A local poet and a writer from Ontario who have never met have released a joint book of poetry and prose.
On Feb. 17, Ian Cognito of Yellow Point and Anne Marie Carson from Blue Mountains, Ont. are holding a virtual launch for their new release, Interchange, through Nanaimo North Library. It’s a collection of poems Cognito e-mailed to Carson and Carson’s responses in prose form.
“It was quite serendipitous and accidental, this whole thing,” Cognito said. “So I would have to call this an accidental book but also a happy surprise for us and hopefully for the reader, too.”
The collaboration started when Cognito’s sister sent Carson, a past colleague, a copy of Flora, Fauna, and H. Sapiens by Cognito and local poet Pat Smekal. Carson replied in an e-mail that she enjoyed the book and Cognito asked if he could use some quotes from her e-mail for promotional purposes and she agreed.
“A little while later I sent her a poem to thank her for allowing us to use her words and she wrote a response to the poem, which was more or less a written reflection on the content of the poem and how it related to her,” Cognito said. “And that was quite intriguing to me because you don’t often get to hear an in-depth response to your poetry from readers. So I responded by sending her another poem and she responded to that one as well.”
That correspondence continued for three years until Cognito and Carson realized their exchanges could be turned into a book. Cognito said topics covered in Interchange include nature, aging, family, one’s sense of home and “there’s even one about sneezes.”
Cognito said he and Carson have similar interests and senses of humour and it was “really interesting to see how she would personalize the content of a particular poem and where it would take her and her ruminations and meanderings.”
“Basically it is a poetry-prose exchange over a great distance between two people who have never actually met, but we did find lots of affinity and connection despite the distance and despite the impact of the pandemic, as well,” he said. “We do hope to meet one day.”
Interchange is available at Well Read Books, 19 Commercial St., Windowseat Books, 309C Wesley St., and online.
WHAT’S ON … Interchange book launch takes place over Zoom on Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m. Virtual doors open at 4:15 p.m. Zoom meeting ID is 815 6205 1448. For passcode, contact repartee@telus.net or nanaimonorth@virl.bc.ca.
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