Interview with Buzdokuz (Ankara, Turkey), April 2024

What is the level of public interest in contemporary poetry in Canada?

From studies & surveys (both Canadian & American) I've seen over the years it's reasonably high. The real question, though, is "who"--other than fellow poets--is actually reading poetry? There are hundreds of poets in this country. But of course as an individual poet, my specific knowledge on this can only be pretty anecdotal, although I do see surveys published on social media every year or two. There are, however, plenty of arts group staff who produce & analyse such studies. The people here who could answer such questions would be the large arts' organizations with full-time administrative staff, like "The League of Canadian Poets" (to which I belong as an individual poet member) or "The Writers Union of Canada" (to which I don't belong), the Writers Union of BC, etc. The common cliche, though, while readership seems pretty healthy, is that it's perhaps largely a case of 'poets reading other poets'.

What is the level of poetry criticism in Canada? Do you think the academy pays enough attention to contemporary poetry?

I retired from college teaching close to 15 years ago (2010), & while I'm a very active poet (I've had 16 books published in that time), & keep up with scores of writers, I only pay attention to academic criticism in my personal field of interest--i.e., books & articles on avant-garde Canadian & American poetry & poetics. I can say there are some, not many, very good, young Canadian academics currently writing in this area--I just last week finished reading Eric Schmaltz's newly published book, Borderblur Poetics: Intermedia and Avant-Gardism in Canada, 1963-1988. To specifically answer your question, I'd say in my lifetime the academy has never paid enough attention to contemporary poetry, & I very much get the impression that that's not changed in the last few years.  

Is contemporary poetry taught at the middle and high school level in Canada?

The only anecdotal answer I could possibly have, never having taught in schools myself, would be from what my own college students have told me over the years: next to none, & even that little bit very badly, boringly, taught! "Poetry," during my lifetime, first as a grad student & then teaching for 32 years, has, by post-secondary teaching standards always been considered "the worst taught subject in schools." (At least that's the most common cliche I've heard all that time.) And on that note certainly I can tell you the funniest, most acerbic poem on that topic is George Bowering's "Poem for High School Anthologies." I loved teaching that poem, & my students always seemed to get a special kick out of it. They saw it as their revenge against their high-school English teachers, which of course is precisely why I thought it important for them to read that poem, to get beyond such dull, pedantic, rule-bound teaching that made them "hate" poetry--hopefully only until our classes together!

How many copies of contemporary poetry books and poetry magazines are printed in Canada? (average number of copies)

You could, I'm sure, get a very specific number for books (& possibly for magazines) from the professional organisations, staffed by data-keeping arts administrators I mention above that have staffs whose job it is to generate this kind of information. Personally speaking, I can say that of the many hundreds of poetry publishers bookmarked in my own computer at this moment 61 of these poetry presses are Canadian, & ranging in size of course--the vast majority of presses in my list are American, & a handful are British. Of those Canadian presses I would say that I regularly see or am aware of (because I'm always on tons of presses' & magazines' mailing lists, so I do see a fair bit of what's going on)...I'm aware of about 20-30 active Canadian poetry presses that put out poetry books annually. Most small press publishers of poetry seem, on average, to publish runs of 200-500 copies, & each press typically produces between 8 & 15 books of poetry per year. Some as low as one or two poetry books, & some as high as 40. Publishing in an under-populated country like Canada--same total population as California's--requires presses & magazines to be very heavily financially supported by gov't grants--civic, provincial, & national gov'ts, the main one being the "Canada Council for the Arts." Here's one useful map showing contemporary Canadian publishers across the country: Small Press Explorer - TIFA (festivalofauthors.ca) As for magazines, I'd say these numbers & ratios are similar to those of the presses, & could be divided into two camps: the decades' old literary (stodgy, mainstream) journals on the one hand, & the newer, not always sustained, magazines that crop up every year or two edited by people in their 20s & 30s. Likewise, there's a very healthy number of chapbook poetry presses in Canada, but, again, these seem to exist in a constantly changing landscape edited by younger folk with most chapbook presses not necessarily lasting more than a few years each.

Which contemporary poetry magazines and zines do you read?

