Interviews

Allison Grayhurst has been interviewed eleven times in print, as well as a TV interview, with translations of her interviews in Italian and Albanian, published in Italy, England and Kosovo. All interviews are below:

Interview by Irma Kurti on Italia News Media (In Italian and English) and on Dooley’s Books and in Oceano News (in Italian) and Women’s Literature Books, July 2024 and Quick Word News and Fjala e Lire (in Albanian) August 2024 and in Orfeu Magazine (in Kosovo in Albanian) September 2024 and InSight Magazine September 2024.

https://alessandria.today/2024/07/05/irma-kurti-interviews-allison-grayhurst-canada/

https://www.dooleysbooks.com/author-interviews-2024

http://www.oceanonellanima.it/oceano/blogocn/blog_post.php?id=894

https://www.womensliteraturebooks.com/women-s-literature-author-interviews/1935000_author-allison-grayhurst?fbclid=IwY2xjawEZoNxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTdd2VrJtMm3-ANBEy5frH-Vzrdd_RWUM0gAsAW8RQViFCwuS2re9j0jxw_aem_5xO4f53Drk9cmalKXDacgg

https://quick-world-news.com/?p=14203

https://www.fjalaelire.com/post/irma-kurti-intervist%C3%AB-me-poeten-allison-grayhurst-kanada

Orfeu Magazine (in Kosovo in Albanian) September 2024

https://orfeu.al/irma-kurti-interviste-me-poeten-allison-grayhurst-kanada

https://www.insightmagazine25.com/2048386_allison-grayhurst-author-interview

ALLISON GRAYHURST has been nominated for “Best of the Net” five
times. She has over 1,400 poems published in over 530 international
journals, including translations of her work. She has 25 published
books of poetry and 6 chapbooks. She is an ethical vegan and lives in
Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay.

When and how did you start writing?

I’ve been writing since grade school. Language and writing have always been integral to my life as both my parents were writers/journalists. When I was five my family moved to Spain for a year so my dad could write a novel. Reciting Shakespeare and other poets at the dinner table was something my father did often. My mother helped me write my first short story and was always a great supporter of my poetry.

Do you remember what was your first poem or story was about?

My first short story was written when I was 12 and it was about a dolphin. My first writing of poetry was never a single poem. Starting at about 14 I would just constantly write pages of freestyle poetry/thoughts/images, trying to find my voice. None of it I kept.

When did poetry become an essential part of your life?

It always has been an essential part of my life. As I child I moved around a lot and so lived more in my imagination than in real life. I didn’t want to be a poet, but finally accepted when I was about 19 that I had no choice.

You have published 25 books of poetry. What book do you feel connected to the most?

Right now, the book I just published called “The Light Given”, particular the 34-page poem in it called “My Mother’s Sky” which is about the recent loss of my mother. Then maybe “Walkways” for the depths and heights it took me, and “The River is Blind” for igniting a new type of inspiration within me.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I love being around animals, they are my joy. Before my mother got sick, I volunteered at an animal shelter, which I hope to start doing again soon. Other than that, reading, spending time with my soulmate husband Kyp Harness, who is a great artist, singer/songwriter and novelist, and hanging with our two adult children, Ava and Clay.

Some years ago the Canadian singer, songwriter and musician
Diane Barbarash transformed eight of your poems into songs,
creating a full album entitled RIVER. Can you tell us something
more about this collaboration and experience?

Diane and I have been close friends since I was 15. She was the person I moved in with when I left home at 16. In our 30s we gradually lost touch as she moved to the other side of Canada. When we got back in touch again, she asked if she could make an album using some of my poems that were written and published years ago. Daine is so talented and has an astounding voice, so of course I said yes! We worked together back and forth through emails as some of the poems had to have the lines adjusted to fit the songs she created out of them. It was a beautiful and meaningful collaboration for both of us, and Diane and I are still the closest of friends.

What are some challenges that you have faced in your literary
path?

In the past I would have said publishing, finding my niche in the publishing world, as well as not having the money to send my work out. But not anymore. The internet has made publishing a lot easier, and I usually don’t have a hard to get my work published when it is ready to be published. Do I wish I had a wider audience? Yes, but I find myself not caring about that as much anymore. So right now, I have no challenges except what I face as an artist to create out of necessity and vitality, never out of habit.

Why do you write?

Because I have to, there is no other reason. Writing is like eating for me and has been for most of my life. There were many times when I told myself I would never write again and many times I never wanted to write again. But now, I’ve stopped thinking that way as I know I am only fooling myself.

Do you think that writing has the power to change our lives?

Writers, poets and philosophers have changed my life over and over again, and even saved my life, so I would say yes, without a doubt.

