An Interview with Wayne Yetman, Contributor to The Fiddlehead Autumn 2015 Issue

Wayne Yetman

Wayne Yetman, whose story "His Brother's Keeper" appears in our current Autumn issue, writes fiction and non-fiction from a base in Toronto. His short stories have previously appeared in The Antigonish Review and The New Quarterly, among others. This interview was conducted by Fiddlehead editorial assistant Ryan Gaio by email in early December 2015.

Ryan Gaio: I'd like to start on a very macro level: I'm always curious to know about other writers' creative processes, and particularly, the genesis of their work. Could you tell us a bit about how "His Brother's Keeper" came about? What triggered the chain of falling dominoes that led to this tale?

Wayne Yetman: I knew a man whose brother was castrated as a cancer treatment. It struck me that this embarrassing topic rarely comes up in fiction and I should do something with it. But when I wrote the first few paragraphs the caregiver emerged as arrogant and condescending. From there, like a dog dashing from tree to tree in the park, I simply followed my nose to wherever it led me. The castration business retreated in importance, becoming just one of several tools accentuating the caregiver's dubious commitment to his cause.

RG: I recently had the pleasure of reading a new submission of yours to The Fiddlehead. I forget the title, but it, too, focused on two brothers, one of which was taking care of the other. I was wondering: is this a recurring trope in your stories? If so, what is it about the bond between siblings — particularly male siblings — that so interests you? Is it an urge rooted in autobiography, or is it just a dynamic you find creatively stimulating?

WY: I have to confess I have no particular interest in siblings, male or female. Yes, several of my recent stories deal with brothers but I am a high production writer and have written many many stories that have nothing to do with brothers. I am not a Man With A Mission or A Message. I just grab hold of a phrase or image I like and build from there.

But you have caught on to something in that most of my stories focus on only two people, usually husband and wife. That reflects my own experience. I was an only child from a working class family, a hard core Introvert, and am married without children. So I don't feel equipped to write about kids or young people. I have very little violence in my stories, no one uses the F-word, and there are no drug dealers, alcoholics, or serial abusers. I seem to write about ostensibly educated and successful adults churning around in the sand box of life. I find that to be great fun.

RG: The story is told by a 3rd-person narrator, yet it is largely filtered through David's perspective. Many of the other characters' thoughts and feelings are distilled to the reader through David's assumptions of those characters' thoughts and feelings — David "could tell" Rupert's mind was fixed on Rosemary; David "could see them struggling to keep from shaking their heads in despair." It's quite possible that these are wrong assumptions on his part, yet they're what the reader is given. So, I'm curious: why did you choose this narrative tactic, and particularly, why did you choose this method rather than have David as a 1st-person narrator?

WY: The tack once I got going was to 'out' David as a not very pleasant person and an unreliable caregiver. But I really got a kick out of his nasty thoughts, reprehensible as they were. It's important to me to play with a story rather than get too solemn. His habit of deluding himself was a major part of that. If I had used his first person voice then the reader would never be quite clear how reliable he really was. The way I did it I could steer things a little more.

Mind you, this is all hindsight. I don't have a plan when I start a story. It tells itself the way it wants to.  

RG: Oftentimes, I found David's judgments about the story's other characters to be overly critical, sometimes condescending. He feels Tony's favorite restaurant is "hardly the place for a celebration"; he rather cruelly looks down upon a colleague who has to plan his own retirement party. What made you choose to instill David with these critical characteristics, and do you feel there is a link between these attitudes and his career in the civil service?

WY: I laboured in the civil service for a while and found it very frustrating. But once I got out on my own I discovered that I was still just as frustrated, just as angry, just as pouty as before. This was a huge lesson in my life. I learned that I was as much a part of the problem as the bureaucracy. So ever since I have tried to be a little less demanding of others and more flexible myself.

Unfortunately, in the heat of writing this story I dropped my guard and let my ugly thoughts of the past take over. But David is so wonderfully petty and seduced me entirely.

RG: One of David's most critical attitudes is displayed towards his ex-sister-in-law's career as a writer — he condescendingly remarks that Rosemary was "no doubt assessing the whole affair for a place in her latest opus," and there is, throughout, a suggestion that Rosemary pilfers or leeches her own life for material. I was curious to know what your intentions were with this characterization? Do you echo David's sentiment that there is something shameful or exploitative in a writer writing about their own life?

