculpturalstorytelling.com. A few months down the line, my schedule will change to allow me time to write poems based on the research. I read poems every day, whether they’re online or in print. I’m taking a course on 20th and 21st century poetry, so I’m analyzing and digging into poetry every week for the next four months. Despite not “working” at writing, I’m soaking in the content around me, and can already think of how it’s going to shape my writing when I get around to doing it.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Canthius! It’s a journal I really admire and am fortunate to be on the editorial team of. Each issue features such powerful work, and is really a work of art. Being on the editorial side of things, I’ve been able to see how committed the team is to the creative arts.
Other journals I’ve been reading lately: PRISM, Peach magazine, the Temz Review, Room, and Parentheses Journal.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Room magazine recently asked me to compile a list of my favourite poems that are available online to read, so basically all the writers on that list. I recently read Ekke by Klara du Plessis, and was blown away by how she explores the layers of bilingualism with Afrikaans and English. I also really admire Sanna Wani, whose voice is incredibly important in the ongoing Kashmir crisis.
Manahil Bandukwala is a Pakistani writer
and artist currently making her way through Ottawa. She is the author of two
chapbooks, Paper Doll (Anstruther
Press, 2019), and Pipe Rose
(battleaxe press, 2018). She was the 2019 winner of Room magazine’s Emerging Writer Award. Her work has appeared in PRISM, Room, the Temz Review, the Indianapolis Review, and other
places. See her work at manahils.com.
A selection of her poems appeared in the second issue.
My first “real” poems began the year I moved to Canada, in 2014. I was seventeen, full of confusion and angst, and journaling provided a great channel for that energy. Those rambles became (not very good) poems, but I kept at it. When I started university in 2015, I was immersed in the poetry city that is Ottawa. From going to reading series such as Tree and Sawdust to volunteering with In/Words, I heard, read, and encountered amazing poets. This tie of poetry to community is definitely what drew me to poetry, and has kept me here.
How does a poem begin?
Lately I’ve been interested in building poems from folklore. This weaves in stories, songs, dances, histories, and geographies that are passed down through generations and breathe through us today. I see writing poetry as a way of continuing this method of carrying forward stories in contemporary languages and modes. So the poem starts through Google searches, through searches in book indices, through conversations with people about the nuggets of information they know about the story. It starts long before any actual words form on a page.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
Publishing a chapbook allowed me to see my poems as a collective for the first time. The commonalities between my poems, the metaphors and phrases I relied on, the structures I stuck to – I was able to confront the weaknesses in my writing, and have pushed myself since then to step out of what is comfortable. Since publishing two chapbooks, I’ve started thinking about my work as a sequence rather than individual poems thrown together.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
Definitely the latter. I’m completing my undergrad at Carleton right now, and have been working co-op jobs as part of it. So writing has to fit into the spaces between school, work, and other hobbies. I’m also a visual artist, and balance that with writing consistently. I’m also constantly involved in projects with other people. One project is an indie romance anthology of short stories that I’m working on with the Eighteen Eleven Collective, a group of writers I workshop with at Carleton. Once we finished writing the stories for the anthology, we started working on marketing, layout, illustration, launch dates, and other logistics.
This past July and August, I was working on a literary-visual project in Karachi, Pakistan, that is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. The project, Reth aur Reghistan, interprets folklore from Karachi and Sindh, and I will interpret them poetically. However, during the two months I was in Karachi, my project partner (and sister) Nimra and I were interviewing people, conducting fieldwork, and researching every day. I didn’t manage to fit writing, for the project or otherwise, into that schedule. So sometimes writing has to take a back seat.
That being said, poetry is still a central part of my day-to-day. With the project I mentioned above, the end goal is to produce a manuscript of poems. Right now, I’m still synthesizing the data and sharing it in the form of blog posts on a website, sculpturalstorytelling.com. A few months down the line, my schedule will change to allow me time to write poems based on the research. I read poems every day, whether they’re online or in print. I’m taking a course on 20th and 21st century poetry, so I’m analyzing and digging into poetry every week for the next four months. Despite not “working” at writing, I’m soaking in the content around me, and can already think of how it’s going to shape my writing when I get around to doing it.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Canthius! It’s a journal I really admire and am fortunate to be on the editorial team of. Each issue features such powerful work, and is really a work of art. Being on the editorial side of things, I’ve been able to see how committed the team is to the creative arts.
Other journals I’ve been reading lately: PRISM, Peach magazine, the Temz Review, Room, and Parentheses Journal.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Room magazine recently asked me to compile a list of my favourite poems that are available online to read, so basically all the writers on that list. I recently read Ekke by Klara du Plessis, and was blown away by how she explores the layers of bilingualism with Afrikaans and English. I also really admire Sanna Wani, whose voice is incredibly important in the ongoing Kashmir crisis.
A selection of her poems appeared in the second issue.