An Interview with Our Poetry Archive, May 2024

INTERVIEW WITH NILVRONILL SHOOVRO

NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet. And congratulations as the poet of this month. I would like to know your personal views on literature or poetry in general.

ALLISON GRAYHURST: I feel literature and poetry are art forms and also vehicles to express spiritual insight. All the great poets are prophets of the human condition. We’re privileged to take part in God’s creation and announce the spiritual reality behind the things we see and experience every day.

NILAVRONILL: What are the factors that have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life. When, most probably you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: Great artists like Rilke, Dostoevsky, Plath, Nietzsche, Rodin, Pablo Neruda and others have influenced me in the shaping of my voice as a poet. I’m greatly inspired by the authenticity of the animal world as well. I’ve learned never to think of the future as a poet. Society has only been a key factor in my evolution as an artist in that I’ve had to learn some hard lessons in trying to survive as an artist. The struggles society has imposed have certainly informed the content and emotions contained in my poetry, yet these struggles are not unique to me.

NILAVRONILL: Is there anyone in your life, influenced you personally to develop your literary skills? Or inspire you to become a poet?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: My parents were journalists – a very different type of writing, but still writers. In terms of ongoing inspiration, my husband Kyp Harness is a great writer, both of songs and fiction (he’s published two novels). As for the inspiration to become a poet in the first place, life did that. I didn’t want to become a poet, and in fact I resisted it. But life, inspiration, my spiritual beliefs, and my natural inclination made me a poet.

NILAVRONILL: Do you consider your literary life as an extension of your self-existence? If so, how it is related with the time around you?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: My literary life is one and the same as my self-existence. I seek the purity of a poetry that arises naturally from one’s life. It relates implicitly to the time around me because I am a person of this time – striving for the eternal.

NILAVRONILL: According to you, what are the conditions to develop the creative soul of a poet in general? We would like to know from your personal experiences.

ALLISON GRAYHURST: A poet can create in any conditions. All throughout time poets have created without there being an ideal condition set up for them. All that’s needed is time, a drive that presents as necessity, and perhaps silence.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think in this age of information and technology the dimensions of literature have been largely extended beyond our preconceived ideas about literature in general?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: There are many more places to get published online and the process of submitting has been made a great deal easier than when you had to pay for postage. Beyond that, not much has changed – time is still the great editor and decides whose work lives on eternally.

NILAVRONILL: As a poet, do socio-economy and politics in general influence your literary visions? If so how, and if not, why?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: Certainly much pain and spiritual struggle has come about because of politics and society, and that hardship – shared by everyone on the planet – has informed my poetry. But as for them as subjects in themselves, they have very little interest to me.

NILAVRONILL: Do you consider, your national identity as an important factor to influence your literary creativity? Is your national identity an incentive for you to find your own literary voice?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: I am not a believer in nationalism, and like the subjects above, it only has tangential importance to my work. My poetry comes from a place where we are all part of the same spiritual existence, the same universe, rather than being part of a place or a country. Saying that, I love feeling enveloped in the starkness, the raw, forgiving beauty that can happen on Canadian winter’s early morning.

NILAVRONILL: In between tradition and modernism, which one influence you most and why?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: They both influence me equally. I would not be who I am without the writing of the past that I’ve read. My poetry wouldn’t be what it is without being open to all the influences of modernism any artist of her time must be. The content of my work is informed by tradition; the style of it by modernism.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think honest literary criticism has much to do with the development of a poet and the true understanding of his or her poetry?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: Ultimately we aren’t justified or validated by criticism or outward forces. That can only happen within.

NILAVRONILL: I would like to know, whether your contemporaries inspire your writings in any way.

ALLISON GRAYHURST: No. In fact, I have delved further into the past where I have found my most recent literary inspiration – to Homer’s The Iliad – the first breath and fire of western literature.

NILAVRONILL: Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: I believe literature can help people to uplift human conscience – whether it will or not is a different matter. There’s no doubt that inspired literature written in a pure way can, has, and always will uplift humanity. The question is: to what degree? So far, not enough – and that’s the human condition. I also think writing literature that tries to uplift humanity is the quickest way to get literature that doesn’t uplift humanity.

NILAVRONILL: Humanity has suffered immensely in the past, and is still suffering around the world. We all know it well. As a poet or even as a literary person, how do you foresee the future of mankind?

ALLISON GRAYHURST: As I said, a poet doesn’t think about the future – only the present moment. But I think to see the future you have to study the past. As well, I think it’s far too late in history to be using the term ‘mankind’ to refer to humanity. ‘Humankind’, as used by Gorbachev, is much more appropriate.

NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview. I remain obliged to you for your participation. Now, personally I would like to know your honest opinion about Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Thank you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.

ALLISON GRAYHURST: I think highly of Our Poetry Archive, and greatly appreciate that all my work submitted has always been published. I am honoured to be chosen as the Poet of the Month. Thank you for this interview and for including my work.

SHORT BIO:

Allison Grayhurst has been nominated for “Best of the Net” five times. She has over 1400 poems published in over 530 international journals, including translations of her work. She has 25 published books of poetry and 6 chapbooks. She is an ethical vegan and lives in Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay; http://www.allisongrayhurst.com

https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com/2024/05/allison-grayhurst-interview.html

An Interview with Pegasus Literary, May 2023

An Interview with Allison Grayhurst

Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Four of her poems were nominated for “Best of the Net” in 2015/2018, and one eight-part story-poem was nominated for “Best of the Net” in 2017. She has over 1,375 poems published in more than 525 international journals and anthologies.

In 2018, her book Sight at Zero, was listed #34 on CBC’s “Your Ultimate Canadian Poetry List”.

Collaborating with Allison Grayhurst on the lyrics, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter/musician Diane Barbarash has transformed eight of Allison Grayhurst’s poems into songs, creating a full album entitled River – Songs from the poetry of Allison Grayhurst, released 2017.

In 2020, her work was translated into Chinese and published in “Rendition of International Poetry Quarterly” and in “Poetry Hall”.

Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then, she has published twenty-one other books of poetry and twelve collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing. Prior to the publication of Somewhere Falling she had a poetry book published, Common Dream, and four chapbooks published by The Plowman. Her poetry chapbook The River is Blind was published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press December 2012. In 2014 her chapbook Surrogate Dharma was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press, Barometric Pressures Author Series. In 2015, her book No Raft – No Ocean was published by Scars Publications. Also, her book Make the Wind was published in 2016 by Scars Publications. As well, her book Trial and Witness – selected poems, was published in 2016 by Creative Talents Unleashed (CTU Publishing Group). Her book Tadpoles Find the Sun was published by Cyberwit, August 2020.

She is a vegan. She lives in Toronto with her family. She also sculpts, working with clay; http://www.allisongrayhurst.com

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Tell us about you and your background.

Allison Grayhurst: I was born in Canada, grew up in Montreal and live in Toronto now with my husband, my two grown children, and my cats. Both my parents were writers and we moved around a lot when I was young, living in Spain for a year.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: How did you begin writing? Did you intend to become an author, or do you have a specific reason or reasons for writing each book??

Allison Grayhurst: I’ve been writing since grade school. it just came naturally to me. However, I never wanted to be a writer, let alone a poet. I wanted to work with animals. I was 19 when I realized I didn’t have a choice, and had to accept myself as a poet.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What authors do you like to read?

Allison Grayhurst: Russian literature has greatly influenced me, my favourite being Dostoyevsky. The last five years or so I have been reading ancient Greek and Roman literature and philosophy. Right now, I am reading Plutarch, The Rise of Rome. But reading Homer’s The Iliad was one of the greatest experiences I had as I writer, witnessing the birth of literature, and then to follow the thread from the Iliad to all the great literature that was directly inspired by it, from Virgil’s the Aeneid, Euripides, Dante, Milton, and Sapho. My husband, Kyp Harness, is a great writer of literature and songs, and I am inspired by him daily as a poet and as a human being.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: How hard is it to establish and maintain a career in fiction and non writing?

Allison Grayhurst: It is not so hard right now to be published as there are so many online magazines, many established, and many new, edgy, and open to new ways of expression. It used to cost money to mail out your work, now it is done free with just a click. However, a poetry career has no monetary reward, so that part is very difficult, and more than often, feels like an impossible life path.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Your experience of writing the book Running, lightwave riding.

Allison Grayhurst: The poems in this book were about shedding outdone and harmful influences and ways of being. Mostly the shedding wasn’t by choice, but forced upon me, and the poems express my coming to terms with the losses, accepting the losses, and eventually receiving the gift of the losses.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What are your future project(s)?

Allison Grayhurst: I am working on a full-length book called The Light Given, which will have three parts: Getting Out; Celebration; Stepping In.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Do you have any advice for other writers?

Allison Grayhurst: Not really. I guess, only be a poet if you have no other choice. It must be a necessity not a hobby.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What is your motivation for writing more?

Allison Grayhurst: Being alive. I write because I live, so as long as I am alive, I will continue to write.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Thank you very much.

