A poet, translator, educator and experimenter, MacEwan University’s 31st writer in residence, M.L. Martin is available to support students, staff and the public with their writing during the Winter term. 

Martin has been published in a variety of Canadian and American journals and has taught writing workshops and literature classes at universities, including here at MacEwan. 

Martin is set to have their experimental translation, titled W & E, of the Anglo-Saxon poem, ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’ published next year by Action Books. We asked them about writing, poetry, language and how a thousand-year-old poem is still relevant today. 

How does your background as a poet lend itself to your writer-in-residence role? 

Poetry requires careful attention to sound and image – essential to any kind of writer. 

Being a poet also means I’m very well-acquainted with language and the different ways in which it can create a specific response in a reader. That translates to all other genres of writing. 

You’re about to publish your translation of ‘Wulf and Eadwacer,’ which was written more than 1,000 years ago. What makes it relevant today? 

The original poem is radical, and how it uses some of the dominant genres of the time – like the riddle, which was a very popular literary form at the time – and mixes them with other forms fascinates me. 

Through the lenses of feminism and queer theory, we understand the author’s experiences of marginality – as a woman, a person of colour, a queer person – are not new. As soon as humans were writing and speaking the English language, some of them were reflecting on the difficulty of living on the margins of society. While living these harsh realities, which unfortunately are not so very far away from the harsh realities that still exist today, some people – this poet, at the very least – were putting language together in radical ways in order to give voice to these experiences. 

What are you writing right now?

I’m working on a hybrid work tentatively called Forever Wild that combines short essays on feminism, neurodivergence and queer theory with poetry and non-fiction pieces. It’s about a section of the Adirondack mountains of New York, which can’t be developed, mined, clear-cut or otherwise disturbed in any significant way for the rest of time. It’s very early on in the project, but ultimately I hope the work will have something to say on the value of difference, diversity and divergence – in the context of biology, nature and culture. 

You’re also working on a collaborative project during your residency. How can we get involved? 

I’m putting together a durational, community-based collaboration called Queering the Archive. Students, faculty and staff from any discipline (or no discipline) are enthusiastically encouraged to stop by my office and interact with experimental archives I’ve selected from the library. The interaction could be anything inspired by something you see or read from the archive.

I plan to publish it in a Canadian literary journal, giving credit to all the collaborators. 

What’s your best advice for aspiring writers?

Life is short. Don’t waste any time on works, authors or literary movements that don’t inspire and challenge you.

Find the authors who are doing something that excites you and makes you want to add to the unique literary conversation that their works constitute. Find the small presses and literary journals that put out work you love and support them. Build your own unique canon of works that are important to you, across all genres, and find a way to contribute to that conversation.  

Martin is available for one-on-one meetings or class visits. To check availability or book an appointment, visit MacEwan.ca/WIR. 

Responses have been edited for length and style.