Tag Archives: Canadian poet

Back with Carol A. Stephen with the writing life and writing community.

VAH: Are you a full time writer?

CAS: I am a retired small “a” accountant/credit professional, so I am free to write or not as I choose. Except, of course, for the compulsions!

VAH: Is writing vocation, occupation, or profession?

CAS: I’d say a vocation. I do it because I am compelled and because I have a love for language.

VAH: When the page is blank what gets you writing?

CAS: Reading other poets, finding a good writing prompt.  Occasionally something will come from just brainstorming/wild-minding, but not very often. I have to read.

VAH: What is your “process” when working on a new piece of writing?

CAS: To start with, I usually have an “earworm” phrase demanding to be written down.  If I have a list of words, I might just start writing in a word association kind of way and the poem may take off from there. I have a couple of projects in mind, but poems are more likely to come from specific phrases rather than just a more general theme.

VAH: Do you have a submission system or plan?

CAS: That is on my list of resolutions every year. I don’t know what holds me back, but I don’t submit regularly.

VAH: What does your typical writing day include?

CAS: Many distractions on the internet. Writing new poems takes precedence over polishing ones already written.  The best poems are always the newest ones. That might be why I don’t submit as often as I think I should!

VAH: What words of wisdom do you have for the emerging writer?

CAS: Read, read, read. Try new techniques, especially those new forms that you think won’t work for you. And submit!  (Yes, wisdom I should include in my own plans!)

VAH: What choices have you made regards to traditional or independent publishing?

CAS: Most of my individual published poems have been in online magazines where I’ve been successful submitting before.  Of my three chapbooks, one I published myself, another was under a friend’s imprint, and the new one is published by a small press run by a poet I’ve “known” online for years.  I’m a late bloomer, and not sure I want to wait the long times it takes for traditional publishing to take place. Online publishing also reaches a larger audience, even more quickly than self-publishing.

VAH: What part does social media play in your writing career?

CAS: I have a blog, where I write about literary events in and around Ottawa, Ontario, but also to showcase my poetry and my chapbooks. I’m on Facebook and Twitter and recently have become more active on Tumblr. 

VAH: Do you belong to writing or author organizations?

CAS: I am a member of the League of Canadian Poets, The Ontario Poetry Society and I belong to a small poetry group, The Field Stones. I am rejoining the board of Arts Carleton Place, where I live, and I am a former member of Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region.

VAH: Do you have any favorite online sites or blogs that you find useful or interesting?

CAS: Poetry Foundation, Academy of American Poets, Places for Writers, Winning Writers, Found Poetry Review, Ron Silliman’s blog, Bill Moyers.com, Writers Digest, and many others.

VAH:What was your writing education?

CAS: In high school we studied it as part of the English curriculum. Since 2006, I’ve taken an online course at Algonquin College, and a follow-up private course with the same instructor, as well as a 10-week Stanford course with James Arthur and later a week-long retreat with him in Lenox, Mass.

VAH: Writing conferences, retreats, seminars – any favorites and why?

CAS: The retreat [mentioned earlier] with James Arthur was a chance to work in group with some of the poets I’d met in the online Stanford class, as well as time to discuss my work one-on-one with James.  I’ve participated in several weekend “master” workshops through Ottawa’s Tree Reading Series with prominent Canadian poets. These were amazing opportunities to work with some of Canada’s top poets in a small class (max 12 participants) I also attended a 5-day writing conference through Canadian Authors Association, which provided workshops across various genres, and opportunities to network that have been invaluable.

Thank you Carol A. Stephen for contributing your thoughts on writing and the writing life.

Sample Carol’s work:

Carol reading her work here.

Howe and Stephen (the light ekphrastic)

 Stephen and Karkar (the light ekphrastic)

Imworld and Stephen (the light ekphrastic)

Learning to Dance (Silver Birch Press)

Waiting for Green Mornings (Silver Birch Press)

In a Moment She’ll Unfurl (the light ekphrastic)

Carol A. Stephen is a Canadian poet, poetry selector for Bywords Journal and a member of the League of Canadian Poets. She’s served on boards of Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region (CAA-NCR), Arts Carleton Place and Tree Reading Series Ottawa. Carol coordinated CAA’s poetry circle 2008-2013.

Her poetry has appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Tree Press/phaphours press chapbooks and online at The Light Ekphrastic and Silver Birch Press. Chapbooks: Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, Bondi Studios, 2011 and Architectural Variations, Quillfyre Publishing, 2012. Ink Dogs in my Shoe, Dec. 2014 from Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar B.C.

