Growing up in Waterloo, the Governor General's Award wasn't something I even thought to wish for.

If you realize early what your influence is, you can have a better understanding of what you are writing about.

To map the Governor General's Award is to map both the past and the future of Canadian literature, and to be nominated for my first book is wonderful.

One of my oldest friends has a cottage on Smoke Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park, and it's one of my favorite places in the world.

Shakespeare fascinated me. He hardly ever left the country. His imagination was worldwide though reading.

He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.

Artists who are passionate about their music and in love with their art go independent because they want to continue making music and serving it to the world.

I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.