WY: I certainly do not see writers as exploitative when they draw on their own lives or what they see around them. I do it all the time. But there are people who would take another view on that issue and David, God bless him, might be one of them. That's fine. He may be right — there must be exploitive writers out there somewhere. But really, to me this is all just part of his sour personality. I don't think he has a hard and fast position on writing or writers. He's out there zooming towards Saturn — he's not grappling with questions that intrigue wordsmiths.

I would hope that readers pay attention to the other characters as much as David. He may be entertaining but I thought the rest of them handled a potentially painful series of events in a pretty positive way. Their maturity further sets off his immaturity in my mind.

RG: I read Rupert's medically-necessary castration as a symbol of demasculinization. Was this symbol intentional? If so, what, do you feel is its significance to this story, particularly when paired with Rosemary's feminine power?

WY: To me, Rupert's medical problems are nothing more than medical problems. I did not envision some sort of demasculation struggle going on between him and his former wife. But if that is what the reader sees then so be it. Maybe I don't recognize my own genius. Maybe David is having the demasculation crisis.

On the other hand, Rosemary and Rupert seem to find common ground in the end. So if there was a demasculation struggle then it seems to have resolved itself fairly positively.

RG: The ending lines, for me, suggest that despite David's best attempts to protect and know his brother, the reader realizes that David really knows little about Rupert, and that Rupert's life is beyond David's control. What is this ending meant to suggest for the two brothers and their relationship? Which brother, exactly, is the keeper of the other? What does this ending suggest about the relationship between siblings, particularly relationships in which power dynamics try to establish one sibling as "protector" of the other?

WY: I would not like to claim any particular wisdom when it comes to sibling relationships. I enjoyed watching David act out his strange illusions with the hint that he might soon be hoisted on his own petard. But to me, there was something far more important going on.

My experience is that unusual tensions can emerge when a family member is very sick or dying. I wouldn't want to be too judgmental about those tensions. Dying is a hard old haul and I'd like to give the literary participants as much leeway as possible. So while David comes out appearing as a bit of a nasty, I hope I didn't turn him into the essence of evil. He's just one of us, struggling on, baggage and all.

RG: Again, to return to the macro: Who are some of the writers you sought for inspiration on a piece like this one? Are those influences different from the writers who typically influence your work?

Issue No. 265 (Autumn 2015)

WY: I didn't particularly seek out anyone for inspiration on this story or any other story. But I regularly re-read Alice Munro's short stories — she is the best and I would like to learn from her success. Years ago I was addicted to Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood. Both of those writers seemed to bring a clean yet incisive style to complex interpersonal conflicts.

I have learned the most from simply hammering out story after story over the years. Gradually my writing evolved from amateurish to better. Every so often a story stands up and yells: "Look at me, look at me. I'm really good." I've had twenty-eight stories published so there's been a decent amount of yelling. But a lot of the time the little guys just slink away into the Active But Resting file. It keeps me humble.

RG: BONUS QUESTION JUST FOR FUN: You're stranded on an island with nothing but a record player and one album of your choosing. Which is it???

WY: I recognize this question offers me the opportunity to burnish my authorial "brand" with a quirky revelation. I must fail this test. Writing takes a lot of time so music is a low priority with me. I couldn't imagine listening to any album for any length of time. Besides, on a remote island there probably wouldn't be any electricity to run the record player.

But I would be eager to take the Bible to this island. I am not religious but I have always wanted to read the entire Bible in a relaxed manner and understand what it says and how it is constructed. This could be my opportunity. I suspect this choice will not do much for my authorial image however.

An Interview with Rachel Rose, Contributor to The Fiddlehead Autumn 2015 Issue

Rachel Rose. Photograph by Thomas Langdon

Rachel Rose is currently Vancouver’s Poet Laureate. She has published four collections of poetry: Giving My Body to Science, Notes on Arrival and Departure, Song and Spectacle, and most recently, Marry & Burn. She is also a short story writer and an essayist whose work has been published in literary magazines and anthologies across Canada and the United States. Her poem, “Sunflowers” (among others), is featured in The Fiddlehead Autumn 2015 issue. This interview was conducted by Fiddlehead editorial assistant Emily Skov-Nielson by email in late November 2015.

