Exploring poetic craft with Jaime Forsythe

Jaime Forsythe's most recent book of poetry is Yield (Wolsak & Wynn/ Buckrider Books, 2026). Her previous collections are I Heard Something (Anvil Press, 2018) and Sympathy Loophole (Mansfield Press, 2012). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Arc, EVENT, Grain, The Malahat Review, Geist, The Ampersand Review, and This Magazine, among others.

Author Jaime Forsythe

Jaime holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and currently lives close to where she grew up in Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki. In this interview, Jaime is exploring poetic craft, her influences, and the impact of AI on creative writers.

Exploring poetic craft, its evolution and influences

OCW: Has your writing evolved over the years? If so, how? Through writing experience? Reading a lot? Writing courses or communities? A combination, or something else?

JF: Yes – at least I hope so! I would say reading widely has had the biggest impact on opening my mind to the possibilities of form and language. I did an MFA, where I met a number of inspiring creative people. Since then, I’ve continued to take occasional classes and workshops, mostly online. These have been helpful to shake up my thinking and provide me with some structure or deadlines. Trading work with other writers, and benefiting from their feedback, has been an important part of my process, too.

OCW: Which authors and/or types of books do you like to read?

JF: I like to read as many different types of books and authors as I can. I’m especially fond of short novels/novellas (I recently joined a novella book club!), short stories, fiction in translation, and poetry, of course. I enjoy hybrid and experimental forms, nonfiction and memoir, and the odd mystery/thriller.

Publishing, technology, and the future of poetic craft

OCW: If you’ve been published, how did you find your first publisher?

JF: In 2010 I was living in Kingston, Ontario, working as a research assistant in a lab. Writer and editor Stuart Ross was the writer-in-residence at the university where I worked, and I brought him a handful of poems (enabled by my boss, a literature-loving scientist). I also attended many of the reading series and workshops Stuart organized throughout his residency. Eventually he took on my first collection, Sympathy Loophole, through his imprint at Mansfield Press. So many writers in Canada have benefited from Stuart’s mentorship and risk-taking spirit; I’m very lucky to have been one of them. Publishing in literary journals was also an important and natural step to eventually publishing a book.

OCW:  Do you see generative AI as a threat or benefit to writers?

JF: I don’t see generative AI as providing benefits to creative writers. As an artistic tool, I just don’t find it very interesting. More broadly, I’m concerned by its underpinnings and effects such as exploitative labour practices, environmental impacts, misinformation, youth mental health…no doubt there are more implications I don’t yet understand or know about.

OCW: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

JF: I do a bit of both, though for me the real pleasure of writing is in the re-writing and editing.