As part of Red Alder Review‘s Open Mic series – Q&A and poem from Dina Del Bucchia.
(Q&A)
Red Alder Review (RA): How do you normally connect to the poetry/literary community?
Dina Del Bucchia (DD): Usually I’m out at events all the time, in addition to hosting and organizing events, including a reading series. Despite that I still find time to constantly be on Twitter and Instagram talking to poets and of course I’m texting and messaging and calling my inner circle of writing friends. I also host a podcast, Can’t Lit, with Jen Sookfong Lee so we’re talking to authors and publishing industry people and also invite conversations about all of that on our Twitter. Until recently I worked with Poetry Is Dead magazine as a senior editor, which was great for meeting so many poets over the years. Along with David Ly and Cynara Geissler I recently helped organize and Instagram Live reading series, Sound On InstaReadings. Our next event is May 8th, with confirmed readers Amber Dawn, Nancy Lee, Amy LeBlanc and one more reader to be announced very soon.
RA: What is the most memorable poetry event or Open Mic you attended in-person?
(DD): This is so hard! I have been to so many great events and poets are so good at reading. Just this morning I was reminded by that old jerk, Facebook Memories, of a very good event I hosted five years ago, at Verses Festival of Words with Amber Dawn, Raoul Fernandes, Kayla Czaga and Emily Chou. They’re some of my favourite readers and poets overall, of all time and were all at one event. A dream. We also played CanLit Jeopardy and they were very game to have fun after reading their incredible work.
RA:Who are the poets who most influence you?
(DD): Listen, questions like this stress me out. I always feel the pressure when I’m asked to name the best thing or my favourite thing and worry about it. Unless it’s candy (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups) I have a hard time saying this is the most and best. It’s hard not to be a real slut about all the things and people I love and admire. I know this is a bad answer, and yet, here I am sending it out into the world. I also think every project involves different influences.
RA: Whose work are you most excited about reading in the months to come?
(DD): I feel like I’m very greedy and always gobble up new poetry books as soon as they come out. But I’ve left a few new things for myself this year, including John Elizabeth Stinzi’s Junebat and Lauren Turner’s The Only Card in a Deck of Knives. And in the fall I can’t wait for collections by jaye simpson, Jen Sookfong Lee and Sachiko Murakami.
RA: How has the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic affected your writing practice?
(DD): It honestly has made it better. I know, I sound like a real asshole. Without commuting and working outside home as well as hosting events and going out to record the podcast I have to fill my time and I’m too scared to watch all the TV I want to watch because I know they’re not making new TV right now. So scary. But as a social person who often isn’t home because I’m at events or out with friends I am just home and near my computer more often. Being alone sucks balls.
I’ve had to create some structure to work from home and ensure my mind just doesn’t wander to the darkest parts of my brain too often (I’m very bad at casual contemplation, don’t know how to meditate and am just chaos in my mind if left alone, which hahahaha) so I’ve been writing a poem every day. The new poem here is from that writing practice and is part of a long poem I’m working on. Projects always help me when I feel rough and, again, I know it’s a gross answer. I’m a gross person. It’s okay to hate me.
RA: What are you working on right now?
(DD): I’m working on a long poem about television, my viewing habits, my mental health, and just overall how much TV means to me and has probably made my life better. So yeah, TV, it’s great! It’s the first time I’ve explicitly written about myself in this way without personas or just completely making stuff up or commenting on the world in a less biographical way. It’s weird. It’s uncomfortable. I don’t know how people do this all the time. LOL. I’m also working on a collection of short stories, but finding it hard to write prose right now.
RA: Do you have any new work forthcoming (in journals, chapbooks, collections, anthologies, etc.)?
(DD): I sure don’t. Subscribe to the podcast. Honestly, I probably will start another podcast.
From Binge: A Long Poem
At the height of feeling my feelings,
becoming the person I was going to be,
it really was TV recaps that pushed me
in the direction I needed to go, held
me as I navigated the last years of my 20s.
Review: confusing love, deceit, being
overdressed, mystery wrapped in gossip,
never wrapped in a wrap dress, dressing
froth as depth. Every week, start over.
I ignored the hard parts of life, dove deep
into Vulture every morning. An early riser,
NYC recappers were still always there for me
ahead of my tea and cookies. I had to watch
TV just to keep up with the recaps, to find
meaning in the meaning behind the meaning.
It was the most important writing of our time.
And as I finished my MFA I realized I would never
write anything as significant, with the readership,
of a 2008 Gossip Girl recap on a Tuesday morning.
I know I’d never deserve that level of recognition anyway.
Dina Del Bucchia is a writer, podcaster, literary event host, editor and otter and dress enthusiast living in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territory. She is the author of the short story collection, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, and four collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters, Blind Items, Rom Com, written with Daniel Zomparelli, and the newly released, It’s a Big Deal! She was a senior editor of Poetry Is Dead magazine, the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series and hosts the podcast, Can’t Lit, with Jen Sookfong Lee. She is a co-host and co-organizer of Sound On InstaReadings, an Instagram reading series. Find out more about her at dinadelbucchia.com
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