Kevin Spenst
Kevin Spenst is the author of four full-length books of poetry including A Bouquet Brought Back From Space (Anvil Press, 2024) along with 16 chapbooks. He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, and occasionally co-hosts "Wax Poetic" on Vancouver Co-op Radio. He lives in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territory, and is a mentor in the Writer鈥檚 Studio.
Kevin鈥檚 advice for Writer鈥檚 Studio applicants
What are you looking for in a workshop group?
The more I lead workshops, the more I鈥檓 of the thinking that the most valuable contribution a participant can make is to provide an explanation of what happened to them when they read the poem and what qualities of the poem helped create that experience. This is an essential first step in getting to the mechanics of the poem and how it operates. From here, the reader might ask any number of questions about the poem (鈥淚 wonder why鈥�?鈥� 鈥淚 wonder how鈥�?鈥�) and then suggest various ways to intensify the experience of the poem鈥攖hrough tweaking or torquing certain aspects of wording, metaphors or line arrangement, etc.鈥攁nd these suggestions are either corroborated by other participants or countered with other suggestions. I鈥檓 looking for people who are interested in exploring this process of a poem鈥檚 development in a supportive (and hey, maybe even fun!) workshop environment.
What do you look for when reading an applicant鈥檚 submission?
I鈥檓 a big fan of metaphor and sound as expressions of ideas that examine the underside of things. There might be nothing new under the sun, but if we turn that old lawn chair in the backyard over, there鈥檚 bound to be something interesting in the six or so divots it鈥檚 made in the lawn and its connection to the emotional terrain of the people living in the house. All this is to metaphorically say that I like writing that combines sensory details, ideas and matters of the heart. Writing that strives towards trying to make it new by undercovering the familiar or reaching for new subject matter is what excites me most. As a reader, I like learning and being challenged while also feeling that the poem has an emotional dimension. While reading through submissions, I鈥檒l be looking for these qualities (whether they be in nascent or fully fledged form).