How did you first come to poetry?
I'd like to say, risking pretention and following Robert Creeley, that "I'm given to write poems"—I've had an affinity with language for as long as I can remember. I meet the world with a poetic eye/ear, almost like a sort of synesthesia: when I encounter something new, or encounter anything, really, my mind automatically filters that thing through an arrangement of language: sometimes a line, sometimes an image. That language or image, be it beautifully illuminated or intricately obscure, often becomes the basis for my poetic work. And in terms of my visual poetry, I've actually been using letraset since forever. My dad owned his own business and always had letraset sheets laying around to use for signs and organizing his workshop. So I learned to experiment and play with visual arrangements of letters on the page when I was very young.
How does your visual work interact with your text?
I love seeing the visual in text and the text in visual, or what bpNichol calls the borderblur. For me, these two aspects of my work are always in conversation, always inflecting and informing each other. Visual poetry allows us to see and feel language in its materiality, and to see semblances of language in the world around us. For instance, in my latest work I've been pairing hand-stamped leaves with letraset in collage to experiment with complementary organic forms and explore the language found in both.
How does a poem begin?
Usually with a thought, a feeling, or something I pick up off the ground in my travels. And/or, sometimes when I'm reading: I can tell I'm really loving someone's work if it compels me to write through/with it.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
I would say it didn't change my writing but opened the floodgates: I published by first chapbook, po po poems, with rob mclennan's above/ground press, and it gave me the necessary push to continue writing and exploring my craft. As everyone knows, rob is an incredible mentor to young writers and a vital community connection point. Until that point, I had a cache of writing built up but hadn't taken the plunge into publishing anything—writing was, for a long time, something I did privately. Sharing my work with others has opened me up to an incredible community of talented and supportive friends who inspire me to keep writing.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I have a day job, so I have to be pretty ad hoc with my writing. I have never been one to be able to schedule my creative work—it happens when it happens. I don't write every day. I write when I can and when I need to. I also try to take a self-directed writing retreat once a year at least to push forward on the projects I'm working on.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Jacket2, Room Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, and Canthius are all putting out some really great work these days.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I love when poets write novels—I just finished Ocean Vuong's debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and it completely devastated me in the best way. Dionne Brand's The Blue Clerk haunts me daily. Tess Liem's debut work, Obits., was an absolute stunner. I'm also ridiculously excited for Canisia Lubrin's second book of poetry, The Dyzgraphxst, which will be out in 2020.
Kate Siklosi is a Toronto writer, scholar, and
business witch. Her most recent work includes four chapbooks: 1956 (above/ground
press, 2019), coup (The Blasted Tree, 2018), po po poems
(above/ground press, 2018) and may day (no press, 2018). She
is the co-founding editor of Gap Riot Press, a neat little feminist
experimental poetry small press.
A selection of her visual poems appear in the second issue.
I'd like to say, risking pretention and following Robert Creeley, that "I'm given to write poems"—I've had an affinity with language for as long as I can remember. I meet the world with a poetic eye/ear, almost like a sort of synesthesia: when I encounter something new, or encounter anything, really, my mind automatically filters that thing through an arrangement of language: sometimes a line, sometimes an image. That language or image, be it beautifully illuminated or intricately obscure, often becomes the basis for my poetic work. And in terms of my visual poetry, I've actually been using letraset since forever. My dad owned his own business and always had letraset sheets laying around to use for signs and organizing his workshop. So I learned to experiment and play with visual arrangements of letters on the page when I was very young.
How does your visual work interact with your text?
I love seeing the visual in text and the text in visual, or what bpNichol calls the borderblur. For me, these two aspects of my work are always in conversation, always inflecting and informing each other. Visual poetry allows us to see and feel language in its materiality, and to see semblances of language in the world around us. For instance, in my latest work I've been pairing hand-stamped leaves with letraset in collage to experiment with complementary organic forms and explore the language found in both.
How does a poem begin?
Usually with a thought, a feeling, or something I pick up off the ground in my travels. And/or, sometimes when I'm reading: I can tell I'm really loving someone's work if it compels me to write through/with it.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
I would say it didn't change my writing but opened the floodgates: I published by first chapbook, po po poems, with rob mclennan's above/ground press, and it gave me the necessary push to continue writing and exploring my craft. As everyone knows, rob is an incredible mentor to young writers and a vital community connection point. Until that point, I had a cache of writing built up but hadn't taken the plunge into publishing anything—writing was, for a long time, something I did privately. Sharing my work with others has opened me up to an incredible community of talented and supportive friends who inspire me to keep writing.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I have a day job, so I have to be pretty ad hoc with my writing. I have never been one to be able to schedule my creative work—it happens when it happens. I don't write every day. I write when I can and when I need to. I also try to take a self-directed writing retreat once a year at least to push forward on the projects I'm working on.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Jacket2, Room Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, and Canthius are all putting out some really great work these days.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I love when poets write novels—I just finished Ocean Vuong's debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and it completely devastated me in the best way. Dionne Brand's The Blue Clerk haunts me daily. Tess Liem's debut work, Obits., was an absolute stunner. I'm also ridiculously excited for Canisia Lubrin's second book of poetry, The Dyzgraphxst, which will be out in 2020.
A selection of her visual poems appear in the second issue.