Today’s installment of The Optimisms Project is brought to you by the word tenaciousness. That’s the word that comes to mind for poet Jenna Butler when she considers the Project’s defining question: What makes you feel optimistic about the future of poetry in Canada?
For project curator Jacob McArthur Mooney’s introduction to The Optimisms Project please go here.
What makes you feel optimistic about the future of poetry in Canada?
In a word: tenaciousness. Arts cuts plague the news, and yet vibrant new little presses continue to spring up, putting out some intriguing work. This refusal to be ploughed under is reaffirming in the extreme.
The presence of so many gutsy and talented younger poets in the Canadian poetry scene. Bachinsky. Betts. Carr. Rawlings. Murakami. Many others. The list is long and this is work that is tight, affective, engaging.
A continued appreciation and awareness of mentors—all they have offered, all they continue to offer. In the past two months alone, I’ve seen a hall packed to standing room only for the launch of Robert Kroetsch’s newest, many in the audience rapt young poets. The other day, online, a gift-feature on the Jacket site for Douglas Barbour’s 70th birthday.
This balance makes me optimistic; this deep awareness of those who anchor us and the creative space extended to us.
Jenna Butler is a poet, editor, and teacher who makes her home in Edmonton, Alberta. Her first collection, Aphelion, appeared this spring with NeWest Press.
