EVENT is proud to welcome Raoul Fernandes as its new Poetry Editor. Raoul is taking over from Joanne Arnott, who has been EVENT’s poetry editor since 2015.

EVENT spoke with both Raoul and Joanne about this change. Read their thoughts below.

Raoul Fernandes lives with his wife and two sons on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, BC). His first collection of poems, Transmitter and Receiver (Nightwood Editions, 2015) won the Dorothy Livesay Award and the Debut-litzer Award for Poetry in 2016 and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.  He has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including the Best of the Best Canadian Poetry 2017.

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What are you looking forward to in this role?

Raoul Fernandes: EVENT has a special place in my heart as it was the first real literary journal I had a poem in, many, many, years ago. It was a real honour then, and it’s an honour now to be on the other side of that. In terms of the role, I’m looking forward to reading the wide range of styles and voices from writers and thinking about how to have the poems talk with each other within the pages of each issue.

What kind of work are you looking for?

RF: I’m always excited when I can feel the movements of a particular mind at work within a poem, seeing the choices that only that poet would make. For me, it’s always what a poem is doing more than what a poem is about. In that sense, I like being surprised; I like arresting images; I like poems where I can see strength and vulnerability.

Do you have any notes on being a poet or writing poems that you could impart on our submitters?

RF: It’s quite a strange activity, making these odd little arrangements of words. I sometimes feel it’s like trying to shape a cloud with your bare hands or putting together a puzzle out of mixed up puzzle-sets. But I’ve long abandoned the idea that it needs to be perfect or even fully make sense. I mostly want it to cast a spell, and somehow the writer should feel under that spell, too, in the process of writing and revising. If you feel a bit of that, you might have something good going.

Joanne Arnott is a Métis/mixed-blood writer and arts activist, originally from Manitoba, at home on the West Coast. She received the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award (Literary Arts) in 2017. Her first book, Wiles of Girlhood, won the Gerald Lampert Award (LCP, 1992). As author she has published eight books, most recently A Night for the Lady (Ronsdale, 2013) and Halfling Spring (Kegedonce, 2013). As editor or co-editor, she has assisted a further seven books to reach fruition.

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When did you start with EVENT? What did the magazine look like then?

Joanne Arnott: I was introduced as the new poetry editor in the April 2015 newsletter; my first issue was EVENT 44-1. 

The main changes to my work from those early days has been the shift from stacks and bundles of printed matter to receive, evaluate, and return, and the streamlined electronic processes of Submittable.

Shashi Bhat was newly in place as editor. The main change I have seen in the look of the magazine is the incorporation of illustrations, each issue showcasing a new visual artist and highlighting a selection of poetry by a variety of writers.

From inception, EVENT has identified itself as a space for Canadian writers and writings. Through the course of my time as poetry editor, while supporting this focus, I began inviting and including a selection of international writers to leaven the Canadian literary mix.

What knowledge/lessons will you take away from this role?

JA: Each new crop of submissions is like a cross-section of what the writers are thinking about right now, similar to a gathering of books or applications for awards. This opportunity to peek into our collective mind, to gather impressions of not just what the writers are thinking and feeling but the myriad ways they use to express these concerns, is very valuable to me as a writer. 

I carry away with me a heightened appreciation for the variety of poetic approaches and concerns, and the ongoing need to make space for all of these voices, all of these stories, unfolding in the present time.

Any words of wisdom for the incoming generations of Canadian poets?

JA: My first creative writing instructor, back in 1978, was Phil Hall. He impressed upon me this: Canlit needs you. I think this is the basic permission every writer needs to follow their inner creative impulses and to go the extra strides to sharing that work in public venue. 

Maria Campbell also spoke very wisely about not leaving your work in a drawer but bringing it out to where it can be received and embraced by others.

As creative writers we are cultural workers, and whether or not the people around us understand or appreciate the work that we do, we provide essential service to the whole of humanity. Each of us with our small struggles to say more perfectly what we feel needs to be said, our small puzzles to make sense of reality, contribute to a larger good that informs and sometimes succours the collective.