Awards: 3rd Prize CAA 2012 National Capital Writing Contest for Walking in Thomson’s Red Sumac. Honourable Mentions: VERSeFest, Poetry for the End of the World, 2012, Arborealis 2012 and 2008 Ontario Poetry Society, Double Your Pleasure 2013 Ontario Poetry Society and CAA’s 2008 and 2011 National Capital Writing Contest.

Recent publication: In December, 2014 her third chapbook, Ink Dogs in my Shoes, was published by Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar, B.C. This is a chapbook of poems all containing some element of three in them. Subjects range from garden to writing process to nonsense rhymes, and some explore conceptual poetry or experiment with wordplay.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Twitter. Facebook. Blog

Three by Five posts on days that end in threes.

VAH: Who is your favorite literary character?

CAS: I can’t choose between Custard, the Cowardly Dragon and The Cheshire Cat.

VAH: Do you have a favorite author?

CAS: Perhaps Richard Wagamese, a Canadian First Nations author, who wrote Dream Wheels. It won the Canadian Authors Association award for fiction in 2007. I read a single line from the back cover and was hooked.  Wagamese is a powerful storyteller, one of the best I’ve read. He weaves together both compelling story and First Nations customs which are fascinating. Many books I read and forget but not this one.

VAH: You’re stranded in a snowstorm, stuck on a deserted island. What books would you hope to have with you or find? Why these choices?

CAS: Poetry for sure, but not a single author. An anthology, a big one, with poets from the 20th and 21st century and a book of writing prompts, perhaps The Poet’s Companion, so that I am inspired to keep writing. Novels that have interesting older women, characters that get into odd situations but all’s well in the end.  Romance optional. Humor essential!

VAH: What is the most memorable book, story or poem you’ve read? How so?

CAS: I started to say The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley, something my parents read to me when I was a child. I always remember two characters: Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby  and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. I recall it as a morality tale for children, but I think even more influential would have to be A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson. That book probably was my first acquaintance with poetry and some of the poems still stay with me today.

VAH: Do you have a favorite book, poem, or story?

CAS: I have a lot of favorite poems, but I will share this one:

“The Hush of the Very Good” Todd Boss (c 2008) 

I’m not sure how I first came to this poem, but I remember hearing Todd Boss read The Hush of the Very Good online. The poem describes a kiss, a particularly good kiss, while juxtaposing it with a metaphoric small boat. The images are so vividly drawn using simple language. But it isn’t just that. Visually, it’s the unusual way the lines break, short lines clinging to the right margins, then back to the left, like waves the wake of a boat makes.

The poem asks questions, draws the reader in. It’s a poem to be read aloud, to wrap your tongue around long ohhh sounds and soft sibilants, sounds are very reminiscent of ocean and waves, the whisper of reeds, and the poem slows down, then speeds up through short words and hard consonants, b, p, d. It’s just such a lush poem to read out loud.

Next installment – Carol A. Stephen shares about her writing community.

Sample her work:

Learning to Dance (Silver Birch Press)

Waiting for Green Mornings (Silver Birch Press)

In a Moment She’ll Unfurl (the light ekphrastic)

Carol A. Stephen is a Canadian poet, poetry selector for Bywords Journal and a member of the League of Canadian Poets. She’s served on boards of Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region (CAA-NCR), Arts Carleton Place and Tree Reading Series Ottawa. Carol coordinated CAA’s poetry circle 2008-2013.

Her poetry has appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Tree Press/phaphours press chapbooks and online at The Light Ekphrastic and Silver Birch Press. Chapbooks: Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, Bondi Studios, 2011 and Architectural Variations, Quillfyre Publishing, 2012. Ink Dogs in my Shoe, Dec. 2014 from Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar B.C.

Awards: 3rd Prize CAA 2012 National Capital Writing Contest for Walking in Thomson’s Red Sumac. Honourable Mentions: VERSeFest, Poetry for the End of the World, 2012, Arborealis 2012 and 2008 Ontario Poetry Society, Double Your Pleasure 2013 Ontario Poetry Society and CAA’s 2008 and 2011 National Capital Writing Contest.

Recent publication: In December, 2014 her third chapbook, Ink Dogs in my Shoes, was published by Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar, B.C. This is a chapbook of poems all containing some element of three in them. Subjects range from garden to writing process to nonsense rhymes, and some explore conceptual poetry or experiment with wordplay.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Twitter. Facebook. Blog

Three by Five posts on days that end in threes.

VAH: Welcome to Three by Five, Carol. Do tell, why do you write?

CAS: It seems to be a compulsion really. Words, phrases, ideas come to me, seemingly at random, but they won’t let go ‘til I put them into a poem.

VAH: Why did you become a writer and when did you know or feel like you were a writer?

