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| rob in New Orleans, photo by Stephen Brockwell |
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob
mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of more than twenty trade books
of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry
collections Songs for little sleep, (Obvious Epiphanies, 2012), grief
notes: (BlazeVOX [books], 2012), A (short) history of l.
(BuschekBooks, 2011), Glengarry (Talonbooks, 2011) and kate street
(Moira, 2011), and a second novel, missing persons (2009). An editor and
publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer
Mulligan), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview), seventeen
seconds: a journal of poetry and poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds)
and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He
spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the
University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and
other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com. rob is also the author of
how it is I am not married / I want to sleep in the runcible spoon (2010).
To help us celebrate his birthday I asked Rob to do Seven of the Proust Questionnaire.
Here it is:
1.What
is your idea of happiness?
Happiness
is the freedom to do those things I think I would like to and/or need to do.
Basically, how I’m living now, I suppose (although less financial stress sure
would be nice). Spending time with friends, and my daughter, occasionally.
Writing full-time with my lovely. We make books, and make books happen.
2.What
is your favourite virtue?
Honesty
and/or loyalty.
3.What
is your biggest weakness?
I
sometimes feel battered around by the day-to-dayness of self-employed literary
work more than I would like to. I require a thicker skin, perhaps.
4.Who
are your favourite poets?
Hard to say, that. There are dozens of writers I attempt to follow
regularly. Early on, writers such as Richard Brautigan, George Bowering, John
Newlove, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and bpNichol were very important to
me.
Lists are difficult, because there is always ten times the volume of
such I know I’m leaving out. Perhaps I could focus what is scattered across my
desk currently? These days, I’m excited by recent work by Paige Ackerson-Kiely,
Barry McKinnon, Pattie McCarthy, David McGimpsey, Rae Armantrout, Barbara Langhorst,
Deborah Poe, Monty Reid, Sarah Mangold and Heather Christle.
Just today, I received Jenna Butler’s second poetry collection. I’d been
looking forward to that for a while. And Marcus McCann has something new this
spring, which is exciting.
Sure would be nice to see a new book out by
Sylvia Legris. Or, a first trade collection by, say, Amanda Earl or Trisia
Eddy.
5.Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?
Hah. Again, difficult to say. I do not like James II of England. I blame
him for much, including the massacre at Glencoe and a battle in Ireland. Damn
fool, him.
I’m fascinated by historical British Royals, for
some reason. Queen Victoria intrigues. I’ve read many a book on Royals over the
years. This is most likely something I picked up
from my mother.
Simon Fraser was pretty interesting. David
Thompson. The history of the exploration and mapping of the Canadian West is
fascinating. Oh, and Sir Isaac Brock. He quickly took two American forts before
their leaders knew the War of 1812 had even begun. Take that, invaders.
6.
What do you most dislike?
Anyone too caught up in themselves.
Government hypocrisy, including the current federal leadership, who
originally ran (very holier-than-thou) on a promise of honesty and
transparency. Self-destructiveness re: environmental policies and reproductive
issues. Every human being deserves a base level of respect, no matter who they
are or what they believe.
At the same time, I would think this should be something book reviewers
should also be aware of. Every book and their author deserves the same, a base
level of respect. No matter what the reviewer might think of such.
I also dislike when the mailman changes his
schedule. Throws off my whole day.
7.
What is your motto?
Not sure I have one. But I do try to push myself pretty regularly to see
what I didn’t know I could do. Life without a certain amount of risk, both as
writer/creator and simply a person, doesn’t seem to have much point.
For a few years, I’ve been borrowing jwcurry’s
“motto” (for lack of better terminology) about what his biggest goal as a
writer/person/etc. is, and that is, to “remain interested.”
