The man, the myth, the poet: George Elliott Clarke
Interviewing Dr. Clarke was certainly the highlight of my year. As a lover of poetry and a poet myself, it was an incredible opportunity to meet one of the real-life giants of contemporary poetry. Dr. Clarke’s bibliography is extensive, and his knowledge of all things is positively overwhelming. Despite being such an intellectual and artistic giant, Dr. Clarke had no problem offering insight and advice to the students of Dr. Manole’s creative writing class, and to me during our interview.
I prepared 10 questions for Dr. Clarke on paper, and had many more stored in my mind in case we had time. I ended up asking Dr. Clarke six questions and he spoke at length for an hour-and-a-half. I was completely blown away by Dr. Clarke’s ability to thread seemingly unrelated topics together with his words. He is an animated speaker, completely engaged in conversation, and eager to share his thoughts. More importantly, a man of his stature doesn’t need to listen to or entertain some fourth year undergraduate’s thoughts on the direction of Canadian poetry, but he did.
You never know what opportunities are going to come your way, but you should endeavour to keep your eyes wide open.
–Sierra Paquette-Struger
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