Biographie
Paul Vermeersch is a poet, multimedia artist, creative writing professor, and literary editor. He is the author of several poetry collections, including the Trillium–award nominated The Reinvention of the Human Hand and, most recently, Shared Universe: New and Selected Poems 1995-2020. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph for which he received the Governor General's Gold Medal. He teaches in the Creative Writing & Publishing program at Sheridan College and is the founding editor of Buckrider Books, an imprint of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd. He lives in Toronto.
Entrevue
"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. I sat on the library floor reading it over and over until I memorized it.
I started writing poetry when I was 12, but I didn't think of myself as a poet until I was in university. It was there where I met other aspiring writers who challenged and encouraged me enough to take my own work seriously. I decided to make myself an expert, and I dedicated myself to studying the craft of poetry both inside and outside the classroom.
It's a lot of things. Writing poems is only a part of it, and I believe it's different for every poet, but for me being a student, teacher and editor is part of the job. I want to engage with my communities to make space and opportunities for other people's work, to create dialogue and remove barriers, to make things possible.
Oh, let it be “The Fish” by Marianne Moore. What otherworldly magic! How wonderful it would be to have such images in me.
