Artist in Profile
1. Who are you?
Stuart Ross.
2. What do you do
I’m a poet, fiction writer, essayist, editor and small-press publisher. This fall I’m writer-in-residence at Queen’s University’s Department of English.
3. Where can people find you?
At 529 Watson Hall, or at various events that I’m organizing in the community. Also at bloggamooga.blogspot.com.
4. Have you always wanted to be a writer and editor or did you have other aspirations growing up?
For a while I wanted to be a writer or cartoonist. I was a crappy cartoonist. Later I became an editor out of necessity, to pay the bills. But I love editing.
5. What is the biggest challenge in your work?
1. Deciding I’m sufficiently satisfied with a piece of writing and can send it out for publication.
2. Paying the bills.
6. Where do you gather inspiration?
Stuff I overhear or witness. Stuff I find in newspapers. In the works of other writers. Things that happen to me and have happened to me.
7. Did you transition into short stories and poetry or have you always had a penchant for them?
Transition from what? I’ve always been interested in reading poetry and fiction, and I’ve always written both. And not just short stories and fiction: I have a novel coming out in the spring from ECW Press. It’s called Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew. I’ve also had a couple of collaborative novels published in the past.
8. What do you enjoy the most about running workshops?
Seeing the surprise or joy in someone’s face, or hearing it in their voice, when they write something they never would have expected to write. I also really like inflicting insane projects on participants, like writing a poem from the last line up to the first line, or translating from languages they don’t understand.
9. Do you see collaboration as important to your craft?
Absolutely. I’m a big believer in collaboration. I’m a big believer in any writing method that derails me from writing consciously. I also love to see what happens when two different aesthetics or styles collide.
10. Can you tell us a little bit about your work with This magazine?
I’m the Fiction & Poetry Editor at This. I think I’ve been at it for about seven or eight years. I choose a fiction writer and one or two poets for each issue, and the interesting thing is that it’s not a literary magazine—so I look for work that may appeal to people not specifically into poetry or fiction. But at the same time, I want to challenge them with some pretty weird shit.
11. What about your work with Mansfield Press and the Meet the Presses Collective?
Since 2007, I’ve been an editor at Mansfield Press. I acquire fiction and poetry, and even some non-fiction. It’s a dream come true, because I get the great pleasure of editing and shepherding a book into the world, and someone else foots the bills. I’ve been able to publish first books by brilliant writers like Leigh Nash and Robert Earl Stewart, plus books by literary heroes like Tom Walmsley and David W. McFadden, whose Mansfield book, Be Calm, Honey, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award in Poetry.
Meet the Presses is a collective I helped co-found a few years ago in Toronto. We put on an occasional curated, small-press fair called the Indie Literary Market, and our individual members put on readings and workshops and whatever other event occurs to them that they want to put under the MtP umbrella.
12. How have the Real Resident Reading Series events been going at The Grad Club?
Way beyond my wildest expectations. The two events so far have been packed: standing-room only in the Grad Club. And the readings have been wonderful: it’s a thrill to be able to introduce writers to a new audience. I’ve got sufficient budget to put on five readings, and I’m also going to host a reading by writers I’ve edited at Mansfield, though that might be off-campus.
On Nov. 8, the series will feature David W. McFadden, a great Canadian poet coming in from Toronto, Queen’s own Carolyn Smart who will be reading from Hooked as well as some new work, and Rabindranath Maharaj, an acclaimed novelist and story writer who’s coming from Ajax.
On Nov. 29, I’ll be reading from my own fiction and poetry, as well as John Lavery from Gatineau, who I think is Canada’s finest fiction writer, and the award-winning translator Anne McLean.
There will also be a reading by writers I’ve worked with at Mansfield Press and hopefully a final reading by students I’ve worked with out of my residency office.
What I’m trying to do with the series is offer a wide range of different kinds of writing. To expose students and members of the Kingston community to excellent writers who will be new to them, and help build new audiences for the writers.
13. Why did you decide to bring the writers you did to the events?
As I said above, I’m really committed to presenting aesthetic diversity. I’m bringing writers who interest me, whose work I admire. In some cases, writers who I’ve never heard read before.
14. What are you working on now?
Working on a short-story manuscript called I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub, working on poems, working on a novel and playing with the idea of a weird kind of memoir.
15. Finally, what is your favourite piece of literature?
That’s an impossible question. The writers I love best are Samuel Beckett, Patricia Highsmith, Ron Padgett, David W. McFadden, Lisa Jarnot … The list is finite, but very long.
The next Real Resident Reading Series featuring Rabindranath Maharaj, David W. McFadden and Carolyn Smart is Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m.
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