Nancy Daoust is a newcomer to the Canadian writing scene. Her writing often explores our relationship with nature and the place where we live. It is also influenced by her love of pop culture and music. She is an associate member of The League of Canadian Poets, belongs to the Sudbury Writer’s Guild and volunteers with Wordstock, Sudbury’s Literary Arts Festival. Nancy has been published in Terra North and Sulphur XI. She was also part of Sudbury’s storefront poetry project, as well as Painted Voices, a chapbook about Sudbury’s General Hospital, and its RISK mural. Her poem “enveloped” won the judge’s choice in the 2023 Spring Pulse Poetry Contest.
You can read her poem In trance in the July 2023 issue.
Why was the poetic form the best fit for this particular piece of work?
The poem describes a surprising brief moment. I wanted to encapsulate the narrator’s response and realizations in a short, tight manner.
Do you have a collection of poetry or even a single poem that acts as a touchstone?
Sometimes I return to Kayla Czaga’s False Noon On Highway 16 for inspiration and guidance. The poetic description is so fresh and unique and the narrative reveals such a complex character.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a series of poems with a photographer. We’re using poetry and photos to explore urban life.
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
Most definitely, music. I’ll hear a lyric that often triggers a poem. A new version of that lyric sometimes ends up in a poem. The mood of a song can also be influential. Lord Huron’s song “When the Night is Over” inspired a poem. I wanted to recreate the same wistful, dreamy, suspense as the song.
What are you reading or watching or listening to lately that intrigues or inspires you?
Annie Ernaux, the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for literature. I’m working my way through her collection of books which explore her life experiences. I’m intrigued by her ideas about “the gulf between the stupefying reality of things that happen, at the moment they happen, and years later, the strange unreality in which the things that happened are enveloped”, as well as our concept of what truth is.
Have you ever received advice (or has there been something you’ve learned on your own) about writing or revising poems that has made you a better poet? What was it?
Tanis MacDonald offered this terrific piece of revising advice. Leave a poem you’re stuck on aside. Take some time to reread a favourite or mentor poet’s work. Steal the poet’s attitude and return to the draft.
Do you belong to a writer’s group? If not, where do you find poetry community and feedback?
The Sudbury Writer’s Guild has a number of Inner Circles. I belong to the Poetry Inner Circle. We meet monthly to workshop and critique each other’s work.