Photo by Laurence Philomene
Interview by Cara Nelissen
The Growing Room Festival is taking place from March 8-17, 2019. In this Q&A series we chat with some of the writers being featured at the festival about their work and the importance of community. Below is an interview with Arielle Twist, author of the upcoming poetry book Disintegrate/Disassociate, where she talks about the writing process, creating in community, and being excited for the future. Have a look at all the events and get your tickets here!
Your debut poetry book Disintegrate/Disassociate is coming out with Arsenal Pulp Press in March! How do you feel about the prospect of your book being out in the world for readers to engage with? Do you find that your relationship to your writing changes after it has gone off into the world?
I feel nervous, of course. I think everyone feels uneasy when having their first major collection of work out in the world! When I think of the engagement with readers, I just remind myself that I wrote this collection in my first year and a half of perusing this craft. I should be proud that in this year and a half I created something worth sharing, and that is a feat no matter how long it takes.
I do think that my relationship to my writing has changed in recent months, as the launch approaches. I find I’m kinder to myself. I know it isn’t and will never be perfect and I’m trying to not destroy myself through comparison and competition. There is room for us all.
How important is it for writers and readers to have a physical place to gather and connect? In what ways has being in community with other writers been important to you? In what ways has it been challenging?
I think festivals and other gatherings are vital to all of our careers. Not only through networking, but so we remind ourselves we have a community or can cultivate one. Being in community with other writers is, I think, the reason why my career has had such a swift trajectory. I made friends and family who have supported me throughout the past two years, and those relationships are the most important to me. The ways it has been challenging is that this world is gluttonous—it pits us against one another and feeds us a sense of scarcity—but we are constantly proving we won’t give into that bullshit.
Who is your “ideal reader”? Who do you speak to in your work?
My “ideal reader” is some messy, sad, trans/ndn girl who forgets she isn’t alone. I write for her, wherever or whenever she is.
How do you feel about the stereotype of the writer as a solitary figure? In what ways have you found this to be true/untrue in your own writing life? How much (internal or external) silence do you need in order to write?
I don’t always create in solitary, I love collaboration, mentorship and community. I send my work to my kin—we cry, laugh and rage together through the process. I write when I feel the urge to. I need to be a real adult and cultivate a practice, but right now it’s pure spontaneity and that’s when my favourite work is born!
Are you able to generate new material while also promoting a book or do you feel like you have to separate these parts of the process?
I am able to create, but I’m taking my time to process if this is what I want/need forever. I’m working on essays, poems and a novel as well as navigating a new world of visual art and what that art practice will shape up to be. I need to take some time for each love.
What’s the ideal writing snack?
Cigarettes, haha.
What is something that makes you excited or gives you hope right now?
Art! I want to make beautiful things, I want to be surrounded by beautiful people. I am lucky to have the chance to do both right now and watch my kin do the same alongside me. The future, for the first time, is giving me hope.
What are you most looking forward to at Growing Room? Any events you’re definitely checking out?
I am looking forward to Indigenous Brilliance. I want to be in a room full of neechies and just fucking belly laugh and sob. I want to tell stories with these people.
Arielle Twist is an author and community educator from George Gordons First Nation, Saskatchewan. Disintegrate/Dissociate is her first collection of poetry with Arsenal Pulp Press.