Allison Grayhurst: Thank you Karunesh.

https://pegasusliterary.com/authordetails.php?bid=655

Interview on JD DeHart – Reading and Literature Resources, August 2017

http://dehartreadingandlitresources.blogspot.ca/2017/08/three-questions-with-author-allison.html

1. What drives you to write?

In all honesty, God drives me to write or not to write. I wait for inspiration and there is only one source of that inspiration for me, and that is God – no matter the subject matter or tone of the poem.

2. What are you reading and writing right now?

I am reading Wigford Rememberies by Kyp Harness – one of the greatest authors of this or any time.

https://www.amazon.com/Wigford-Rememberies-Kyp-Harness-ebook/dp/B01EEQ9AZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502110969&sr=8-1&keywords=kyp+harness+wigford

I am also rereading Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours – Love Poems to God.

I am working on my latest book of poetry called the Fault of Sages. It begins with a longer, eight-page poem, taking the journey of one soul through two lifetimes – one as a tyrant and the last as a monk. It is called New Wheel – The Passage of Arnik. So far, the rest of the poems collected for that book are shorter.

3. Where can we go online to learn more about you?

My website www.allisongrayhurst.com has all of my poems available to read online https://allisongrayhurst.com/links-to-poems-by-title/ as well as a free PDF download of all my available books https://allisongrayhurst.com/free-pdf-download-of-books/ . My work is also available for free reading on ISSUU https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst or for hardcopy and kindle purchase at Amazon amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Diane Barbarash is in the process of making a album of eight of my poems which she has transformed into songs, to be released later this year.

A rough draft of the first song can be heard here:

https://soundcloud.com/diane-barbarash/animal-sanctuary

Twitter: Allison Grayhurst (@AGrayhurst) | Twitter

Interview on Scarlet Leaf Review (September 2016)

9/10/2016

INTERVIEW WITH ALLISON GRAYHURST

BIO: Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Three times nominated for Sundress Publications “Best of the Net” 2015, she has over 850 poems published in over 380 international journals. She lives in Toronto with her husband, two children, a dog, two cats, two rats and a bird. She is a vegan for the animals. She also sculpts, working with clay;www.allisongrayhurst.com
Link to an old TV interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtJd7VaS-0

Link to reading a poem and accompanying video by Ava Harness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqqX7e7OlBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqqX7e7OlBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtJd7VaS-0

Welcome to Scarlet Leaf Review!

Q: Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

I grew up mostly in Montreal by the St. Lawrence River. My parents were both journalists, and my father and mother moved my brother and I to Spain when we were young so my father could write a mystery novel. My father read often, his favorite was Shakespeare, who he would read to us over the dinner table. My mother and I would write short stories together. She was the first person I shared my poems with.

Q: So, would you mind telling us what you have written so far?

In 1995 my book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then I have published twelve other books of poetry and seven collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing. Before the publication of Somewhere Falling I had a poetry book published, Common Dream, and four chapbooks published by The Plowman. My poetry chapbook The River is Blind was published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press December 2012. In 2014 my chapbook Surrogate Dharma was published by Kind of a Hurricane Press, Barometric Pressures Author Series. Then in 2015, my book No Raft – No Ocean was published by Scars Publications. More recently, my book Make the Wind was published in 2016 by Scars Publications. As well, my book Trial and Witness – selected poems, was published in 2016 by Creative Talents Unleashed (CTU Publishing Group).

Q: Where can we buy or see them?

Most of my books are available to buy in paperback and kindle on amazon:
US Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
UK Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B001KIWQUS
Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/s?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Allison%20Grayhurst&search-alias=books-ca

People can also read most of them for free on Issuu at: https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst

Q: What are you working on at the minute? What’s it about?

I am not working on anything right now. I am in a bit of a stasis right now. I am just writing poems or pieces of poems. I write longhand with a pen and tuck the paper in a drawer. I have about six months of writing, which I will eventually type in, and most of it I will throw out. I am not sure if any of it will amount to anything at this point.

Q: When did you decide to become a writer and why? What was the principal reason for taking up a pen (metaphorical speaking) and write that first sentence?

I never decided to be a writer/poet. It was actually one of the last things I wanted to be. For me, it wasn’t a choice, but an acceptance, which at almost 50 years old, I have mostly come to terms with.

Q: Do you write full-time or part-time? Do you have a special time to write or do you write every day, 5 days a week or as and when?

When and how I write has changed over the years. I use to write in donut shops, then when walking. The early mornings have always been the most sacred and creative times for me. I am a full-time poet, because for me being a poet isn’t a career or job, it is just part of who I am, something I carry with me always.

Q: Where do your ideas come from? Or is it just the spur of the moment, a special feeling you experience or a specific conjuncture that offers you inspiration?

My inspiration comes from animals, children, people, trees, love, inner dread, spiritual longing – all of it ultimately, if it is worth anything, comes from God.

