On May 19th, I will be performing another poetry reading in my home town, and a local journalist named Grahame Woods asked me a few questions for an article he was writing about it, so I thought I’d post them here.
I wondered if you could send me a brief bio and, perhaps, an indication of what the audience can look forward to.
(I stupidly answered this one in the 3rd person for some reason)
My bio:
Megan Swaine grew up in Baltimore, Ontario and holds an honours BA in Creative Writing from York University. She has written blogs, video game content, trivia, two non-fiction books, and the occasional poem. She was an early member of the Cobourg Poetry Group. She is Treasurer on the board of the Rowers Reading Series in Toronto, and currently resides there with her husband, Brian.
My introduction to poetry:
Like any shy child, I hid away in books when I was growing up, and came to relate a great deal to the raw, emotional honesty of poetry. I think my inspiration for becoming a poet (and for reading other peoples’ work, especially) was the need to connect to, and explore those emotions that polite conversation doesn’t quite allow us to explore.
And that really is, I guess, what the audience can look forward to hearing from me- some emotionally honest poetry. Which they may, or may not, relate to.
Will you be reading any new work on the 19th?
I will certainly be bringing some new material on the 19th. Not just poetry that I’ve written recently, but also maybe things written earlier that I’ve discovered how to finish, or have a new-found confidence for. (I sometimes jokingly say that some poems age well, like wine. Sometimes they make more sense 5 years after they were written)
Do you have any thoughts regarding the state of poetry in Northumberland County?
As for the state of poetry in Northumberland County, I must preface this by saying I don’t spend as much time there as I used to (so take this with a grain of salt). But there are even more opportunities than when I was a teenager, which I think is great. I think there’s a lot of talented people in Cobourg, and also that the prevalence of poetry events and organizations can allow people who are new to poetry to discover it as an outlet.
Megswaine.com 