Poet and novelist Arleen Paré, whose new poetry collection Time Out of Time (Caitlin Press) releases in February, sits down with us Q&A-style to talk about which writers have influenced her writing, her advice to writers, and how writing keeps her more or less sane-ish.
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First let me thank All Lit Up and Writer’s Block for the opportunity to be part of this informal and very cool blog, wherein I get to pick the questions, which is also very cool. I don’t have a dog, which gives me more time to write: no dog walking, no feeding the dog, no spending hours in the park throwing the ball. But if I did have a dog, it would be a West Highland White, not an especially literary dog, such as Pinka, the cocker spaniel that Vita Sackville-West gave to Virginia Woolf, or even a Borzoi (a dog who has been known to quote poetry); nonetheless, the West Highland is a cute dog. That said, these are the questions I have chosen to answer. Which writers have influenced me or had the most impact on my own writing?Oh, man, so many influences here on the literary west coast, and by influences, I mean teachers. So many that I can name but a few: Lorna Crozier, Patrick Lane, Betsy Warland, Steve Price, Carla Funk, Tim Lilburn. I’ve had a plethora of brilliant teachers throughout my late-breaking, short poetry career.In terms of who now is an influence, and here, by influence, I mean admired and shaping my own poetics, I would have to mention the wondrous American/Arabic poet, Etel Adnan, who at the age of 96, won the International Griffin Award for Poetry for her recent collection called Time. She died last week in Paris. And although 96 is a perfectly respectable age to pull up stakes, I was shocked and very saddened. I had wanted her to live forever.In fact, I had just finished a new poetry collection based on Adnan’s poetics in Time. My new manuscript is called Time Out of Time, of course! It’ll be released late February 2022 by Caitlin Press and is/was about to go the printers when Etel Adnan died. The synchronicity, the confluence of this timing, is nearly unbelievable.And finally, in terms of major influence, there is Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poetry I so admire. What’s one book I always recommend?I have always recommended Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, such a beautiful, meaningful book! Also Toni Morrison’s Beloved. These are classics for me. Now I also recommend Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End and his The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty. He’s brilliant. And of course, Michael Crummey’s Sweetland. What was my most rewarding moment as a writer?By far and away, it was the moment that I heard I had won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry for Lake of two Mountains. It was my third book and I had only been writing for under a decade. Oh my – could it get any better? What am I working on right now?Besides being in the final stages of publication for the previously mentioned poetry collection, Time Out of Time, for the end of February, I’m revising my recently accepted manuscript with the projected title, Sing Wonderful World, a long poem in the tradition of poetry of witness.
Why do you write?I started writing later in life. Previously, I’d worked as a Social Worker for over two decades. Now I can’t imagine a life without writing, without poetry. I write the way I breathe, almost involuntarily, and I write because it keeps me more or less sane-ish.
Writer’s Advice
What is the toughest part of being a writer?The business end of writing is the toughest part, though nothing is really that tough. Submitting a manuscript is the worst; waiting for the acceptance/rejection verdict is the worst of the worst. The rest is mixed: marketing the book is work, but I do enjoy travelling (pre-pandemic) to readings and launches and meeting other authors. Interviews are cool and blurbing is definitely okay. All this is the business end of writing. The writing end of writing is pure fun: the writing itself is great fun; the editing is good fun too. If fun is the right word? Maybe the word is engaging, satisfying, rewarding, pleasing. All those words apply, yes, but I’m sticking with fun!
Arleen Paré is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Paper Trail (NeWest Press, 2007), Lake of Two Mountains (Brick Books, 2014), and He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car (Caitlin Press, 2015). Her work has been short-listed for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and has won the American Golden Crown Award for Poetry, the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, a CBC Bookie Award, and a Governor Generals’ Award for Poetry. She lives in Victoria, BC.
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Thanks to Arleen for her thoughtful answers to our Writer’s Block questions! For more Writer’s Block from your favourite authors, click here.
