These roots run deep

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This article was published 18/09/2020 (1832 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A poet with deep roots in North Kildonan is set to launch her latest collection.

Sarah Klassen, an award-winning poet and writer, is a longtime resident of northeast Winnipeg. Her latest collection, The Tree of Life, will be released by Turnstone Press, with an online launch party on Fri., Oct. 2 in conjunction with McNally Robinson.

“All, or most, of my launches have been there,” Klassen said. “This time it will be different. There will be another poet, Joanne Epp, interviewing me about the book.”

Taking part in digital readings is new for Klassen, who published her first book of poetry, Journey to Yalta, in 1988. She’ll get a taste of it later this month during the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, which is being held digitally owing to COVID-19.

“It’s getting to be a part of life,” Klassen, a two-time National Magazine Award winner for poetry, said. “It’s very convenient. You can connect with people across Canada and will be zooming in on something in the States too. Maybe that will turn out to be an advantage.”

The Tree of Life is Klassen’s first book of poetry since 2012’s Monstrance, which won the Word Award for poetry from The Word Guild, a group of Canadian Christian writers, in 2013. 

“I don’t set out with the idea of going in a different direction, but I’ve lived more years since my earlier books,” Klassen said. “It’s always my aim to be better, to dig deeper and to say more worthwhile things if that’s possible.”

The poems in The Tree of Life, like those of her previous collections, tackle a variety of subjects, and are informed by her faith.

“I tend to write, responding to something that alerts my attention or inspires me in some way,” Klassen said. “What I tend to do, if something catches my attention or I become interested in, I tend to write a number of poems about that topic or subject, which lends to making sections.”

In this case, the image of trees as a symbol of life recurs throughout the text.

“I don’t, in any poems, define it, but it is something I think a lot of people can link with and bring their own ideas to,” she said.

Klassen began writing poetry seriously when she was teaching English literature at River East Collegiate in the 1980s. Early on, she took inspiration from the poetry of fellow Canadians Gwendolyn MacEwan, Lorna Crozier, and Margaret Avison. She added that recently she has taken inspiration from work by local poet Catherine Hunter, as well as Ontario’s Al Moritz and American poet Tracy K. Smith.

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“My work is different from all of them, but you do pick up inspiration,” she said.

Writers, Klassen believes, should read regularly and widely. 

As to advice for young poets, Klassen preaches patience.

“Learn to wait for the poem to come towards you, which is what one poet once told me,” she added. “It works better than frantically chasing after something to write about.”

Visit www.mcnallyrobinson.com/upcoming-events for more information about the Oct. 2 launch of The Tree of Life. Registration is required in advance for those wishing to take part.

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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