Emily Skov-Nielsen: Firstly, I’d like to ask a question about your poetic process: where does a poem begin for you — in other words, is it an image that first inspires you, a line or phrase, maybe a metaphor?

Rachel Rose: A poem begins for me sometimes with a line or an image, or the juxtaposition of two images; sometimes there is an inciting incident, a scrap of conversation, a statistic, a trauma, an irritation.

ESN: I can honestly say that your poem, “Sunflowers,” was my favourite from The Fiddlehead’s Autumn 2015 issue and one of the best elegiac poems I’ve read in some time. The opening stanza is so musical in its rhythm and with its alliteration, and there is of course the allusion to the timeless playground song/game Red Rover. This first stanza is almost like an incantation that pulls you into the poem. I’m wondering if you could provide some insight into your creative intentions regarding this opening.

I know from my own experience that elegies can be incredibly difficult to write — with an elegy, there seems to be an increased potentiality for melodrama, sentimentalism, or veering towards the cliché; however, “Sunflowers” skillfully evades all of these poetic dangers. Was this a difficult poem to write for any of these suggested reasons? If not, what were some of the difficulties in writing this poem?

RR: Thank you for your generous words about “Sunflowers.” This poem both tells and evades; at the beginning it hovers, like the hummingbird, then darts away — you may think you know the subject matter of the poem from that first playful stanza, but you are being led off course, distracted by the flight, and then, when you are not expecting it, comes the elegiac notes. Throughout, “Sunflowers” drops lines, says too much in parts, goes too hard and too far, breaking through as children do, roughly, when playing Red Rover. It confesses little, though it holds much pain between the lines.

ESN: I’d like to draw attention to what was, for me, one of the most painful parts of the poem, the lines: “your hands / that an old boyfriend called / the ugliest hands I’ve ever seen on a woman.” This ruthless quotation that the speaker recalls, although heartbreaking, provides an interesting contrast and dynamic to the poem. Can you provide any insights regarding your choice to include this fierce, surprising moment?

RR: There are things we are told that we carry with us forever, and that we pass on to others, because of their extraordinary ability to cut. This was one of those things, passed on — another kind of inheritance.

ESN: There are several dropped lines in “Sunflowers” — what, creatively, does a dropped line enable you to do?

RR: Dropped lines in this poem allow me to imitate the flight of hummingbirds, the nodding of flowers, the pattern of bees swarming, the reticence of speech that doesn’t trust its right to be spoken.

ESN: The natural world is central to this poem — flower, bee, moon, and bird imagery are all present. Are these things that commonly inspire you and your writing, or are they particular to this poem and its subject matter?

Issue No. 265 (Autumn 2015)

RR: The natural world is a source of deep inspiration in my work, though I don’t consider the urban world separate from nature. I grew up in some wild places, and what I found and experienced in the wild helped raise and shape me.

ESN: Calling upon a quotation from “Sunflowers,” I’d like to end with a broader question regarding your thoughts on poetry, its practice and purpose: is poetry, for you, “honey to mitigate the sting / of what can’t be said”?

RR: It would be more accurate to say that poetry, my poetry, includes honey to mitigate the sting of what must be said, of what I insist on saying. I try at least to comfort with some taste of sweetness, purity of form, of lyric image, to counteract the sting of the language, of what humans are capable of doing to one another.

Fiddlehead News

No. 258 Winter 2014

The Fiddlehead's Winter 2014 issue has just been reviewed at New Pages! Reviewer Chip Livingston says that it "turns on moments of awareness of awareness, capturing the instants we catch ourselves catching ourselves, revelations of self to self, to the reader, and to other characters. It’s charming, this subtle focus moving from piece to piece, from poem to prose to poem to poem, and the sequence suggests this international journal from the University of New Brunswick is edited with precision." Read the full review here!

