Wednesday, October 5, 2016

The Calgary Renaissance, eds. Beaulieu + mclennan : contributor interviews,

Over the past few months, I've conducted a series of new interviews with contributors to The Calgary Renaissance (Chaudiere Books, October 2016), all of which can be found via links on their names (updating regularly): Hollie Adams, Jonathan Ball, Braydon Beaulieu, Christian Bök, Louis Cabri, Natalee Caple, Weyman Chan, Jason Christie, Chris Ewart, Aaron Giovannone, Helen Hajnoczky, Susan Holbrook, Ken Hunt, Jani Krulc, Larissa Lai, Naomi K. Lewis, Nicole Markotić, Suzette Mayr, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Sandy Pool, Sharanpal Ruprai, Ian Sampson, Jordan Scott, Nikki Sheppy, Natalie Simpson, Emily Ursuliak, Natalie Zina Walschots, Andrew Wedderburn, Julia Williams, Rita Wong, Eric Zboya, and Paul Zits, as well as with co-editor derek beaulieu.

Edited by derek beaulieu and rob mclennan, and designed by Chaudiere co-publisher Christine McNair, The Calgary Renaissance highlights some of the diverse and astonishing experimental poetry and fiction that has emerged out of the past two decades of Calgary writing. An essential portrait of some of the most engaged and radical of Canadian writing and writers from one of the country’s most important literary centres. You can order a copy directly, here.

Introduction by derek beaulieu and rob mclennan. Cover by Natalie Lauchlan and Nathaniel Mah.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

a series of interviews with rob mclennan

I've been realizing lately that I've been interviewed an awful lot over the years, and never have compiled any of the interviews anywhere. I mean, you can scroll through the blog if you wish, but who has the time? (and some have even disappeared from the internet...) So I've compiled such, here (with updates as they appear).

2024 : by Stephen Brockwell for Writers Festival Radio, March 2024 :

2023 :
by Hollay Ghadery for River Street Writing, November 2023 : by RC Weslowski and Kevin Spenst for Wax Poetic, August 2023 : by Erin Bedford for Pinhole Poetry, July 2023 : by Susan Johnston, CKCU, May 2023 : by Valerie Coulton, Palabrosa, May 2023 : by Sam Szanto, 20 Questions, February 2023 : by Lori Hettler, The 40 but 10 interview series, January 2023 :

2022 : by Sharon Berg, Artisanal Writer, November 2022 : by Amanda Earl on above/ground press, The Small Machine Talks, August 2022 : by Pearl Pirie, August 2022 : by Michael Murray, Galaxy Brain, July 2022 : by Colin Dardis for fill your books!, July 2022 : by Andrew French for Page Fright: A Literary Podcast, June 2022 : by Lisa Fishman, Court Green : May 2022 : by Chris Donovan : April 2022 : mini-interview by Pearl Pirie : March 2022 : rob mclennan and Renée Sarojini Saklikar : Some notes toward the (Canadian) long poem : January 2022 : periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics ;

2021: Six Questions : Chaudiere Books : November 2021 ; Apt613 : April 2021 : Kenyon Review : February 2021 ;

2020: Splintered Disorder Press : December 2020 ; the ottawa small press book fair : home edition : August 2020 ; Jenya Stashkov (in English, translated into Russian) : July 2020 ; Red Alder Review : April 2020 ;

2019: Wombwell Rainbow Interviews : July 2019 ; Train : a poetry journal : July 2019 ; 12 or 20 questions, via Vallum : January 2019 ; on curating the Tuesday poem series at dusie for Quill Bell : Christine Stoddard : January 2019 ; talking about strawberries all of the time, April 2019 ; Ottawa Arts Council, April 2019 ;

2018: episode 30 of Amanda Earl's Small Machine Talks, March, 2018 ; poetry mini interviews, March-May, 2018 ;

2017: The Roaring Nineties, by Nathaniel G. Moore : April 2017 ; rob mclennan answers The DevilHouse Six : January 2017 ;

2016: on above/ground press for Entropy : December 2016 ; Speaking of Marvels : June 2016 ; Writing is Hard : Sachiko Murakami : June 2016 (re-post) ; We Who Are About To Die : Ian Whistle : June 2016 ; Author Questions for rob mclennan : Vanessa Cimon-Lambert : May 2016 ; rob mclennan interviewed by Susanne Dyckman for OmniVerse : May 2016 ; rob mclennan and Facebook : Oscar Martens : April 2016 ;

2015: Author questions for rob mclennan : Hayley Malouin : October 2015 ; On the Art of the Interview // Julienne Isaacs : September 2015 ; POETS ONLINE TALKING ABOUT COFFEE: ROB MCLENNAN : August 2015 ; On Collaboration: Interview with Christine McNair and rob mclennan by Jen Tynes : April 2015 ; rob mclennan interview : Writer's Block CJSW by Emily Ursuliak : April 2015 ; A CONVERSATION AT WORLD’S END: Q and A WITH ROB MCLENNAN by Lea Graham : February 2015 ;

