The Kingston WritersFest is finally here! Kicking off last night and continuing through Sunday evening, WritersFest will be bringing authors and book lovers together in Kingston. All week long, Open Book will be sharing interviews with festival authors, who will tell us a bit about writing, reading and the one luxury they allow themselves while on tour with a book.
In today's Kingston WritersFest Interview, we speak with Jeramy Dodds, an award-winning poet whose newest collection, The Poetic Edda (Coach House Books), is a contemporary translation of Medieval Icelandic poems. The collection contains all the elements one would expect to find in centuries-old Norse tales, from Valkyries to tragic love, to Vikings and giant wolves.
Jeramy will be teaching a Writers Studio class, Oration: How To Perform Your Poems in Public, on the morning of Sunday, September 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. where he will coach writers on how to give dynamic readings of their work. Later on Sunday, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., he will join fellow poet Wayne Clifford for Heroic Poetry (The Heroic Redefined), where they will be reading from their work and discussing the poetic legacy of ancient mythology, moderated by poet Brad Cran.
For more details, please visit the Events page. You can purchase your tickets here.
Open Book:
Tell us about what you’ll be reading at this year’s festival.
Jeramy Dodds:
I’ll be reading from a new translation I’ve done called, The Poetic Edda, as well as some new original poems at the Saturday Night SpeakEasy. The Poetic Edda is a medieval, Old Icelandic text that I have squeezed into English. It is packed with a ton of Viking lore and heroic action. It will be my first public reading from this text since its completion, I am looking forward to it.
OB:
How do you manage the shift between being a solitary writer and a public reader?
JD:
I find the shift to be quite natural. Readings seem like such an extension of the writing process that I cannot imagine one without the other.
OB:
What is one luxury you allow yourself when you go "on tour" with a book?
JD:
Macaroons. Tubs of them.
OB:
What book will you have with you in your bag while you're attending the Kingston WritersFest?
JD:
I’m plowing through The Rest is Noise, by Alex Ross, at the moment. It will be on hand. I’m also reading Wayne Clifford and bpNichol’s collaboration, Theseus. I will be reading with Clifford at the festival.
OB:
What are you most looking forward to about this year's festival?
JD:
I’m looking forward to catching as many of the other author readings as possible, but I am quite intrigued by the Stitch and Stanza display (at the Kingston Holiday Inn) that the KWF has set up. Eleven poets have been paired with eleven Kingston fibre artists in an ekphrastic exercise. Each poet has written a piece inspired by their fibre artist counterpart.
Jeramy Dodds grew up in Orono, Ontario, Canada. He is the winner of the 2006 Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award and the 2007 CBC Literary Award for poetry. His first collection of poems, Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House Books, 2008), was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the Trillium Book Award for poetry. His most recent book is an English translation of the Old Icelandic, The Poetic Edda.
For more information about The Poetic Edda please visit the Coach House Books website.
Buy this book at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
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