How did you first come to poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
I have been writing poetry since I was around 10, when I was given an assignment to write a poem in which I reimagine a classical fairytale; I chose “The Princess and the Frog.” I began writing poetry “seriously” when I started high school, which is also when I started reading poetry intensively, seeking it out in the library and in bookstores. I was really drawn to the way I could choose between telling some kind of narrative or conveying emotions through visuals only. The versatility was appealing.
How does a poem begin?
With a line or image. Sometimes, they are one and the same. But I need to feel like I have some kind of starting point. Sometimes these beginnings do not lead anywhere, and I am left with a bunch of lines and images that are dead ends. Other times, I have a line pop into my mind and instead of using it as a foundation for a new poem, I realize it is just another step in the poem I was working on earlier. The ideal scenario is when the line or image unravels, building on itself until I have written enough that it feels like the poem is temporarily finished, enough that I can write it down into my notebook and consider what to do with it next.
Do you see your writing as a single, extended project, or a series of threads that occasionally weave together to form something else?
I tend to write poems individually, rather than setting myself the task of writing poems on a certain topic or for a themed collection. I have tried this approach and have so far failed at it. One thing I realize, especially when I look back at older poems, is that I ultimately do not write poetry that is truly categorizable into distinct groups. There are many thoughts and themes that run through them, evolving over time. That is why there are many different ways to weave these threads together, because there is an organic synthesis to them.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I tend to write whenever an idea comes to mind, like when a line or image pops into my head. This is very unpredictable (and unreliable) as a writing process, which is why I go through lengthy “dry spells”, when I do not write anything. These periods have only increased since I started graduate school and have dedicated the majority of my attention to academia. It is one of the main things I want to change. I think developing a writing practice would be helpful in making me less of a perfectionist and opening me up to the idea that it is ok to write something that goes no where because that means I wrote it for myself, almost as an exercise.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I feel like I have fallen behind with keeping up with all of the amazing work being done in the literary scene. The ones that come to mind, which I have long been excited to read new work from, are Canthius, Arc, The Capilano Review, Carousel, Long Con Magazine. Outside of Canada, I also love Strange Horizons, Uncanny, Asymptote.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I have been absolutely in love with the work of Annick
MacAskill and Manahil Bandukwala, whose poetry collections I read recently. I
am also really excited to pick up the debut collections of Mary-Alice Daniel,
Tawanda Mulalu, Hannah Emerson, and Emily Osborne.
Margaryta Golovchenko (she/her) is first generation Ukrainian settler-immigrant, poet, and critic from Tkaronto/Toronto, Treaty 13 and Williams Treaty territory. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks, the most recent of which, Daughterland, was published with Anstruther. As well as poetry, she has written literary and art criticism for a variety of publications, both scholarly and non. She is currently a PhD student in the art history program at the University of Oregon, located on Kalapuya Ilihi, where she studies the representation of human-animal relationships in modern and contemporary art.