Nicole Mae, for “Prairie Bog”
read Mae’s shortlisted work here
2025 Bronwen Wallace Awards • Poetry Shortlist
interviewed by rob mclennan
Established in memory of writer Bronwen Wallace, this
award has a proven track record of helping talented developing authors secure
their first book deal. Two $10,000 prizes will be given for outstanding works
of unpublished poetry and short fiction. The 2024 Bronwen Wallace Award will be
announced on June 2, 2025.
Nicole Mae is an interdisciplinary
artist. Their poetry, films, and artworks reflect themes of nostalgia, longing,
Prairie queerness, Hungarian diaspora, ill body, shame, and romantic love. Mae
teaches poetry, hosts creative writing workshops, and runs a multimedia art
subscription called Love Letters. Mae lives in Treaty Four, otherwise
known as Southern Saskatchewan.
What first brought you to
poetry?
I’ve been writing ever
since I was a kid but it was during my upperclassman years of high school
that I found my way to poetry. My creative writing teacher saw value in my
poems before I did. She encouraged me to submit them to magazines and to
attend local writing retreats. I was apprehensive at first, but the
Saskatchewan poetry community was so welcoming. I found myself wanting to
be a part of it. It was around this time that I met my first love as well.
Instantaneously, I started writing poems every day. I studied up on the
Beatniks, listened to word-heavy rappers, and bought as many books as I could
afford.
Who were you reading?
What poets were prompting your writing?
At that time, the poets I
found most inspiring were Audre Lorde, Allen Ginsberg, Anaïs Nin, Yrsa
Daley-Ward, Tyler Knott Gregson, Rudy Francisco, and Pablo Neruda. I also loved
studying song lyrics. People like Lauryn Hill, Tupac, Nas, Nonname, Lana Del Rey,
Nujabes, and Hotel Books inspired me greatly too.
What were those writing
retreats you were attending, and how did they help inform your writing?
I attended a writing
retreat called Creating in the Qu’Appelle a couple of times. Unfortunately,
it’s no longer up and running. I had some wonderful mentors though—Jennifer
Still, Evie, Ruddy, and Sheena Koops being a few. Attending Creating in the
Qu’Appelle was pivotal to my journey as a writer because it was the first time
I found myself surrounded by a community of storytellers. The energy was
invigorating. There were spoken word readings, literary workshops, rap
performances, Indigenous and trans keynote speakers, and forest cabins full of
new friends. Plus, all of my mentors nudged me towards poetry. I had been
writing a magic realism novel at the time, and they all expressed enthusiasm
for my prose and descriptive language. They told me to apply it to poetry.
What did those first poem
efforts look like? And how do you feel your work has developed across the time
since?
In the beginning, my
poems were impassioned and raw—full of bluntness and urgency. They focused on
exposing specific feelings and experiences rather than shaping them with
intention. Over time, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of craft, and have
refined my work to become more thoughtful, immersive, and vivid. I feel as
though I can express my stories and experiences with more
ingenuity now.
The submission process
for the Bronwen Wallace requires putting together a small, chapbook-length
selection of your poems. What was that process like, to assemble your poems
into such an order? Did you find it difficult? Enlightening? Did you learn
anything about your poems by attempting to put them together into something for
submission?
The process felt organic!
Prairie Bog is a part of a larger, finished manuscript. It was quite fun
sifting through it to find ten poems that could best encapsulate its geist. I
wouldn’t say I learned anything new about my poems but instead revisited some
tender memories and experiences of mine.
What strikes me about
some of the poems in your selection is the physicality, the immediacy, of the
landscape. How important is landscape to your poems?
Landscape is deeply
significant to my poems because it holds many memories. Throughout my life,
I’ve retreated to prairie fields, lakes, and hills to process grief. When
language has felt out of reach, and my body has carried more pain than I could
manage, the land didn’t ask for explanations. It offered its presence and a
place to sit. There’s such solace in cold winds, shuffling grass, birdsongs,
and Western sun. People are often surprised at my fondness for Saskatchewan
because the politics are quite dreary here. There are cruel and unjust bills
being imposed right now—all of which affect me directly. Gender diversity,
disability justice, and reproductive rights are being trampled on, and I’m
working hard with my communities to oppose that. Simultaneously, I’m able to
remind myself that our land is not our politics. Our land is wiser and stronger
than any system we’ve built. I can still find queer joy and mind/body healing
when I leave my house every day.
How do you see your work
in relation to the work of other Saskatchewan poets?
My poetry is definitely
distinctive—written from uncanny experiences, linguistic experimentation, and a
gender-bent perspective. This being said, I do share a deep sincerity and
earnestness with other Saskatchewan poets. While our approaches to poetry may
differ, there’s a common thread of authenticity and gratitude that connects our
community.
Tell me about the
multimedia art subscription Love Letters.
Love Letters
is my monthly snail mail project! Each month, I write a letter and include an
art piece (such as a poem, zine, sticker, photograph, painting print, etc.)
that goes along with it. I started this project at end of 2024 with the
interest of distributing my art and writing in a tactile way. With the rise of
malicious social media and AI art theft, I wanted to create an intimate, safe,
and slow-paced experience for those who want to engage with my work. It’s been
a lot of fun making small art and sharing life events as they happen in real
time.
Born in Ottawa,
Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa,
where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine
McNair. The author of some fifty trade books of poetry, fiction and
non-fiction, his most recent titles include On Beauty: stories
(University of Alberta Press, 2024), the poetry collections Snow day
(Spuyten Duyvil, 2025) and the book of sentences (University of Calgary
Press, 2025), and the anthology groundworks: the best of the third decade of
above/ground press 2013-2023 (Invisible Publishing, 2023). Oh, and a new chapbook lands with Ethel Zine in June. The current Artistic Director of
VERSeFest: Ottawa’s International Poetry Festival, he spent the 2007-8 academic
year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.
