Get to know... Jacob Scheier

Over the course of the winter 2011 edition of S.W.A.T., we're posting brief interviews with each of our new Writers-in-Residence. We want to give all of you a chance to get to know the amazing people who work so hard to make the S.W.A.T. program a success! (You can also check out a list of interviews from last year's writers here.)

Today we present the first of our writer interviews - with Jacob Scheier.

Jacob Scheier is the winner of the 2008 Governor General's Award for poetry and co-winner of a 2009 New York Independent Media Alliance award for best feature article. His poems have been published in periodicals across North America and been aired on CBC radio. He is a regular contributor of articles to Toronto's NOW Magazine. He is also a volunteer facilitator with Bereaved Families of Ontario.

Jacob is currently facilitating a workshop at Ryerson entitled “Writing Creatively about Grief.” In it, students will learn techniques, methods, and devices for writing evocative creative non-fiction (e.g., memoir, personal essay) and poetry on loss and grief. Through the reading and writing of non-fiction and poetry, we will work towards making our experiences of grief speak to others. Subject matter is not limited to the death of a loved one, but can include, for example, a divorce/break up or losing a part of a person through injury or illness. This course is open to the public, if you are interested in participating, please visit this site.
 
You can also see Jacob in person at our first HEAR/HEAR Reading of 2011 — on Wednesday, April 13. Our Q & A with Jacob Scheier... after the jump!
 

NOW HEAR THIS!: What inspired you to become a writer?

Jacob Scheier: Honestly, it was the lyrics to the music I listened to when I was a teenager, like Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails. I suppose I was pretty full of angst and also wanted to be a goth-alternative rock star, but couldn't play an instrument or sing, so I started writing poems.

NHT!: What was your favourite book when you were 15?

JS: The Basketball Diaries or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

NHT!: What recently published book do you wish you could have read when you were 15?

JS: The book that comes to mind is Elizabeth Bachinsky's Home of Sudden Service. I really saw my fifteen year old self in her poems about being a teenager.

NHT!: What book(s) are you reading right now?

JS: Life Studies by Robert Lowell, The Invisibility Exhibit by Sachiko Murakami, Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic Novel by Joe Sacco and First as Tragedy, then as Farce by Slavoj Žižek

NHT!: What are you writing right now?

JS: For a while now I've been working on poems about my Radical-Jewish-American heritage, as I've taken to calling it. Though I find myself writing poems about completely unrelated things. For awhile I was only trying to write poems about my family history, but began to find that stifling. So really, I guess, I am just working on another collection of poems.

NHT!: Where is your favourite place to write?

JS: At home; pyjamas, coffee.

NHT!: Do you do a lot of research when you’re writing poetry?

JS: It depends. For the poems about my family history, yes — both historical and personal documents. When engaging another era, I think having a good grasp of the social-historical context is important, even if you are not directly addressing it.

NHT!: Do you write with an audience in mind or just for yourself?

JS: I like what Kurt Vonnegut said in one of his essays — that one should write with a particular person in mind and if you are pretty sure that person will like it, chances are others will too. He said he wrote everything for his sister. I'm still not sure who I'm writing for, but I hope they like it.

NHT!: What was the first thing you published and (if you don’t mind us asking) how old were you?

JS: I wrote a rather gloomy short story about a guy who kills himself by climbing into a dryer (and somehow getting it to start while he was inside — I suppose that was a major hole in the plot). The story was called "The Laundry Mat" and was published in my high school’s literary magazine when I was 17.

NHT!: What’s the best advice you received as a young writer?

JS: To not get too attached to anyone particular poem and just try to write as many poems as possible.

NHT!: What advice do you have for young writers who are trying to get published?

JS: I would ask yourself why you are doing this weird thing with your life (especially if writing poetry). I would ask yourself if you have to? And if you don't, I wouldn't. And if you do, I would read as much as you can and submit your work everywhere, shamelessly, and work on developing a thick skin… 'cause you're going to need it.

Thanks, Jacob!