I'm particularly interested in the following themes: nature and the anthropocene, addiction and family dynamics (my late brother's story), technology and contemporary war, and the nature of love. I usually make videopoems that I term authorial movies; these are movies in which one person creates -- authors -- all elements of the movie.
Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away?
Was born here, along with my brother Richard. (My mom was from New Brunswick and my dad from Norway (by way of New Brunswick)). Left Ottawa for university. Then settled in Toronto. Then moved to Korea.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
My mom’s a writer, so we (Richard and I) grew up with it. I published a piece in Ottawa Revue before moving, and started to publish both illustrations and short stories and articles after moving to Toronto. Throughout my twenties my primary interest was visual art. Was already writing at this time. But didn’t get serious about writing until sometime in my thirties. From a career point of view, I regret that, although I get a lot of personal pleasure from working in a variety of art forms. (I started making videos around ten years ago.)
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since?
I’ve lived in Asia for over twenty years. So, apart from friendships in Canada that I already have, I feel rather disconnected from art communities in Canada. A lot of my art connections are via online connections.
Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow?
Ottawa is, to my mind, a misunderstood city. Ottawans still make the same self deprecating jokes about its boringness as when I was a kid. It’s also seen as a wealthy city because of the government as its major employer.
In terms of social class, there are big social divisions in Ottawa and there’s quite a bit of stark poverty alongside the prosperity of the city. That’s interesting and powerful material for writers to work with.
In terms of cultural change: the city used to be predominantly WASP and anglophone. Thankfully, these days that’s decreased and it’s more openly francophone, and there is noticeably more diversity — both these factors are healthy for its arts scenes.
Finally, there’s a lot of creativity in the city without the competitiveness one finds in Toronto (my impression anyway — correct me if I’m wrong). I think that’s also healthy.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
I still think about Ottawa quite a bit. S. and I visit regularly to see my mom and friends. But in a creative level , the city affects my writing as a locus of memory. In terms of artistic communities in Ottawa, as I said, I’m disconnected from that. But I don’t want to be. So if people want to reach out and share work, I’m certainly interested.
Q: What are you working on now?
Some novel manuscripts I thought were finished but I’m now reworking, along with new poems and moviepoems. Also, experimental videos and visual art (that I sometimes connect to my writing).
