The Dusty Owl reading series began in the early 1990s as a way to showcase talent, said organizer Catherine Macdonald.
The Charlatan’s Ashley Wenyeve caught up with former Carleton student Brandon Wint, who performed at the Elmdale House Tavern as part of the series Jan. 15.
The Charlatan (TC): Where do you find inspiration for your writing?
Brandon Wint (BW): My inspirations are various and diverse. [They] mostly come from being a human being who doesn’t have all the answers but has a lot of questions. The poetry comes from wanting to ask those questions and the small inklings of answers that I get about what makes the universe pull together in the way that it does, what makes me the human that I am, and what it is to be alive. So really I am just collecting perceptions and organizing them.
TC: How do you ensure that you continuously develop and are not stagnant as an artist?
BW: The way I do that is by making myself available to the stories of others, not because I believe that my poetry is meant to tell other people’s stories but because that’s what inspires me the most. Hearing other people’s perceptions of humanity, where they come from, and how they feel about what it is to be alive. Also, on a practical level because poetry is my full-time job I have to be writing and reading poetry consistently or hearing it somehow. I have to find the time to grow and get better in this art form on a consistent basis and I have to be around it often. I have to be extracting the duties from other people’s poetry and finding out what it is that poet is doing that allows their work to evoke such strong emotions.
TC: How do you go about titling your poems? Is it an act of spontaneity?
BW: I’m not very good at the moment. I think that some times the title of a poem can be perfect, it could be exactly what the poem means and at other times it could be a bit out of place. It comes afterwards, never before. You read the poem and understand what the poem is and you’re like OK, what name am I going to give this poem to represent what it is at an emotional level.
TC: What is your writing process like?
BW: Ordinarily, I will go into a coffee shop close by and I will sit down with a sandwich, about five books of poetry, my notebook and a pen and I will just eat, read and write. When the words aren’t coming I will read other people’s words, try to be inspired and hope that the poetry of others stirs something in me and make my own poetry easier to write. It’s really about making myself available everyday to be inspired by the world and that requires being out in the world and not doing most of my poetry inside of my house. I have my eyes open and my notebook open.
