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CB: Hello Aidan! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. To begin, I’m so curious about your profession as a public school teacher. How does this job influence your writing, and vice versa? And how do you find time in your busy schedule to write?
AC: Teaching is a humbling experience; at least, it is for me. I find the cliché of “they teach me as much as I teach them” is true in some ways. However, it’s more that I am reminded of how challenging it is to be a person in the world and to learn, or “be educated” and deal with social and personal issues that arise. When I teach, I am humbled by how much I am reminded of this fact. To answer your second question, I have to fill in the gaps of my day, the pauses, or breaths between being a busy ant for the system. I write during prep periods, when I’m taking the dog for a walk, in the car on the drive home, when I can’t sleep. I kind of write poetry like a forager. I’m continually on the hunt for time. The easy answer to this is summer. I do most of my work on my time off. But as most poets know, it’s a full-time job if you want to be a poet. There’s no off-season for a lot of us.
CB: It’s very inspiring to see people like you who are truly passionate about what they do and make time for it despite how busy their lives are. There are so many excuses for putting off writing, especially if you have a demanding career, and I love that you’re just like, nope, this is important to me so I’m getting it done.
AC: Yeah, I learned that “writing is a habit” from David Sedaris. You have to make it part of your daily routine. Even if it’s something as small, or simple, as coming up with a line, or an idea and jotting that down.
CB: Yes! I totally agree. Also, I can imagine that you’re an inspiration to your students. So often in school we’re told to be realistic about our dreams and to choose a practical career, so you’re proof that you can still make big dreams happen even with a day job. This ties in nicely to my next question. Have you always known you wanted to be a poet? When did you decide to make this dream a reality, and what were the first steps you took?
AC: Great question. So, I’ve never really considered myself a writer. I was a jock in high school, and I really didn’t get into literature in general until university. If you would have asked me, say, in Grade 10 what my favourite book was, I would have responded with whatever I read in Grade 9 for English. I didn’t think about poetry or writing until I fully appreciated language and the complexities of it during my undergrad years. I wrote a lot of bad poems during those years, and I eventually turned to playing guitar and not thinking too much about it. It wasn’t until my mental and personal health were in crisis that I turned to writing poetry as therapy, as a way to cope. This is going to sound cliché, but writing poetry, in a way, saved me. I actually started out as more of a spoken word poet too. I would visit the Monday night poetry slams at Café Deux Soleils on Commercial Drive and the energy and vitality of the performance poets were just mesmerizing. I remember watching Jillian Christmas, Duncan Shields and RC Weslowski and I was like, “Wow! I want to do that.”
CB: I really admire your willingness to be vulnerable on the page and share stories of mental illness, family dysfunction, addiction, and self harm. I was particularly moved by Psych Ward Hymnals in Short Histories of Light and Drowning Man Sonnets in Gospel Drunk. What compels you to write these intimate and personal poems, and what message are you hoping your readers to get out of them?
AC: I remember in high school we read Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Our class actually went and toured Riverview Hospital, which at the time was an operational mental health facility. We had several patients talk to us and I was thinking, “These people are strange.” Then a few weeks later, my dad sat me down and told me that he had major depressive disorder, and that he thought it would be good for me to do a diagnostic. I ended up being diagnosed with depression not long after. I would hide my mental illness for years after that. I was just too ashamed of the stigma attached to people who struggle with mental health. When I was able to climb my way out of my pit and into a better place, I realized that I had nothing to be ashamed of. It’s very liberating to share these struggles, to be honest. It’s cathartic for me.
CB: I think it’s so powerful that you're using your platform to speak about these experiences and help to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health. It must feel so freeing to have this work out there, knowing that your story is being heard and that it’s resonating with your readers.
AC: It is freeing, but at the same time I feel vulnerable, and I do get anxious, considering I’m a public school teacher and there are responsibilities and standards that make the themes of my work controversial, perhaps, or even unethical. I sometimes wonder what students might think; and parents and colleagues for that matter.
CB: The issues you talk about are things that many young people struggle with, and adults pretending that these problems don’t exist only perpetuates the stigma and secrecy. I think it’s really important that you’re sharing this work. You’re telling people that they aren't alone. This stuff needs to be talked about, because it’s happening, and more often than many want to admit.
AC: That’s exactly it. I’ve always felt that way. There’s a public feeling, particularly in Canada and the US, to “put on a brave face” and to “not talk about your feelings or problems because we all have them.” It's such an unhealthy and backwards way of addressing social and personal issues.
CB: 100%. Talking about it openly and showing pathways to healing means that hopefully future young people won’t have to spend so many years repressing, denying, hiding, obliterating, etcetera like people before them.
AC: Exactly. If you look at the opioid epidemic in this province, and the way we mistreat, misdiagnose, and mismanage the people living in the Downtown Eastside, it’s an elephant that no one feels comfortable addressing, and appears to get worse year after year.
CB: That’s so true. I could talk about this for ages but I don’t want to take up too much of your time so I’ll move on to the next question. I wanted to spend some time talking about Gospel Drunk, your recently released second book of poetry. How did this book come about?
