news | Wednesday April 15, 2015

Interview with Cecily Nicholson in Room Magazine

Room Magazine has published an interview with Cecily Nicholson, author of Triage (2011) and From The Poplars (2014). In it, Nicholson reflects on her perspectives, poetics, and the purpose of her writing. Read the full interview online (and enjoy the below teaser).

ROOM: … how would you describe your place within current poetic movements? Basically, what are you trying to do with your work?

CECILY: One of the central imperatives in From The Poplars, which is deliberately understated, is the idea of sensitizing. I see a crisis in people’s capacity to feel. So many of us are completely turned off to what’s happening around us. Those of us who are turned on at worst are killing themselves, grinding themselves to the bone to create change. People need to step up, and they need to feel the reasons. I hold to the possibility of liberation for folks in my historic and diasporic communities, for my local and Indigenous networks, and for myself. I experience this as something joyful.