Paul Vermeersch, 36, is an author and poet from Toronto, Ontario. Vermeersch teaches at Sheridan College in Oakville and has been the poetry editor for the Insomniac Press in Toronto since 2002. He agreed to sit with me down over email.
Jon Chapman: When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Paul Vermeersch: When I was a kid, I always sought out creative activities. I loved to write, but I also loved to draw. I had a subscription to National Geographic, and I liked to imagine that one day I would write stories about wildlife for them. But I also wanted to be a painter. I couldn't choose between painting and writing. In university I studied visual art and English, and when I gradulated I moved to Poland to teach at a college there. I thought I would paint a lot in Poland, but I didn't. I wrote a lot of poems, though, and when I came back to Canada a year later, I had most of my first book written. That's when I knew which path I needed to follow. I decided to devote myself to my writing, and I haven't looked back.
JC: What do you like best about being an author now?
PV: I don't really think of being an author much to be honest. Being an author (someone who has written a book) is a side effect of being of being a writer (whose business is writing). Mostly I'm concerned with the new writing in front of me. Once it's in a book, it's up to the reader to make something out of it. That said, I enjoy the process of promoting a book, for the most part, which is more of an "author" thing to do than a "writer" thing to do. I'm glad that I get the the opportunity to travel to other cities for readings and festivals, and I love reading poems to an audience, espcially when there are people who have never heard or read my poems before. I think this is more important for poets than it generally is for other kinds of writers. Oral recitation is often an integral part of the art form.
JC: Does it ever worry you that the reader is in control after the piece is published?
PV: No. It would be like a chef worrying that someone might eat his food. A poem isn't complete until someone has read it.
JC: What was your best poetry reading like?
PV: I love to do readings, and I've done many that seem to special to me for various reasons. It would be difficult for me to choose a favourite from that perspective. As for which has been my best performance to date, that would be impossible for me to say. In 2007, I read in the Berlin Poetry Festival, and that was certainly a highlight for me. I felt connected to an international community of poets engaged in a global dialogue. It stands out for me not because of my own involvement, but because of the wonderful writers who shared the stage. If I had to choose one, I would probably choose that.
JC: Why do you like to do readings so much?
PV: Poetry began as an oral art form, and I think that is still an important part of what poetry is today. For the most part, I want my poems to work as well on the page as they do on the stage. Poetry is very intimate. Reading a book is intimate, but hearing a poem read aloud by the poet is a different kind of intimacy. It completes the experience.
JC: I like that... As good on the page as on the stage… Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Vermeersch.
If you want to hear more from Paul Vermeersch – make sure you check out his blog: http://www.paulvermeersch.ca/
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