Myler Wilkinson, the winner of our recently-announced fiction contest was celebrated in his hometown newspaper, The Castlegar News, with a very nice profile. Wilkinson's story "Blood of Slaves" appears in our Spring 2014 issue. Read the article here.

Myler Wilkinson

Congratulations to Craig Davidson and Adam Dickinson, both UNB alumi and past Fiddlehead contributors, for being shortlisted for Trillium Awards. Davidson is a finalist for his Giller-shortlisted novel Cataract City and Dickinson for his Governor General's Award-nominated poetry collection The Polymers. View the shortlists here.

And finally, recent Fiddlehead editorial assistant Richard Kemick has been interviewed by Echolocation. Kemick recently graduated from the MA (English and Creative Writing) program at UNB. Read the interview here. And keep an eye out for a few of Richard's poems in this summer's poetry issue of The Fiddlehead!

An Interview with Kayla Czaga, Winner of The Fiddlehead's Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem

Kayla Czaga won The Malahat Review’s

2012 Far Horizons Award for poetry. Her

poems have appeared or are forthcoming 

in The Walrus, The New Quarterly, Best  
Canadian Poetry in English 2012, Arc, 

and others. Her first book, For Your Safety 

Please Hold On, is forthcoming this fall from

 Nightwood Editions. She lives and writes 

in Vancouver, where she is completing her 

MFA at UBC. 

Kayla Czaga has won this year's Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. Fiddlehead Editorial Assistant and poetry co-editor Phillip Crymble conducted the following interview with Czaga. 

Phillip Crymble: Congratulations on winning The Fiddlehead’s 2014 Ralph Gustafson Prize for best poem. You’ve now won several prestigious contests over the last few years. In selecting poems to submit to competitions like ours do you have a strategy, or is it simply a matter of sending the most accomplished work you have available?

Kayla Czaga: I’ve only actually won two contests, though I have been on a few short and long lists. I’ve fallen into this rhythm where I send out poems about twice a year. When a deadline to a contest I want to enter is coming up, I take it as an opportunity to send out a lot of writing to other places as well. I sort of put everything I have into a pile with my favourites on top. I often have someone help me. They’ll say, “oh, send this one to them and send this one to the other place.” I usually take their advice because I’m not the best judge of my own writing.

PC: One of the qualities that makes this poem so successful is its movement between relative subjects. The poem takes advantage of the speaker’s “wondering how love / could transpire so oppositely between two / people” to transition and arrive at the generated subject before returning to the initiating subject for closure. Is this an intuitive strategy, or is it learned, and if so, from where or whom?

KC: It’s a both strategy. I don’t have the longest attention span and I go off on a lot of tangents. I’ve been working on cultivating a style that plays into that. It frequently fails, as my tangents are wont, but sometimes it just manages to balance together and arrive at something. I absolutely adore the poets who can do this well and I have learned a lot from their work — Dean Young, Mary Ruefle, and Matthew Zapruder, especially.
 
PC: Based on your publication record, you clearly know a thing or two about how to write successful poems. How do you believe the MFA at UBC has most impacted your continued development as a young writer to this point?

KC: Deadlines, for one. Having someone say, “do such and such by such and such date,” really gets such and such done. Friends, too. I’ve managed to expand my writing community, and those people really help keep you going. Also, learning prose. I only ever took poetry workshops in undergrad and it’s been such a wonderful experience to study fiction and non-fiction with some amazing teachers (Andreas Schroeder, Timothy Taylor, and Maureen Medved).  I never knew I could successfully write something without line breaks before.

PC: How close are you to having a completed manuscript of poems, and if you already have one, is it currently under contract, or are you still fielding offers from publishing houses?

KC: I am pleased to say that I am under contract with Nightwood Editions. I think my book is coming out in the fall — we’re still working on it. I’m calling it For Your Safety Please Hold On.

PC: Is there a moment you can recall when you remember thinking or knowing that you wanted to devote your life to writing?