AC: This book partially came about because I was successful in publishing Short Histories of Light and I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t a fluke. I can be very self-critical which I try to use as motivation to improve, rather than to self-destruct. The other part is that I have always had a bit of an axe to grind when it comes to the afflictions caused by organized religion. As someone raised in the Catholic Church and growing up in the BC “Bible Belt”, religion has always attracted and repelled me. I still had some residual religion poems roaming around inside my head that wanted to be let out.
CB: Yes, I totally got that sense in the book. On the back cover, author Annick MacAskill calls the book “a bare-knuckled interrogation of organized, patriarchal religion,” which rings so true. While your reflections on your Christian upbringing are at times solemn and sincere, there’s also often a playfulness and humour to them. I’m specifically thinking of the poems Mike in Short Histories of Light and The Light Salesmen in Gospel Drunk. Why is examining, deconstructing, and critiquing religion such an important aspect of your writing?
AC: I think it’s because I believe it is something that few people talk about seriously. We might joke about religion in secular groups, but when it actually comes to analyzing and dissecting belief systems, we seem to give it a pass because it’s tied to culture and tradition. For older generations it was one of the three things you wouldn’t talk about at the dinner table; the others being sex and politics. Judeo-Christian mythology is so inundated in our public systems and the history of Canada that it’s hard not to take a look and see that many of the problems we see in our society link back to religion and religious institutions. We are only now talking about the church’s influence on the Indigenous peoples with regards to the Residential School system.
CB: Yes, I think this commentary is so necessary. Critiquing religion is not the same as trying to tell everybody they have to be atheists; it’s about holding powerful systems accountable for the harm they’ve caused. And I agree that Canada still has so far to go in regards to admitting to and reckoning with our genocidal past, and especially how, like you said, the church participated in many horrific acts of violence and systemic abuse upon Indigenous peoples.
AC: The poet Jericho Brown said, “Every poem is a political poem.” I try to write with that in mind. Religion is very political and I simply want to write about it.
CB: Regarding politics, I have to mention how much I appreciate the strong and self-aware feminist tones in your work. I’m thinking of these lines from Why God is a Father in Short Histories of Light: “Only man can cause / so much pain for a woman and call it a gift. / Only a man can take away so much light / and provide none in return.” And these from Good Men in Gospel Drunk: “Good men / aren’t avengers or caped crusaders, / vigilantes on a quest for justice. / They don’t place pride ahead / of responsibility. Good men / stay home at night collecting / the words whispered by their lover.” Why is it important for you, as a male author, to include these narratives in your writing?
AC: I think all of us need to be feminists in the sort of way that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie coins feminism. As a cisgender man I want to see equity and equality for all women, cisgender and transgender, and for gender nonforming people as well. A lot of men feel uncomfortable talking about women and women’s issues, which is why it’s crucial that men do tackle these topics. There is still too much toxic masculinity in our communities and one way of moving forward is addressing and identifying sexism, and what better place to start than the patriarchy in Christianity.
CB: It was really refreshing to read poems like these. What I especially appreciated is that you brought up important feminist topics without making the work centered around you. You use your voice and platform to bring awareness without giving yourself a gold star for being a “woke” man. Good Men in particular is a poem that I think many men who want to be allies could benefit from reading.
AC: We also need more open conversations about how men don’t have a fixed identity. There’s no template for how to act like a man, or be a man. However, religion and the media have told young men how to behave. In addressing this in my poetry, I think it offers an alternative approach or perspective. I think about Judith Butler a lot, particularly what she says about “gender performativity”.
CB: Yes, this is why voices like yours are so important. Because boys and men do need strong masculine role models, just ones that aren’t toxic and misogynistic.
AC: Right, thank you. I’m glad that came across. I wonder about the online practice of virtue-signalling and making sure one is saying the right thing for the sake of not getting in trouble. In order to feel more comfortable in voicing your actual opinions you need to be educated on the topics. But that’s a more layered and complex discussion.
CB: Yes, I agree. This is an important conversation to have, but I'm being conscious of time so I have to move on to the next question. I’m very curious about who your favourite poets are?
AC: I love being asked this question. It’s my favourite question about poetry. So, for me my personal close-knit favourites are Kiki Petrosino, Kyle Dargan, Tony Hoagland, Jeffrey McDaniel, Jericho Brown, Katie Ford and Emily Dickinson. As for Canadian poets, I love Kate Braid, Kayla Czaga, K.B. Thors, Raoul Fernandes, Shane Neilson, George Murray, Tolu Oloruntoba, Kevin Spenst, Benjamin Hertwig, Curtis Leblanc, Evelyn Lau, RC Weslowski, Jillian Christmas and Daniel Cowper.
CB: That’s an impressive list! And many names I’m unfamiliar with, so I’m excited to check out some of those authors. Okay, last question: If one of your students came up to you and said they want to be a writer like you when they grow up, what advice would you give to them?
AC: I would probably first ask them what they are willing to sacrifice or compromise financially. Then I would tell them to read good writing; a lot of good writing. Then write. Revise. Submit. Rinse. Repeat.
CB: I think that’s great advice! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, Aidan. This was a wonderful discussion and I can’t wait to see what you write next.