As a young poet I used to subscribe to several magazines, mostly Canadian & American avant-garde ones. Over the last several decades I only keep up with a few online journals. There are just far too many new books I want to read, plus my college pension is only about one/third of my former salary, so I can't afford such luxuries as journal subscriptions! I find most contemporary poetry very mainstream, anyway--dull, boring, repetitive, derivative, & pushing no envelopes at all, unfortunately. It seems to me that highly predictable narrative &/or faux-confessional poetry prevails, & that's all been done to death already, for generations. In my country, & because all publishing (books & journals) is of financial necessity gov't grant based, old white guys like me are utterly shunned by the majority of contemporary 'politically correct' outlets (as a lifelong "justice activist" myself I can indeed even see some rationale for this "course correction," although I believe this kind of one-dimensionalism is ultimately self-destructive, anti-democratic &, finally, poetry-killing in & of itself). Nowadays, in Canada especially, being more PC than most cultures, it's only the native, gay, & trans writers who are highlighted (& financially supported), followed by women of colour ("POC voices" is the bureaucratic terminology in heavy use nowadays), then young women, then older women. (I'd say fewer than 5% of published &/or award-winning poets are straight males.) Most publishing, prizes, awards, etc., follow these formulae: 80-90% LGBTQS1, or women. This is simply the present reality. As dictated by gov't grant money. So presses & journals fall in line. I publish mostly in the U.S., unlike the vast majority of my Canadian peers, who often simply remain shut-out altogether or scrambling for the one or two non-grant dependent Canadian presses that will publish them.

Is there a dominant poetry movement established in contemporary magazines and zines, and how would you generally summarize the contemporary poetry being written in Canada?

I think I've answered that above--possibly too repetitively! Either a millennial poet or a Gen Z poet would have a finger much more on that pulse. Although I do read some younger Canadian, American & British poets--that is, the ones I find pretty amazing & still pushing the boundaries, or willing to be "experimental" or "innovative" (these two more self-evident, generic terms seem to be rapidly replacing the more than century-long term "avant-garde"--although I do read younger poets, obviously I mostly continue to read the poets of my generation whose careers I've been following for decades. Of course, probably half or more of the poets I personally know of my generation, whom I'd always read, have themselves either stopped writing altogether or stopped sending work to publishers because our generation (especially of males) have become completely & utterly marginalised. Ok, it is what it is. I continue to get published simply because I'm very stubborn, I look to American venues, & don't mind wall-papering my apartment with rejection letters before I find a home for each book as I finish writing it.

How has the bilingual nature of Canada (English and French) influenced Canadian poetry?

Again, you'd need a data-familiar arts' bureaucrat to answer this kind of question. Anecdotally, I'd say that only an infinitesimal minority of Anglo-Canadian poets (1 or 2% tops?) have any awareness whatsoever of Quebec francophone poetry--it's largely unpublished in English. I perhaps know a little more than most Anglos simply because a very close friend of mine is a west coast literary publisher & in fact the only English language publisher in the country who maintains an imprint of French-Canadian writers--both poets & novelists. (I myself have copy-edited many of their books.) But this question does remind me of an amusing story from not too long ago when I was jogging in a summer heatwave along the Rhode Island Atlantic coastline; I came to a beach, decided I'd go for a swim & asked the college-age lifeguard on duty (the generation I've always been used to teaching & hanging out with) about the likely water temperature; we got talking for a few minutes; he asked me where I was from; I answered "the Canadian Pacific coast": he earnestly responded "no you're not Canadian!"; I asked him why he so adamantly thought that, & he answered "you're not speaking French!"; I told him the nearest French-speaking Canadians (who only make up around 15% of the country to begin with) live about 4,000 miles away from my west coast home. People outside Canada have absolutely no idea about the vastness of this country. It's larger than Russia & the U.S. So, no, French-Canadian writing has, rightly or wrongly, about zero recognition outside Quebec & a couple of other small, historical francophone pockets. French-Canada is a very small, insular minority, culturally isolated from the Canadian mainstream. And I say that with my own Canadian family originating, a couple of generations ago, in the fabulous city of Montreal. The U.S. northern border is within 10-100 miles from most Canadians. Hence we tend to think along a north/south axis (the "nylon border," some call it) rather than east/west, which is a stronger divide.