first interaction with poetry:
I grew up in a fiercely literary family, but surprisingly I wasnt never exposed to much poetry growing up. My mother’s interest was emphatically prose, and she even ridiculed poetry every now and then. I grew up reading novels. up until my early 20s I was into eastern european satire and would binge read Hasek, Capek, Hrabal, Kundera and the like. in my early 20s I met a fellow Iranian poet who became a true inspiration to me. She introduced me to a whole new world of Perisan poetry, philosophy and feminism. She opened my mind to ideologies alien to my past experiences. I started re-reading Persian poets like “Ahmad Shamlu” and “Nima Youshij” who built the fundaments of Persian free verse, but In terms of English-language poetry I remember being infatuated with William Carlos Williams’ “Paterson” and “Imaginations” and my first great encounter with Canadian poetry was through Hoa Nguyen’s “Red Juice” and Anne Carson’s “The Beauty of The Husband”
how does a poem begin?
I feel like my poems begin in two different ways. I am a huge cinephile, and my the time I spend watching films has greatly influenced the way I write. Half of my poems start with a single image expanded further into emotions. However I also consider myself an amateur linguist. I enjoy exploring the intricacies of language, its etymologies and endless possibilities; so the other half of my poems start with a linguistic enigma: either an eggcorn, an interesting etymology, a homophone ,a homonym and the like. I take that interesting piece of language and carry it through a poem!
how did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
well, publishing my first chapbook opened a lot of doors for me. It was at the launch of my first chapbook that I was approached with an open solicitation for a new manuscript. But I believe the most important change to my writing was not so much in how I wrote, but in how I edited and submitted pieces and how I wrote cover letters. I learned to be more strategic, learned that I can make money from writing, learned about distribution, exposure, reading etiquette and the entire technical side of writing that is seldom taught to emerging writers. I am grateful for having published my first chapbook since it was the single most teaching moment of my writing career.
after putting together 2 chapbooks, what have you learned about putting together a manuscript?
I have put together a total of 6 manuscripts so far, each a different length and each with a slightly different approach. My partner Terese always posits the dialectic of creativity as “Hard Work” vs creativity as “Magic”; in one the writer pretty much channels writing effortlessly, in the other the writer carefully constructs through hard labour. Its the same with manuscripts, each comes together with a different combination of the two. Some manuscripts start with a theme, and I channel more and more writing until I feel like I’m done; Other times I gather kernels of writing that are seemingly unrelated and then I weave meaning through chronology, placement and proximity of each poem to another. I really enjoy editing poems on a macro level, and moving them around in a manuscript to find the perfect fit.
fav journals?
there are many journals I read and enjoy, but I’d like to highlight two lesser known journals, run extremely passionately with very little resources. They consistently publish great works and I owe a great deal to both of them for publishing a poem of mine.
the first is Half a Grapefruit Magazine with whom I published my first ever poem!
they can be found at www.hgfmag.com or @hgfmag on twitter
the other is Bad Dog Review that can be found at www.baddogmag.ca or @BadDogMag
what writers excite you most?
well I’ve spent the majority of the last 3 months reading Paul Celan, but I feel its more important to highlight a few of my favorite writers operating in Canada. I have been incredibly under the influence of Klara Du Plessis (Especially her book Ekke), Erin Moure’s body of work and Nicole Brossard, each of whom explores language in their own unique way. But in terms of prose I have been truly inspired by Aley Waterman’s novel in progress, Fawn Parker’s “Set Point” and Catherine Fatima’s “Sludge Utopia”.
Khashayar Mohammadi is an Iranian born,
Toronto-based Poet, Writer, Translator and Photographer. He is the author of
poetry Chapbooks Moe’s Skin by ZED press 2018, and Dear Kestrel
by knife | fork | book 2019. He is currently working on a full length
collaborative poetry manuscript with Toronto poet Terese Pierre, as well as a
full length poetry manuscript of his own.
A selection of his poems appear in the third issue.
I grew up in a fiercely literary family, but surprisingly I wasnt never exposed to much poetry growing up. My mother’s interest was emphatically prose, and she even ridiculed poetry every now and then. I grew up reading novels. up until my early 20s I was into eastern european satire and would binge read Hasek, Capek, Hrabal, Kundera and the like. in my early 20s I met a fellow Iranian poet who became a true inspiration to me. She introduced me to a whole new world of Perisan poetry, philosophy and feminism. She opened my mind to ideologies alien to my past experiences. I started re-reading Persian poets like “Ahmad Shamlu” and “Nima Youshij” who built the fundaments of Persian free verse, but In terms of English-language poetry I remember being infatuated with William Carlos Williams’ “Paterson” and “Imaginations” and my first great encounter with Canadian poetry was through Hoa Nguyen’s “Red Juice” and Anne Carson’s “The Beauty of The Husband”
how does a poem begin?
I feel like my poems begin in two different ways. I am a huge cinephile, and my the time I spend watching films has greatly influenced the way I write. Half of my poems start with a single image expanded further into emotions. However I also consider myself an amateur linguist. I enjoy exploring the intricacies of language, its etymologies and endless possibilities; so the other half of my poems start with a linguistic enigma: either an eggcorn, an interesting etymology, a homophone ,a homonym and the like. I take that interesting piece of language and carry it through a poem!
how did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
well, publishing my first chapbook opened a lot of doors for me. It was at the launch of my first chapbook that I was approached with an open solicitation for a new manuscript. But I believe the most important change to my writing was not so much in how I wrote, but in how I edited and submitted pieces and how I wrote cover letters. I learned to be more strategic, learned that I can make money from writing, learned about distribution, exposure, reading etiquette and the entire technical side of writing that is seldom taught to emerging writers. I am grateful for having published my first chapbook since it was the single most teaching moment of my writing career.
after putting together 2 chapbooks, what have you learned about putting together a manuscript?
I have put together a total of 6 manuscripts so far, each a different length and each with a slightly different approach. My partner Terese always posits the dialectic of creativity as “Hard Work” vs creativity as “Magic”; in one the writer pretty much channels writing effortlessly, in the other the writer carefully constructs through hard labour. Its the same with manuscripts, each comes together with a different combination of the two. Some manuscripts start with a theme, and I channel more and more writing until I feel like I’m done; Other times I gather kernels of writing that are seemingly unrelated and then I weave meaning through chronology, placement and proximity of each poem to another. I really enjoy editing poems on a macro level, and moving them around in a manuscript to find the perfect fit.
fav journals?
there are many journals I read and enjoy, but I’d like to highlight two lesser known journals, run extremely passionately with very little resources. They consistently publish great works and I owe a great deal to both of them for publishing a poem of mine.
the first is Half a Grapefruit Magazine with whom I published my first ever poem!
they can be found at www.hgfmag.com or @hgfmag on twitter
the other is Bad Dog Review that can be found at www.baddogmag.ca or @BadDogMag
what writers excite you most?
well I’ve spent the majority of the last 3 months reading Paul Celan, but I feel its more important to highlight a few of my favorite writers operating in Canada. I have been incredibly under the influence of Klara Du Plessis (Especially her book Ekke), Erin Moure’s body of work and Nicole Brossard, each of whom explores language in their own unique way. But in terms of prose I have been truly inspired by Aley Waterman’s novel in progress, Fawn Parker’s “Set Point” and Catherine Fatima’s “Sludge Utopia”.
A selection of his poems appear in the third issue.