KC: That’s a very romantic way of putting it — devote your life to writing. I think it’s been an accumulation of moments, rather than just one, that have set me on this route. When I was eleven, after reading (I’m embarrassed to say) A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L’Engle, I felt compelled to write a poem. Thus ensued many bad years of rhyming couplets. Eventually someone — thank you! — told me poems didn’t have to rhyme. Later, in high school, when I was taking prerequisites to pursue a career in the sciences, though I hated them, my English teacher told me that I was being dumb and really ought to do something with my writing, so I applied and was accepted to the University of Victoria’s creative writing program. There I met some of my now closest friends who also wanted to be poets and we’ve encouraged each other ever since. I just love poems and I don’t think I could get as excited about anything else.

PC: Which poets do you admire most, and what kind of influence have they had on your own writing as it has developed?

KC: I go through phases. I mentioned three above. Often Anne Carson — I am a sucker for anything she writes. I’d read a car manual if Anne Carson wrote one. I love Anne Michaels’ early work. Gertrude Stein. Robert Bringhurst. Erin Moure’s Furious. Mark Strand. The list could go on and on. Poetry is kind of its own language, I guess, and I’ve learned how to speak it by listening to others who have spoken it well. They are to thank/blame for everything I’ve managed to write thus far.

PC: Of the poetry collections you’ve read recently, which ones have made the greatest impression?

KC: I liked Sarah Peters’ 1996. My press-mate Renée Sarojini Saklikar’s children of air india is very good and thought-provoking. Mary Ruefle’s Selected Poems is great, but I think it leaves out a lot of her great poems. Agony by Steven Zultanski is probably the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.

“Deviance is a Quality I Admire”: An Interview with Gerard Beirne, The Fiddlehead’s Fiction Co-Editor



Gerard Beirne


Over at The Review Review, our fiction co-editor Gerard Beirne chats with Hadley Catalano about his advice for writers, the art of storytelling, and how The Fiddlehead stays fresh and young after all these years, among other topics. Here's an excerpt:

   HC: The narrative path is made to be broken. Do you see fictional short stories taking a completely different route, following a completely different structure in the future? And if so, what might that narrative structure look like?

    GB: “A completely different structure?" No. The form of storytelling has evolved naturally. We may sometimes shake it up a bit, rearrange its parts, but at the end of the day, to do its job, to convey meaning to other human beings it requires a form that humans are receptive to . . . .

Go read the rest of “Deviance is a Quality I Admire.”

Read more about Gerard’s latest book, Games of Chance, at his blog about it.

Rebels with a Cause: France’s 13e Note Editions

In 1934, Obelisk Press of Paris published Henry Miller’s landmark novel Tropic of Cancer. Banned in the United States, Grove Press’ 1961 American edition was subsequently tried on charges of obscenity and pornography, eventually and painstakingly resulting in acquittal three years later in 1964. It took 27 years for Miller, an American, to get published in his native country, and when he finally did, it was still under the clouds of institutional rejection and slander. The point is that before Miller garnered mainstream acceptance, someone was willing to take a chance on him and his work. Economics and practicality aside, it is increasingly rare to find presses willing and able (realistically) to go with their gut — to publish what truly excites them as a matter of principle and, perhaps this is the Romantic in me, obligation.
   This sense of duty and passion is where my interest in the French publishers 13e Note Editions http://www.13enote.com stems from. The literary world has recently lost two giants who championed the alternative and controversial: George Whitman, long time owner of Paris’ Shakespeare and Company bookstore, and Barney Rosset, the Grove Press publisher who took a chance on Miller. As fervent supporters of literature senselessly repressed and marginalized, Whitman and Rosset laid the groundwork upon which presses such as 13e Note importantly still stand. The names Dan Fante, Mark SaFranko, Tony O’Neill, J.R. Helton, and Matthew Firth (among others) might not be familiar to those reading this blog. The aforementioned names have done everything from toil in obscurity to achieve measured success in North America with HarperCollins (O’Neill, Fante, SaFranko — all after starting out with micro presses) and Anvil Press (Firth — who resides in Ottawa). Starting with their interest in Fante, 13e Note has been praised for their translations of North American writers into French, and France, as astute a literary nation as there is, has responded in kind by paying attention to and buying books by authors who are unfortunately often overlooked domestically.
   13e Note founder Eric Vieljeux was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule for an interview. What follows is a short conversation to help introduce readers of The Fiddlehead to 13e Note’s ethos and why, as a foreign press, they support and promote American and Canadian writers. I encourage readers to browse 13e Note’s website and catalogue where you can also get to know the writers they so fervently believe in. All I will say in closing is that as staff, readers, and supporters of an internationally renowned literary magazine based in a bilingual province, it is our obligation and to our benefit to make and uphold trans-Atlantic connections, and to recognize the excellent work of our peers in the global literary community.

