Editor, poet, critic, (insert literary role here) rob mclennan is in Edmonton, as a writer in residence for University of Alberta. He is also releasing three books this fall, from three seperate independent publishers. These titles, plus the already released poetry collection The Ottawa City Project, published this past summer by Chaudiere Books (Ottawa) makes four. It’s not the first time mclennan has had multiple trade releases. “Not the first time, no. I had three poetry collections come out in 1999, for example, but this year, I've got one poetry book, one novel, one book of essays and one travel book.”
Let’s break things down book for book. The poetry collection as mentioned, came out earlier this year, the novel is called White,
forthcoming from The Mercury Press in Toronto. mclennan says he started working on the novel around 2001. “It takes me forever to get 100 pages of a novel written, because of the density of the prose I'm trying. The premise? I started out writing a contemporary fiction based on the story of Persephone who lives in the suburbs, which is her version of Hell.”
mclennan, who has been an active reviewer of CanLit titles and author profiles since 1991, recieved a challenge from derek beaulieu in Calgary to write longer critical pieces. “I think it just came out of that. Also, after enough short reviews, the practice of getting inside of a work gets deeper, making the pieces I write, naturally, longer. Now I can spend eight months writing an essay on Phil Hall, for example, or Andrew Suknaski." The result is a collection of critical essays called Subverting the Lyric. "After putting the manuscript together, I thought about my 'perfect world' as an author, and naturally sent it to Michael Holmes at ECW Press . I was lucky enough to have Jack and Michael say yes, so I didn't have to think about a so-called second choice.” When asked about who will be interested in this type of book, mclennan keeps it simple with a big hint of curiousity and excitement. “Hopefully anyone who is interested in jwcurry, Margaret Christakos and Barry McKinnon, for example, some of the writers I write about in the collection. Otherwise? I don't really know. I have to admit I'm looking forward to whatever response the book receives.”
Which brings us to Ottawa: The Unknown City, a travel book which materialized when mclennan saw the series (published by Arsenal) was not including Ottawa. “It helps promote the idea of Ottawa being not-boring which helps promote much of the idea of local activity I've been doing over the past fifteen or so years, so everything, eventually, ties in together.”
And what about his big trade to Edmonton? “The first few weeks here have just been getting my feet on the ground, figuring out living space and working space. I haven't lived anywhere else (even though I've been on twelve national tours, and a week a year in Edmonton since 1997), so a lot of this is freaking me out a little more than I would have expected. It doesn't help that, for all the people I know here, most of them are caught up with small children or new school term or both; I have no one (yet) to play with.”
The residency has been a bit of an adjustment for mclennan, though he is “completely honoured” with the new position, finding the odd student coming by to ask the author questions. “I'm told not to expect a big rush until later in September, or even October, when the community discovers that I've arrived.”
Meanwhile, he's blogging, looking forward to the Edmonton Poetry Festival, and has also started a poetry manuscript as well as a book of creative non-fiction on his time in Alberta.
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