2014: 'Poet pushes together fragments in new book' by Phelisha Cassup : October 2014 ; Blog Hop: what the stories make of us, : October 2014 ; Poetry and Art that Challenge Ottawa’s Sleepy Stereotype: rob mclennan and Tanya Sprowl-Martelock Discuss Canadian Journal ottawater : September 2014 ; Interview: rob mclennan / Words By Nathaniel G. Moore : August 2014 ; Episode Five of Ottawa Writes! Talking with rob mclennan about Small Press and more : June 2014 ; Welcome to an Interview with rob mclennan by David Prosser : June 2014 ; poets touching trees interview : June 2014 ; An Interview with rob mclennan: The League of Canadian Poets National Poetry Month Blog : April 2014 ; My Writing Process—blog tour, : March 2014 ;

2013: Six Questions for rob mclennan, editor/publisher, above/ground press, Jim Harrington : October 2013 ; The Mackinac: an interview : August 2013 ; Q and A with rob mclennan, for Ribbon Pig : April 2013 ; Q and A: 20 Years of above/ground press, Alison Lang : January 2013 ;

2012: ‘The Next Big Thing’ meme-interview with rob mclennan: the blog tour that ran itself : December 2012 ; Canadian Poets Petting Cats : rob mclennan and Lemonade : July 2012 ; The Dirty Dozen, Open Book: Ontario : June 2012 ; Happy Birthday rob mclennan, Lipstick Press : March 2012 ; The South Townsville micro poetry journal : March 2012Rusty Morrison interviews rob mclennan, OmniVerse : February 2012 ;

2011: Exactly 12 questions for rob mclennan; an interview by Cassie Leigh : October 2011 ; "Apologies for Ottawa" : an article and interview by Vera Grbic on the Ottawa literary community : September 2011 ; A Second Time Around: a conversation between rob mclennan and Stephanie Bolster : Summer 2011 ; The VEG Literary Magazine interviews rob mclennan : April 2011 ; 10 questions for rob mclennan on above/ground press, derek beaulieu : March 2011 ; On Reviewing: rob mclennan, Lemonhound : February 2011 ;

2010: Grey Borders Reading Series Q and A with rob mclennan : November 2010 ; rob mclennan interviewed by David Kosub on editing poetry anthologies : May 2010 ;

2009: An Interview with rob mclennan, Susan Olding : December 2009 ; an interview with rob mclennan, by Darryl Salach : October 2009 ; 8-Ball: Interview with rob mclennan : July 2009 ;

2008: 12 or 20 questions: rob mclennan answers his own : June 2008 ;

2007: A conversation between K.I. Press and rob mclennan (in progress), April-May 2007 ; Cameron Anstee questions, Carleton University, April 2007 ; Haas Bianchi questions, Chicago Postmodern Poetry, January 2007 ;

2002: rob mclennan and Stephanie Bolster in converstation : November 2002 ;

Thursday, January 7, 2016

University of Alberta Writers-in-Residence interviews: 1975-2016



For the sake of the fortieth anniversary of the writer-in-residence program (the longest lasting of its kind in Canada) at the University of Alberta, I have taken it upon myself to interview as many former University of Alberta writers-in-residence as possible [see the ongoing list of writers here]. Obviously some of the writers have passed (and a couple declined), and some were actually impossible to track down, but I still managed to convince most on the list to participate in short interviews on their time in Edmonton. Attempting as best as possible to post the interviews in order of their residencies, the interviews appear weekly from January 8, 2016. See the links to the individual interviews below. There was also a big event at the University of Alberta in March 2016, in which some twenty-plus former writers-in-residence were invited back (including myself) for a series of readings, panel discussions and workshops [see my report on such here].

Gary Geddes (1976-77); Maria Campbell (1979-80); Daphne Marlatt (1985-86); Ray Smith (1986-87); Leona Gom (1987-88); Fred Wah (1988-89); Kristjana Gunnars (1989-90); Sandra Birdsell (1991); Merna Summers (1991-1992); Trevor Ferguson (1992); Don McKay (1993-4); Di Brandt (1995-6); Ven Begamudré (1996-7); Caterina Edwards (1997-8); Tim Lilburn (1999-2000); Marilyn Dumont (2000-2001); Shani Mootoo (2001-2), Thomas Wharton (2002-3); Myrna Kostash (2003-4); Karen Solie (2004-5); Curtis Gillespie (2005-6); Lynn Coady (2008-9); Tim Bowling (2010-11); Richard Van Camp (2011-12); Marina Endicott (2012-3); Erin Moure (2013-4); Minister Faust (2014-5);