Zach Alapi
Editorial Assistant 

ZA:What inspired you to start 13e Note Editions? Can you talk about the Press’ ethos?

13e Note: Some years ago, driving around LA with a friend, we passed by the mansion of Michael Crichton, and my friend said: “the one who really deserves this house is Dan Fante.” I have read Dan since his first book was published in France and then bought and read all his work... I truly love his writing.
   When I had the money to lose in a publishing venture, I thought I would only publish Dan Fante, as he had not been published in France for the past 10 years and I really believed he deserved to shine in all bookstores. So I went to see him and told him I had never published a single sheet of paper in my life but asked if he would he let me do his last book (and commit to do his other major works). That was March 2008; he said yes.
   Then Sandrine joined me and I quickly understood that to succeed you need top-notch distribution-diffusion, and to get that you need a real editorial project, not one writer and one book. But the fruit was ripe, in my mind, and immediately paid dividends with interest in Mark Safranko, Tommy Trantino, Tony O'Neill, Barry Gifford etc.... We had the project(s) and seduced FLAMMARION as a distributor. Then Patrice joined, and Dan’s book came out in April 2009.

   Yes, we have an ethos and principles, though they are obvious:

• stay away from dickheads and make this venture as pleasurable as possible;
• present unpublished writers (though not exclusively) to French readers;
• only publish what we love;
• make as few concessions along the editorial line as possible (no detective stories/genre fiction unless they are realistic, etc.);
• have fun doing it.

ZA: Of particular interest to readers of The Fiddlehead will be the success you’ve had publishing North American writers in French translation. What is the process like in selecting an English manuscript for publication in France?

13e Note: The success is relative.... Of course, when you are unpublished in your own country, or published by a small Press and hardly distributed, selling 3000 copies of your book in France brings some notoriety success.
   But foreign literature is very costly and so far, out of the 37 titles we’ve published, none has had what you may call “financial success,” which is key to remain in the game.
   So yes, we have [had success] and we are gaining notoriety/success for publishing so many of these writers who have never been translated into French. We also have a strong graphical ID and, for the first time, decent PR.

ZA: It seems that 13e Note’s literary and historical predecessors are ones that have attained success writing controversially from the margins of society (before widespread recognition); writers such as Jack Kerouac, John Fante, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby Jr. (and others) come to mind. How does 13e Note both adhere to and transcend these important influences? How does this historical consciousness inform what you do as a contemporary press?

13e Note: Our selection is spontaneous; we know what we’re looking for in a novel, or short stories, or prose poetry, and we never cease searching for it — on our own and sometimes through recommendations from other writers. This is really mine and Patrice’s turf; all doors remain open, and if we could, we would publish classic writers like Edward Lewis Wallant or Thornton Wilder, etc. Also, remember that nobody waited for us to publish great noir writers, so we have to “fish” every day, and we take risks... certainly more than other publishers.
   Of course, we acknowledge writers and works that have inspired those we publish today. But, take Jack Kerouac, for example... as publishers, we are more interested in the writings of his daughter [Jan Kerouac] than his own works that have already been extensively commented on and distributed.



ZA: In 2011, you released an impressive anthology, Le Livre des fêlures, 31 histoires cousues de fil noir, comprised mostly of translated stories. How/why did this come about, and what do you feel links the writers you selected for this anthology?

13e Note: In 2010, we released Le Livre des fêlures, a massive anthology for our modest press, as we worked on/published it while simultaneously working on our regular program. We were reading many exciting pieces, some by writers published in France and some by unpublished authors that we thought we ought to do something with. Realistically, we cannot publish every project that excites us, so the anthology sort of promoted and publicized the literary genre we love and promote. This book won the Prix De La Nuit Du Livre thanks to the sweat and talent of Patrice Carrer.
   In putting together the anthology, we had: 31 cool and lively biographies with author pictures, 31 contracts with money sent in envelopes to rehab centers, agents, and independent writers, dozens of translators and 31 quality stories, all assembled spontaneously and organized [by genre—Néo- Beat, Méta-Réalisme, Off-Noir, Inside Out] by Patrice to help guide the reader. We will re-issue it in our new Pocket-Pulse collection.

