Arc Poetry Magazine nurtures and
promotes the composition and appreciation of poetry in Canada and abroad, with
particular but not exclusive emphasis on poetry written by Canadians. In
addition to publishing and distributing the work of poets, Arc Poetry Magazine organizes and administers awards, contests,
public readings and other events.
Chris Johnson (he/they) is the Managing Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine. He currently lives
in Ottawa, which is located on unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation.
Their recent chapbooks include Listen,
Partisan! (Frog Hollow Press, 2016) and Gravenhurst
(above/ground press, 2019). @ceeeejohnson
Q: Tell me about your
journal. How long have you been publishing, and what got you started?
Arc Poetry Magazine has a history
that stretches back way further than my time with them. Arc was founded in 1978 at Carleton University by Michael
Gnarowski, Tom Henighan and Christopher Levenson (who continued as Arc’s Editor
until 1988). The circumstances of their decision to start the magazine plays
out in a similar fashion to how
Canthius began: like-minded friends gathered and began chatting about art
and politics and how they can contribute to the conversation. The only note I
have ever found about the origin of the magazine’s name is from a blog post by Henighan,
who said it was Gnarowski’s idea to start a magazine that “would extend an
‘arc’ to encompass Canadian contributions, while by no means shutting the door
on any writer because of [their] background, origins, political or aesthetic
affiliations.”
Arc left the
umbrella of Carleton University after only a few issues and became an
independent not-for-profit, and more recently a registered charitable
organization. With a history going back more than 40 years, the magazine has
seen a number of editors, and in 2018 Frances Boyle did an incredible job
recording the expansive list of editors and editorial board members since Arc’s inception. Anyone who is
interested can find those lists (Part 1 and Part 2)
along with some details about our current team here: http://arcpoetry.ca/about/
Q: How many times have
you exhibited at the ottawa small press fair? How do you find the experience?
I’m
fairly certain Arc has had a table at
every Ottawa small press fair since I joined the magazine in 2014, and it’s
possible that Arc has been at most
fairs for the past decade if not the entire 26-year history of the Ottawa small
press fair. As others have said in previous
interviews from this series, the fair is a great opportunity not only for
friends in the community to gather and catch up, but also for new small press
publishers or zinesters or independent authors to engage with new potential
audiences while proudly exhibiting their creative creations.
Q:
Would you have made something specific for this spring’s fair? Are you still
doing that? How does the lack of spring fair this year effect how or what you
might be producing?
Arc
publishes three issues a year, in Spring, Summer,
and Fall. Occasionally this production schedule lines up with the timing of the
fair so we have a new issue fresh from the printer. Fortunately, our Spring 2020 issue was
printed and mailed out to contributors and subscribers in late March right
before the quarantine shut everything down, though we did very much miss the
chance to bring the issue to the Spring fair.
Q:
How are you, as a small publisher, approaching the myriad shut-downs? Is
everything on hold, or are you pushing against the silences, whether in similar
or alternate ways than you might have prior to the pandemic? How are you
getting your publications out into the world?
We are very grateful for our funders—the Canada
Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Ottawa—and the
actions they took to ensure that arts organizations were supported throughout
this global pandemic. Arc is also a
member of Magazines Canada, who have done an incredible job in staying on top
of retail store closures and re-openings so our issues can be distributed
across Canada, as well as in advocating for magazine publishers during the days
of uncertainty before the announcements of relief and support from the
government. Because of those organizations, we are lucky to operate in a manner
close to business as usual, with our various projects and activities ongoing
without too much disruption.
Q:
Have you done anything in terms of online or virtual launches since the
pandemic began? Have you attended or participated in others? How are you
attempting to connect to the larger literary community?
We have not held any virtual launches during these
strange and uncertain times. Sadly, in March, the launch of our Spring issue at
VERSeFest—Ottawa’s
international poetry festival—was postponed, but we’re excited and eager to
hear of VERSeFest’s plans to return in November!
Personally I have tried attending a few Zoom
readings and enjoyed the semblance of a regular poetry reading that these
events provide. In Ottawa, events like the Tree Reading Series and Margo
LaPierre’s House Party Poetry Series are doing great for keeping some sort of
normalcy in our literary community. Also, Arc
is happy to be contributing a copy of our newest issue to Riverbed Reading Series as a
prize for their favourite writing prompt during their event on Wednesday,
August 19.
Arc
may have some events upcoming, though! We recently
announced the shortlist for the 2020
Archibald Lampman Award, and we hope to gather the shortlisted authors for
a reading in early Fall. The presentation of the Lampman Award will take place
at the Ottawa Book Awards during a ceremony hosted on Zoom on Wednesday,
October 21.
Q:
Has the pandemic forced you to rethink anything in terms of production? Are
there supplies or printers you haven’t access to during these times that have
forced a shift in what and how you produce?
As I mentioned, the Spring and Summer issues of Arc had production schedules that fortunately
avoided the worst periods of the pandemic, yet other aspects of our operations
were affected by the pandemic in ways we didn’t expect. For example, we’ve
requested digital copies of review books to accommodate reviewers who were
uncomfortable receiving physical mail during the height of community spread of
COVID-19, and our new Arc
Award of Awesomeness—originally conceived of as a fun, small contest where
entries are mailed in with a $2 entry fee—was adapted slightly to allow for
online entries so poets could reduce unnecessary excursions in public.
Q:
What is your most recent issue? How might folk be able to order copies?
In
early August we were proud to release Arc
92, our Summer 2020 issue. This issue contains the announcement
of winner of our 2020 Poem of the Year Contest, along with the entire
shortlist. The issue is also chock full of beautiful poetry, thoughtful essays,
and mindful reviews of recent Canadian poetry collections. Folk can order
copies or subscribe to Arc here: http://arcpoetry.ca/subscribe/
Q: What are you working
on now?
There
is lots going on! Not only are we accepting submissions to the August Arc Award
of Awesomeness, but Ottawa-based poets without a full-length poetry collection
can submit to the 2020
Diana Brebner Prize. This year’s judge is Susan Musgrave, and we’re excited
to see submissions before the deadline on September 4th.
For
Indigenous poets across Canada without a full-length poetry collection, we’ve
also just started a program that facilitates free month-long mentorships with
the award-winning poet Randy
Lundy. These mentorships are meant to offer our country-wide community of Indigenous
writers a chance to work on a select number of poems with an influential poet,
and we’re thrilled to be working with Randy for this program.
We’re
also finalizing work for our Fall 2020 issue, which will include an exciting feature
that spotlights “up-and-coming” poets by including their poetry alongside an introduction
by an “established” poet. As a teaser of what’s to come from this feature,
we’ll have Lillian Allen introducing Ian Keteku, Lucas Crawford introducing
Rebecca Salazar Leon, and Canisia Lubrin introducing Faith Arkorful.
Folk
can keep up with Arc and all of our
activities by following us on Twitter
and Facebook and
subscribing to our monthly
newsletter.
