news | Friday December 6, 2013

Interview: Mariner Janes on The Monument Cycles

Vancouver poet Rob Taylor has conducted a thoughtful and interview with Talon poet Mariner Janes, whose first book, The Monument Cycles, launched in the spring of 2013. The interview, like the book (and like Mariner, perhaps), is conscientious and accessible. Here is some background provided by Taylor:

I first met Mariner when we were both undergrads at Simon Fraser University. … [Mariner’s] poetry back then was already fully formed – intelligent, politically sharpened, often quite funny. This guy was a pro. I figured that at any moment his first book would appear.

So I waited. And waited. A decade later I was still waiting. Mariner wasn’t, however. He was busy with other things – building a life, a family, and a career. …

Then, early in 2013 I heard the news that Talonbooks was putting out Mariner’s first book … The book arrived and I was thrilled with what I found. The Monument Cycles is a deep consideration of place, grounded in Vancouver’s monuments and the sights and stories of the city’s Downtown Eastside. Its poems are sometimes difficult, sometimes playful (with form, with language), and always thoughtful and rewarding. …

So here is my interview with Mariner, in which we talk about monuments, bombs, writing on the DTES, and the positives and negatives of slow-cooking your book. Both interview and book were very much worth the wait.

We suggest you go read the interview on Rob Taylor’s blog.

The Monument Cycles is available for $16.95.