ZA: As The Fiddlehead is a Canadian-based magazine, I want to talk a bit about Matthew Firth, who you are currently working with. Much of Matt’s fiction importantly deals with Canadian cities and the gritty experiences of their inhabitants. What drew you to his fiction, and what qualities in his writing make you feel his material will translate well to French and European markets?

13e Note: First, Matthew Firth is also a publisher and we love the same stuff. I do not think it is obvious that Matt writes about Canadian cities and their inhabitants; there aren’t that many hints in his writing. But obviously he lives there, so it works its way in. We love his fiction because it is without concession and [it] honestly depicts human nature. It is honest and sometimes brutal, and always has a sense of humour. Matt, like Dan Fante, does not hesitate to put his family jewels on the table and be vulnerable. We love that. I have never asked myself whether his [Matt’s] work would or wouldn’t translate well to the French market before deciding to publish him.

ZA: Lastly, does 13e Note have plans to expand its market directly to North America? With Francophone populations in Quebec and New Brunswick, do you see potential/value in fostering a sort of “global” literary community?

13e Note: We have plans to expand into the U.S. and Canadian markets as soon as our French venture can somehow balance/sustain itself. The future, unless we find a partner (pronto), is very bleak, as sales, our main source of financing, are just not happening. Unlike others, we have no country rights to negotiate, movie deals either never happen or come about once in a blue moon… our sales income is paid with a 4 month delay, we have no back catalogue to sustain sales, and, frankly, it is incredibly difficult to publish an unknown writer and get him media attention. Only passion and enthusiasm keep us going… but for how long?
   Lastly, my dear Zach, we are four at 13e Note Editions, and whatever has been achieved so far would have been impossible without the talent, dedication, and shared passion of Sandrine, Adeline, and Patrice. They carry this Press on a daily basis, and I am so grateful they trusted me from day one.

Interview with Anita Lahey

Recently, I sat down with Canadian poet and journalist Anita Lahey to talk about her latest book of poems Spinning Side Kick (Signal Editions, 2011). Anita's poetry is equal parts playful and profound, and our conversation bounced from the fun of onomatopoeia to the foggy future of literary magazines.

 Anita Lahey's previous book Out to Dry in Cape Breton (Signal Editions, 2006) was nominated for the Ottawa Book Award and the Trillium book award for poetry. Previously, she was the editor of Arc Poetry Magazine. She currently lives in Fredericton, NB Canada.

Listen to the interview in your web browser 
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Claire Kelly

Editorial Assistant

Interview with Sue Sinclair

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with accomplished Canadian poet and current University of New Brunswick writer-in-residence Sue Sinclair. Over the course of my academic career I have been fortunate enough to hear Sue read her poetry often and finally had the chance to discuss some of the most intriguing and complex elements of her work.

Author of Secrets of Weather and Hope (finalist for the 2002 Gerald Lampert Award), Mortal Arguments (finalist for the 2003 Atlantic Poetry Prize), The Drunken Lovely Bird (winner of the 2005 International Independent Publisher’s Award for Poetry) and Breaker, Sue is currently completing her Ph. D. in Philosophy.

Listen to the interview in your web browser 
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Kayla Geitzler

Editorial Assistant

Interview with John Barton

Recently, I sat down with John Barton, poet, editor of The Malahat Review, and the University of New Brunswick's current writer-in-residence, to talk about his latest book of poems, Hymn, as well as the politics of being a gay writer in Canada.

A resident of Victoria, British Colombia, John Barton is also the co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay Male Poets, and has been a finalist for a CBC Literary Award in poetry, as well as a National Magazine Award winner. His poems have been featured in journals across Canada and around the world, including The Fiddlehead.

Peter Forestell, Editorial Assistant

Listen to the interview in your web browser
(Right Click or Control Click on the above link to download mp3 File)