Q: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?

I don’t know, because it seems to always be evolving or changing. There are times when I feel very confident with creating and other times I feel like an amateur with no ability whatsoever. Writing poetry for me is not an intellectual endeavor and it is not purely emotional either. Those aspects are involved, but only secondary. It has always been for me an act of surrender – clearing myself to receive, trusting what I receive, and then recording it.

Q: Do you proofread/edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you?

I proof read and edit all of my writing many times over. When I feel done, my husband Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author, and cartoonist reads it over, whose artist opinion I trust implicitly.

Q: Tell us about the covers of your books. How did it/they come about?

The first nine books I put out in 2012 were very clear visions I had for fifteen years before putting them out. I knew I wanted my sculptures on the covers and I knew which one I wanted on which book. The books I self-published since then were the same. They have all of my work in them that I want to share. I wouldn’t do it any other way.

Q: What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing against being published or the other way around?

I like self-publishing books with createspace as it gives me absolutely control over the look and content, as well as any changes I want to make at a later date. I also love that I can do it at my own pace, which is usually very quick. I have been published by publishers and often (not always) I have been at the mercy of their time-frame. The first book I got published took two years from when I started sending it out – a year to be accepted and another year before it was in print. The main drawback with self-publishing is that a larger publisher has the machinery in place to promote the book, get reviews and interviews which is lacking when self-publishing. As well, having a book published by an established publisher gives the author respect and credibility.

Q: Which famous persons, living or dead would you like to meet and why?

Jesus, first, although he is alive now and I have met him.
Dostoyevsky, second, because he is my mentor.
Jane Goodall, third, because she is my hero.

Q: How can readers discover more about you and you work?

Website: www.allisongrayhurst.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allison.grayhurst
Lnkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/allison-grayhurst-39b1b67b
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Grayhurst/e/B001KIWQUS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1343255960&sr=8-1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1937690.Allison_Grayhurst

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9WZmOvTHbw

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.
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Scarlet Leaf Review, September 10, 2016

http://www.scarletleafreview.com/home/interview-series-allison-grayhurst

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Interview with Kyp Harness and Allison Grayhurst (May 2016)

http://duanespoetree.blogspot.ca/2016/05/kyp-harness-and-allison-grayhurst.html

Interview below:

Kyp Harness: I am from Sarnia, Ontario, and I’ve made 13 independent albums of my original songs that have about 200 songs on them, and I also create Mortimer the Slug, a webcomic, which I have been doing for about 3 years. I have written two books, published by McFarland in the US, ‘The Art of Laurel and Hardy’ and ‘The Art of Charlie Chaplin’. My novel ‘Wigford Rememberies’ will be published by Nightwood Editions in May 2016; www.kypharness.net; http://www.mortimertheslugcomic.com

Allison Grayhurst: I am a vegan. I live in Toronto with my family. I am a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Three of my poems have been nominated for Sundress Publications “Best of the Net” 2015, and I have over 850 poems published in more than 375 international journals and anthologies. I have published twelve books of poetry, six collections, and eight chapbooks, and another chapbook “Currents” pending publication. I also sculpt, working with clay; www.allisongrayhurst.com

DV: How did both of you get started in your creative lives, especially in the word game?

KH: I’ve been writing stories and drawing pictures almost since I can first remember. I’ve also always written songs in my head.

AG: Writing and an appreciation of language has always been a part of my life, as both of my parents were writers/journalists. Writing just seemed like a natural way of expression to me from the beginning. When I was around five we moved to Spain for a year so my father could work on a novel. My mother and I would write stories together when I was in elementary school, though I didn’t start writing poetry until my first year of high school. I started sculpting and working in clay in my early 20s, and had a phenomenal teacher/mentor and friend in the late Elizabeth Fraser Williamson.

DV: So you both got started very early, to the point where it was almost a biological development. Was there ever a time when either of you became jaded about the communication process and seriously considered doing something else with your lives?

AG: No, for me, writing poetry is like eating, an essential part of my well-being and existence. I don’t like the publishing part of writing and stopped publishing for fifteen years – part of those reasons were practical – raising our two children – but during that time I always wrote and always planned to get that work out in book form. Yes, often I have felt the futility of being a poet and it has arrested my ability to create, but in the end I have learned that if I am going to continue on, I have to write.

KH: Yes, sometimes it gets discouraging and the only reason I keep doing it is because inspiration keeps coming to me, whether it’s about writing or drawing or singing or playing….otherwise I wouldn’t do it, because I sure wouldn’t try to make things happen creatively. I’ve accepted that I don’t really seem to have a choice, and if I try to stifle inspiration it only makes me unhappy and sick, so I just let it go.
DV: Allison, you’ve obviously been a publishing success. What was it about the “publishing part of writing” that turned you off?

