Gary Barwin in Torontoist

Gary Barwin sat down with Torontoist this week to discuss his creative process, his plans for the future and The Porcupinity of the Stars.

'Torontoist: How did it feel when the final galleys arrived at your door?

Gary Barwin: I had a nice surprise with this book because Coach House Books is unusual in that it is a publishing house that actually prints its own books. Stuart Ross, my son Ryan, and I took American poet Gabriel Gudding for a tour. When we looked in the window, we saw my book’s cover literally running through the press. It wasn’t hot “off” the press, it was hot “in” the press. Inside Coach House, there were big piles of the guts of my book just sitting there. It was a thrill to see the physicality, the raw materials for not just one copy, but for all the copies. Like all the stones for constructing the pyramids just sitting there in the sand ...

This book does seem different to me than my other books. I’ve worked harder on it. Really put pressure on the poems. Many of these poems have a deeper connection to concerns in my life in a fundamental way. Not only to family and daily emotions but to more fundamental existential and philosophical concerns. I should say that though this includes loss and an investigation of consciousness, it also includes humour, wonder, and joy. These, too, are existential and ethical in nature, as is an engagement with language. An inquiry into the nature of dessert shouldn’t preclude the daft and ecstatic trembling of jello.'