Rob Thomas is the
author of metropoless, a poem which celebrates Ottawa by negating the
taglines or slogans of more famous cities. Versions of the poem appeared in Yow!
A Zine about Ottawa and carte blanche. His creative work has visited
cool places like Grain, SubTerrain, and Broken Pencil but feels
most at home in Ottawa. He won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2013.
Q: How long have you been in Ottawa, and what first brought
you here?
I usually tell people I am ‘mostly’ from Ottawa. I was born
in the Ottawa Valley and lived in Nepean from roughly 1987 to 1999, the largest
chunk of my childhood spent in any one place. I lived in Toronto for a few
years after that, but returned when my partner took a job with the federal
government. My earlier childhood was spent in places like Syria, Alberta,
Germany, Quebec and Pakistan so I probably developed a stronger sense than most
that the seemingly ordinary things happening around me might be unique. I
probably also developed a stronger desire than most to feel rooted, mostly, in
one place.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and
subsequently, the writing community here?
Growing up in Nepean, most of what I knew about the Ottawa
writing community came from the pages of Bywords
(at that time a monthly pamphlet of poems with an events calendar). I also
spent some time digging around in second-hand stores and discovered books by
poets like John Newlove, Robert Hogg and Michael Dennis. It was comforting to
think that poetry was happening nearby.
In terms of getting started, I had some wonderful high
school teachers, and an editor at the Ottawa
Citizen, who encouraged me to write and publish my work. I spent a long
time on the periphery of the writing community. I didn’t become “involved” with
the Ottawa writing community until I won the John Newlove Poetry Award in 2013.
That’s when I started being invited to give readings. The people I met made me
feel like I had been part of the community for years. I discovered that reading
poetry to strangers is a great cure for shyness.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your
thinking about writing, if at all?
An undergraduate prof once told me that poets depend on a
writing community, in a way that novelists and other writers don’t. That’s been
my experience but it could be confirmation bias. I would write regardless of
whether there was a community of writers who might be interested in my work,
but I certainly take my writing more seriously when I can imagine other writers
who might be interested in what I am trying to do.
Q: What do you see happening here that you don’t see
anywhere else? What does Ottawa provide, or allow?
Honestly, I don’t know enough about the Ottawa writing
community (or communities) to comment in a meaningful way. I think
long-standing, city-focused venues like bywords.ca
(where I have published work in the past and am currently a selection committee
volunteer, full disclosure) and ottawater (where I have published work) are
fairly unique. I have the impression that Ottawa punches above its weight
(despite resource, size and venue limitations) thanks to some tireless champions.
I also have the idea that poets with different approaches are playing nicely
together.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your
engagements here? How have the city and its community, if at all, changed the
way you approached your work?
At the moment, I am working on a chapbook length manuscript
that tries to translate the narrative arc of poems into transit route maps.
It’s supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek homage to Ottawa, although people may not
read them that way. Truth, it is probably just too much damn fun. Place is
always a big part of my work, although I rarely fully conscious of this while
writing.
Q: What are you working on now?
See question five.