AG: I am a very private person and I don’t like putting myself out there or being exposed. I’d rather not, but it is a duty I owe to my art, so I did what I felt compelled to do, as a part of me feels that the completion of art only comes when sharing it.
DV: You’re both multi-talented — poetry, prose, sculpture, music, cartoons — but if for some reason, Apollo’s jealous retribution for overweening hubris or some such, you could only practice one art exclusively, which one would it be?

KH: I guess if I were forced to pick one it would be music since you can always get an instantaneous reaction from music, and through the years that I’ve been writing other stuff, which can often be a long slog, the music has kept me going just by playing it, and playing it with and for other people.

AG: I enjoy sculpting, get a lot out of it and inspiration from it, but I don’t have to do it, and I have had to let it go at different times for extended periods of my life. Writing poetry for me is an integral part of myself and an ongoing necessity, so I would choose that.

DV: Do you remember your first “successful” piece? (I don’t mean commercially successful or popular among your circle — I mean the first one that succeeded in inner terms of self-satisfaction that it had been done “right.”) Would it still pass the self-approval test today?
KH: No not, really — they’re all successful to me, otherwise I wouldn’t have written them. I can think of a lot of failures I’ve abandoned or thrown away — but if I’ve completed them, they’re successes.

DV: Kyp, in your estimation, what’s the ration between “keepers” and “losers”? Has your throwaway rate changed much over the years?

KH: Most of my time I’ve continued to write and write and write, and I let the stuff that I remember stay on. If I forget it I figure it’s not worth remembering and I let it be forgotten. I do think more of my stuff is keep-worthy now as I get older because I’m more focused and know what I want more, maybe.
AG: The first success I had as a writer was when I found my voice. It was during the process of writing a poetic-prose novel when I was nineteen. I still have it in a filing cabinet. Everything I wrote before that I’ve gotten rid of. I would never publish it, and I haven’t looked at it for many years, but there are probably small parts of it (with much editing) that I would be artistically proud of.
DV: Allison, what was it about? Do its themes still continue through your current work? Has your voice changed?

AG: It was called Letters To.. It was a series of poetic love letters to a person, but in actuality they were letters to God. My voice has evolved, changed, undergone many transformations, but it is still the same voice, coming from the same place within me, and all my work remains to and for, and ultimately, about God.
DV: Having a shared artistic interest probably strengthens your marriage in many ways, but I imagine that there must be times when your individual artistic obsessions and tensions must be counter-productive as well? Do either of you have any examples of this that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

AG: I fell in love with Kyp when I first heard him perform his song “Wandering Heart,” and listening to his new creations always catches my breath in wonderment. In my estimation, Kyp is in the top few greatest artists that have ever lived, and sharing this life with him is a consistent blessing and inspiration for me as a person and as an artist.

KH: Nothing has ever been counter-productive in my relationship with Allison. She’s one of the greatest artists and greatest humans ever, so it’s a privilege to live and work beside her, plus she seems to be as insane as I am.

AG: I honestly can’t say that being artists has ever been counter-productive to our marriage. We have been together for 27 years and I have always honored and admired Kyp as an artist and all of his creative works. Throughout the years, even while raising young children, I have felt the same respect afforded to me. In fact, being artists in some way is the pulse of our relationship, and in many ways, it keeps us both alive as individuals, as well as our love.

DV: Kyp, you refer to yourselves as being “insane,” but in this conversation you seem to be more sane than most couples — and certainly most artists — that I know. So, what kind of insanity are you referring to?

