Dina Del Bucchia is an energetic literary dynamo. After three books of poetry, one story collection, a co-written work, magazine editing, writer’s series artistic direction, teaching creative writing, and co-hosting one of the most popular literary podcasts in the country, she’s somehow found time for a new book of poetry, titled It’s a Big Deal!, that uses wit, humour, and language to make us all think beyond ourselves. Del Bucchia is an exciting voice that definitely deserves our attention.
What do you think is the biggest deal in the world today?
This is the kind of definitive question that totally stresses me out. Because I find it so hard to see one deal without all the other deals that interconnect or contribute to that deal. That’s the biggest deal, I guess, that there isn’t just one major issue and that by fixing that one thing, we magically fix everything. All the deals feed into each other, partially cause another deal, or make a big deal problem worse. You start thinking of one, and more connect to that one and then more and more. Colonialism, climate change, sexism, transphobia, poverty. The links to awful big deals are strong and complex in their mesh. The work we need to do to improve the world and the living situations of so many is immense. On a lighter note, I love deals. Like, last week I got a very good deal on a watermelon print bikini. Bikinis are a small big deal. I love them.
Why use poetry to discuss these topics?
Poetry is the best! That’s the answer. But really, poetry can take on so many forms, can mimic other forms, can be free or more structured, can lead you down paths that open up ideas and use imagery that breaks the topic into the pieces you need to build, and poetry can be weird. In sort of a conclusion, overall I love writing poetry. The way poetry can interrogate a subject or even ourselves feels exciting to me, and the specific artistry of it allows, for me at least, a way to craft using voice and tone in a way that I probably couldn’t sustain in a longer form. I think if I wrote fiction more the way I wrote poetry people reading it would be super annoyed.
Is it hard to use wit and humour in your work, or does it come naturally?
I don’t really know how not to use it. That doesn’t mean it’s not hard. It is hard. A joke that falls flat is a rough lesson in craft, especially if you’re on stage reading and the room is silent and all you can hear is your disappointment and shame. I mean, to use humour well takes practice, takes work, and has been something I have honed and hope to continue to improve upon. But, I do lean into humour naturally. It’s something that’s helped me develop my voice and also helps me explore deals big and small in a way that a purely serious mode of writing wouldn’t. I find it energizing and also humbling.
How did the idea for this collection start?
I was in Whitehorse for a poetry festival and visited the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. I hadn’t fully realized the vast array of extinct mega fauna that existed. Giant beavers, ground sloths, camels and a beautiful array of big cats. Seeing their skeletons gave me a lot of ideas. I bet a lot of poets started collections because of some skeletons and taxidermy. I started writing poems about these animals and realized that a few other poems I had been working on had the idea of bigness in them. Once I wrote the title poem I started considering other bignesses and mapped out what I wanted to explore that related to what’s important in the world in a contemporary context.
Do you begin your poems with a technique or form in mind, or with the subject matter in mind?
Usually, it’s merely a line to start, an idea builds and the form comes later. I’d love to get more adept at the form and start with the intention to write with a specific form in mind. So many poets I admire and know are formal geniuses and I feel my books are so messy next to their books. But mess can be good.
What was your editing process like for this book?
It was long and layered. I wrote this book while also writing several other books that were all published before It’s a Big Deal! In a way, it was lovely to have more time to consider these poems and dip into them over time. The editing process included detailed notes from my literary best friend, Daniel Zomparelli, who always understands my work in a way that illuminates the key elements. And the final part was working with my friend Nikki Reimer, who was the editor for the book, and she dug deep and blasted the manuscript into the shape you see it in now. Always love to get those intense notes and sit in a stress heap pulling it together. Honestly, I truly do. Like going to the gym, feel that burn.
As an editor and creative writing teacher what excites you about Canadian poetry right now?
So many things! I learn so much from emerging writers. They are so astute and empathetic in a way that gives me so much hope. It excites me to think of the work they’re going to do in the future if this is what they’re already doing. I like that new presses have started to crop up, more chapbooks are being published, readings series are being created. People are not just innovative and exciting and honest in their own work, but they’re making space for the work of others and shining a light on the poets they want to support.
Does your Italian background inform your writing in any way?
It definitely makes my work very loud.
What advice do you have for writers who are trying to use humour in their writing?
I think voice is so important when writing with humour. And something I often tell my students is to avoid easy jokes, and obvious jokes, and jokes that punch down. Good humour isn’t lazy, it’s hard work. Revise your funniest lines. Ask yourself why you’re joking about a particular topic and if you’re the right person to do that. Always think about surprise. And most importantly, the humour can’t be an afterthought, but integral to the storytelling, the characters, the narrative, the poem. It should be threaded into the work.
What are you working on now?
Kind of nothing. I have a few ideas, but I haven’t written very much in a long while. I have some fiction in mind, but it’s not quite anything yet. For once I’m not barreling through ten projects at once. It’s kind of irritating to not know, what I’m doing, but summer is coming and I have a lot of bikinis to wear, so I don’t want to make too much work for myself.
To learn more about Dina Del Bucchia, please visit dinadelbucchia.com.
Leave a Reply