CAS: I hadn’t written in 25 years, but after my husband died, I began to find the poetry coming again. I decided it was time to find out whether I was really a poet or a dabbler. I first felt like a poet when a workshop leader wanted to steal one of my lines.

VAH: Ah, that sounds validating. “A poet or a dabbler.” A good question for introspection. Is there someone or something that influenced your development as a writer?

CAS: Reading other poets is a big influence. When I am not reading, I am usually also not writing. Taking workshops, trying new techniques I didn’t like at first because I didn’t understand the process. Mentors have played a big role too. They include Canadian poets Brent Robillard, (that first workshop leader), Bernice Lever, Harold Rhenisch, Barry Dempster, Roo Borson, John Barton, Phil Hall, Stuart Ross.  Canadian-American poet James Arthur.  Al Filreis, who teaches Modern & Contemporary American Poetry at UPenn via Coursera online and Robert Pinsky.

VAH: What do you remember about your first story or poem?

CAS: I actually have the first poem I wrote as a teenager in high school. It was written in March 1963, or so my file copy shows, has no title, and is a rhyming poem.  I don’t remember whether it was written for class or just on a whim. But the second one seems to be a riff on The Daffodils by William Wordsworth.

VAH: And do you have a favorite piece you’ve written to date?

CAS: My favorite poem always seems to be among the most recent of my poems, although Jammin’ on the 16 is one I like because of its sound and the way it feels on the tongue.  It’s an Ekphrastic poem, written to pair with a painting by Dina Karkar on The Light Ekphrastic, Nov. 2012:

Jammin’ on the 16

Fire foregrounds the hot yellow burn—
orange teases rouge, the blue rise
on red, these curves

letters shape, shift, notes lift—
a spider-weave ripple of sound riffles
ground-wave to octave

foreground to ground, form
re-form, each iteration:
music. the poem. the music.

Words stack, staccato: they wrap
rap, finger-snap, bebop, toe-tap tap tap
rebop, trombone, scatting a sax

A long hot lick—
the jazz. the jazz. fire-brick
crimson razzmatazz.

– Carol A. Stephen

 

Carol A. Stephen is a Canadian poet, poetry selector for Bywords Journal and a member of the League of Canadian Poets. She’s served on boards of Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region (CAA-NCR), Arts Carleton Place and Tree Reading Series Ottawa. Carol coordinated CAA’s poetry circle 2008-2013.

Her poetry has appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Tree Press/phaphours press chapbooks and online at The Light Ekphrastic and Silver Birch Press. Chapbooks: Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, Bondi Studios, 2011 and Architectural Variations, Quillfyre Publishing, 2012. Ink Dogs in my Shoe, Dec. 2014 from Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar B.C.

Awards: 3rd Prize CAA 2012 National Capital Writing Contest for Walking in Thomson’s Red Sumac. Honourable Mentions: VERSeFest, Poetry for the End of the World, 2012, Arborealis 2012 and 2008 Ontario Poetry Society, Double Your Pleasure 2013 Ontario Poetry Society and CAA’s 2008 and 2011 National Capital Writing Contest.

Recent publication: In December, 2014 her third chapbook, Ink Dogs in my Shoes, was published by Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar, B.C. This is a chapbook of poems all containing some element of three in them. Subjects range from garden to writing process to nonsense rhymes, and some explore conceptual poetry or experiment with wordplay.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Twitter. Facebook. Blog

Three by Five posts on days that end in threes.

Carol A. Stephen is a Canadian poet, poetry selector for Bywords Journal and a member of the League of Canadian Poets. She’s served on boards of Canadian Authors Association, National Capital Region (CAA-NCR), Arts Carleton Place and Tree Reading Series Ottawa. Carol coordinated CAA’s poetry circle 2008-2013.

Her poetry has appeared in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Tree Press/phaphours press chapbooks and online at The Light Ekphrastic and Silver Birch Press. Chapbooks: Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, Bondi Studios, 2011 and Architectural Variations, Quillfyre Publishing, 2012. Ink Dogs in my Shoe, Dec. 2014 from Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar B.C.

Awards: 3rd Prize CAA 2012 National Capital Writing Contest for Walking in Thomson’s Red Sumac. Honourable Mentions: VERSeFest, Poetry for the End of the World, 2012, Arborealis 2012 and 2008 Ontario Poetry Society, Double Your Pleasure 2013 Ontario Poetry Society and CAA’s 2008 and 2011 National Capital Writing Contest.

Recent publication: In December, 2014 her third chapbook, Ink Dogs in my Shoes, was published by Nose In Book Publishing, Castlegar, B.C. This is a chapbook of poems all containing some element of three in them. Subjects range from garden to writing process to nonsense rhymes, and some explore conceptual poetry or experiment with wordplay.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Twitter. Facebook. Blog