KH: I guess the insanity is being sane in an insane world or insane in a sane world. Either way, I don’t much care.
DV: Are all of your children artistic too?
AG: We have two children, our oldest is 18. She is multi-talented in film, photography and writing, and is also strongly interested in politics. She attended a high school for the arts and is now in her first year at university majoring in film. Our son is 14 and is also attending a high school for the arts, with a focus on drama and visual arts. His most recent passions and pursuits have been archery and kung-fu.
DV: I’d like to give you both an opportunity to talk about your work processes, in some detail. Do you treat your art like a profession, with a regular daily schedule and routine? Do you just wait to be guided by inspiration? Is it mainly a matter of “spontaneous creation” or a long process of pre-planning and extensive revision? Or, for you, is the process something else entirely?
AG: My journey with writing poetry has spanned over decades and my process has undergone many changes. I started writing poetry in high school during classes, then mostly at donut shops or in my room. When my children were young or I had to go to work early, I would wake up at 5 am to get time in before the household got up. Mostly and recently I write when walking my dog. I used to write every day. It was a necessity but also a discipline. Now, I wait for the absolute need to write. Sometimes it happens at inconvenient times – making dinner, in the shower, when trying to fall asleep, etc. Sometimes I write daily, sometimes a week can pass. For a while, I tried to force myself to stop writing, to halt the inspiration and ignore the words in my head, but it ended up making me feel spiritually and physical ill. Now, I really don’t care when I write, it happens often but nothing routine. I usually write in the mornings, always long hand with pen and paper, stick it in a drawer, edit it in long hand until I type it up and edit it a bit again. The last batch of poems I wrote took about six months before I put them on my computer. In terms of editing, I do edit my work, but it is not an intellectual endeavour for me. Writing for me is a visceral process, and hopefully the poem has a rhythm and life of its own – if that is not there, the poem gets trashed. Poems come to me whole and quickly, if they need editing it is usually in small amounts for clarity sake or grammatical corrections. I keep only about one tenth of what I write.
KH: I just wait until it comes. I used to try and force things but that doesn’t work for me and often just made me pissed off…so I just wait until it gets going, and then sometimes later I might have to force it and work at it to get it finished, but in a way that’s the easy part.
DV: Since you both do more than one type of art, is the process the same for all of them? Allison, is sculpting an extension of writing poetry, in terms of how you approach it, or something completely different? Kyp, I see more of a continuity between writing and music, but what about between cartooning and music?
KH: It’s all just writing in one form or another, since it’s all about ideas….ideas you put into drawn lines, or notes of music, or into a dance. The form the art takes is not that important.

AG: Sculpting is something I do, but being a poet is an integral part of my being. I sculpt when I am inspired to. It takes months to finish a piece, and it requires a lot of patience on my part. It is like a sensual meditation. At times I have sculpted daily, at other times there are long stretches when I don’t sculpt at all.

DV: You’ve both identified your chief artistic mode of expression as being part of your essence, your very being. How did you branch out from the soul-synonymous art you’ve always done into some new, and different, medium?

KH: No, I said it’s all the same ….it’s about ideas, whether they come through movement, singing, drawing, writing or whatever. If you’re an artist it doesn’t matter how they come out.

AG: For me, sculpting offered another form to express creativity when I wasn’t writing. I was drawn to the tactile and grounding nature of working with clay.

DV: In your various artistries, do you have any guides, role models? Specifically, what have you learned from them?

KH: My earliest guide was Walt Disney. then he was replaced by Laurel and Hardy…and they were replaced by James Joyce…then he was replaced by John Lennon and Bob Dylan , who was replaced by Dostoevsky and Henry Miller, with garnishes of Kerouac and Faulkner and Virginia Woolf on the side…and overall the poetry of William Blake and Jesus rained down on them — and in reality none of them ever replaced the other, but joined in a nurturing web of soul and brilliance, that taught me to how to see, and taught me who was doing the seeing, and what was being seen…Until now, when I have no guides and role models.

AG: As a writer my first and only mentor was Dostoevsky. I found him when I was 16 and his work resonated intimately with me, showing me the transformative powers of language. He taught me ruthless honesty, but above all, the necessity of spiritual commitment in art. My second mentor came as my teacher and friend Elizabeth. She was a great sculptor and a formidable woman – fiercely independent, solitary and never relinquishing her joy in artistic discovery even when age started to debilitate her. She was the best possible teacher, as she guided me through the craft of sculpting while giving me room to seek out and pursue my own inspiration.

DV: Are there any specifically Canadian contemporary artists you resonate to?
AG: The question has two things I don’t care about as someone who does art or when experiencing art – nationality and time-era. Great art might reflect those things or use them as part of their backdrop, but ultimately it must transcend those barriers, and any art that doesn’t is boring to me.

KH: I don’t recognize nationalistic borders.
DV: Well, then, what about the future? How do you see your art developing from here?

KH: I hope to continue getting deeper into the art, going as far as I can with it. However many years I’ve got left to live, I know I’ll keep doing it, and for me there’s no point in doing it unless I can get to newer deeper places, in whatever medium I’m inspired to work in. That’s what makes it exciting for me, and my goal is to keep excited!
AG: I don’t know. I’ve just completed a goal of having all the poems I wanted published or accepted for publication and it has left space and a sense of freedom inside. I just feel open, patiently in-waiting and excited to see where my writing takes me next.
DV: On that note, I’d like to thank both of you for allowing me to intrude into your creative and personal lives. And, of course, I hope we all get to see, or hear, much more of your work.

Interview on Profiles in Poetry literary Zine (October 2015)

Profiles in Poetry interview 1 Profiles in Poetry interview 2 Profiles in Poetry interview 3

What drives you to write?

I write poetry because I have to. It sustains me; it keeps me sane, connects me to God and exposes my own personal truths.

How did you get started?

I started writing, mostly short stories, at the end of elementary school. In my first year of high school, I began to write poetry – not complete poems, but I started to explore articulating images with language. The real first poet I read in depth was Pablo Neruda, but I had been writing poetry many years before that.

Who are the best poets around right now?

Even though they are dead, in my opinion, the best poets that I have read areTheodore Roethke, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rainer Marie Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Dylan Thomas.

Where are the best places to publish?

A lot of the smaller indie presses – online and in print (or both) are great, as they don’t seem to have an agenda or pre-conceived intellectual ideas or what poetry should or should not be. Most people operating these presses are poets themselves and do it solely out of love of poetry and in establishing a sense of community amongst writers.

What are you reading right now?

The Hills Beyond by Thomas Wolfe.

What advice would you give to other writers?

I don’t have any advice, but for me, I write a lot. I also throw out 90 per cent or more of what I write. I write only when I feel an inner push, a necessity to write. Also, I have had to learn that there is no one way, one place to write, it happens when it must- making diner, having a shower, before bed, walking the dog or sitting still in the morning when everone else in the household is asleep. Sometimes it doesn’t happen for weeks or months, and that too is part of process.

Interview on Drunk Monkeys, June 2014

Interview on The Muse, An International Journal of Poetry, December, 2013

The Muse

(An International Journal of Poetry)

ISSN 2249 –2178

Volume-3 DECEMBER -2013 Number-2

An E-Interview with Allison Grayhurst

Interviewed by Dr. Pradeep Chaswal

(Allison Grayhurst has had over 280 poems published in more than 165 international journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then she has published ten other books of poetry and four collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing. Prior to the publication of Somewhere Falling she had a poetry book published, Common Dream, and four chapbooks published by The Plowman. Her poetry chapbook The River is Blind was recently published by Ottawa publisher above/ground press December 2012. She lives in Toronto with family. She also sculpts, working with clay.)

Dr. Pradeep Chaswal:

At which age did you write your first poem? Were there any incidents in your life that made you want to write?

Allison Grayhurst:

I wrote my first poem at the age of 13 for a poetry assignment in school. For several years before that, I wrote many short stories for school and for my own pleasure. For most of my high school years, I paid very little attention in class and occupied myself with writing poetry – not completed poems, but poetic lines, exploring words, ideas and rhythms.

In 1995, I got my first poetry book published by a respectable publisher. The day I received the acceptance was one I won’t forget. Also, getting a poem published in 2012 in the well-known New York-based Parabola magazine was also a highlight.

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I stopped publishing my work for fifteen years, never sure if I would try again, although through those years I kept writing nearly every day. It was difficult and insulating. At the end of that career sabbatical, in 2012 it was very rewarding to be able to put out nine of my books – all written during that 15-year time period – the way I envisioned them through those years, even with pictures of my sculptures on the front covers.
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Dr. Pradeep Chaswal:

What message do you wish to give our readers and poetry lovers?

Allison Grayhurst:

Thank you for reading poetry. I am actually surprised by how many people do. It is wonderful to know that poetry still retains some place and significance in the world. So again, thank you.

Muse interview

http://themuse.webs.com/dec%202013/allison%20grayhust%20interview.htm

Interview 2012:

Interview on Open Book, December 2012

POETS IN PROFILE: ALLISON GRAYHURST

Submitted by Grace on December 14, 2012 – 12:53pm

Allison Grayhurst is the author of The River is Blind, a chapbook of poetry from innovative Ottawa publisher above/ground press.

Today Allison speaks to Open Book about the Rilke poem that had a huge impact on her, the value of trees for writers and the best part of being a poet.

The best thing about being a poet is the lead up just before the poem arrives; it builds, until it becomes a necessary expression. Then seeing it in images, hearing it in words and rhythm, writing it — that is wonderful. It is where I am the most open, the closest I’ll ever be to God. The worst part of being a poet is everything else.

Allison Grayhurst has had her poetry published in over 115 literary magazines in Canada, the U.S., England, India and Australia. Her book, Somewhere Falling, was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband, two children, two cats and a dog. She also sculpts, working in clay.

For more information about The River is Blind please visit theabove/ground website.

Buy this chapbook from above/ground online via paypal atwww.robmclennan.blogspot.com or via postal mail by sending a cheque for $4.00 (add $1.00 for postage; outside Canada, add $2.00) to: rob mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6.

Check out all the Poets in Profile interviews in our archives.

Link to the interview below:

http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/poets_profile_allison_grayhurst