Congratulating the Canadian editor by whose devotion Ghanaian poetry has inspired a fortune of fellowship and reformation
An interview with Rob
Taylor. By Darko Antwi.
ANTWI: In 2006, you were
probably in Ghana for reasons other than a magazine of Ghanaian poetry. How did
you end up with One Ghana One Voice?
TAYLOR: My wife
(girlfriend at the time), Marta, was working at the AIDS Commission in Accra. I
joined her, which really confused the immigration officials and led to many
hassles with my tourist visa!
I founded OGOV
after living in Accra for seven months. Over that time I had tried to find
poets or writing groups I could participate in, but came up empty. I’m sure
they were out there, but as an outsider I had no way of finding them (remember,
this was pre-social media 2006: Facebook was in its infancy, and Twitter had
yet to be invented). I figured there were many others out there (in smaller
cities and towns, ex-patriot Ghanaians, fellow visitors to the country) who
were equally “cut off” from a writing community, and I wanted to do something
about that.
I was on GhanaWeb one
day (The closest thing 2006 Ghana had to Facebook) and came upon an article on
poetry by Julian Adomako-Gyimah. I got in touch with him to see if he’d want to
make something happening online – a meeting place for Ghanaian poets and those
interested in writing poetry on Ghana – and he was as excited as I was. At the
time there were very, very few websites devoted to African writing, let alone
poetry, and no such sites in Ghana, so we were keen to get something going. A
few weeks later, OGOV was born!
ANTWI: In your essay, The Cyclist, you were confounded by the
variability of Africa’s diverse culture. With that challenge, how did you so
earnestly manage the literature of native custom and expression?
TAYLOR: A great
question. I started OGOV with great trepidation and maintained that trepidation
throughout my years at the helm. OGOV has always been a team effort
(first with Julian, and later with others, most notably Prince Mensah), but
still I was always there at, or close to, the centre. And who was I to be doing
this? I know a good deal more about Ghanaian history, politics and culture than
the average Westerner (I have a Bachelor’s degree in African history, and, as
mentioned, lived in Accra and traveled throughout the country) – but it’s still
nothing compared to the knowledge and life experience of a born-and-raised
Ghanaian.
I started the site for
the same reason I’ve founded a number of organizations here in Canada – from
sports clubs, to print magazines, to community writing groups and book clubs –
because I wanted to see something in the world, and no one else was doing it.
My plan was always to have OGOV fade away once it had “competition”
doing the same work, which would mean it had served its purpose. We are in the
process of doing that right now.
As to how to manage a magazine
when I was an “outsider”, well, the simple answer is that I said “no” to very
little. I published most of what came in (especially
if by a young Ghanaian poet seeking their first publication), serving more as a
facilitator than a gatekeeper. My goal was to get people reading and talking
where they otherwise might not have been.
ANTWI: If any modern art
could be described as being the moral conscience of society, could you place the
OGOV collection in that perspective?
TAYLOR: I won’t try to
speak for OGOV’s place in Ghana’s moral conscience – again, that’s just
not my place. But on a personal level, the poems on OGOV deeply shaped
my thinking about poetry – both its purposes and my writing of it.
The poems I received and published at OGOV were more political than any other body of work I’ve encountered before or since as a reader or editor. The poems spoke about the things that really matter in life – social issues, capital “P” politics, crime, pollution, women’s rights, religion – you name it, an OGOV poet was talking about it. The poems were more outward looking than most poems in North America. They were more interested in having a conversation with the whole community than just with other writers; more concerned with substance than style (sometimes to their detriment, of course, but often to their benefit). I needed that as a writer – to be reminded what I was writing for, which was, and is, people. Not some future reader, some canon-maker (not eternity), but the people around me here and now. The people I love.
ANTWI: At the
height of the OGOV publication, you encouraged voluntary comments of
appreciation. How relevant was it to the fate of submissions which were written
mostly by ‘unestablished’ writers?
TAYLOR: Readers were always encouraged to comment on the poems through the blog's comment feature, and feedback was also encouraged via our annual calls for "Poem of the Year" nominees and our "How Poems Work" series. Your question motivated me to look back and see just how active our comment section was, and - wow! In the 2008-2010 period we were often getting 20-30 comments per poem, a few times over 50 (and once over 70!). It's hard to remember those pre-social media days when conversations played out in comment sections, but we were really going, and not just with comments on the poems themselves, but also the issues they raised (polygamy, tribalism, politics, etc.).
I'm very glad that
happened, though occasionally I felt for the author of the poem when the
critiques turned overly negative or the conversation transformed into a
political debate which was largely detached from the poem itself. Still,
the whole idea of OGOV was to bring poets together, and the comment
sections certainly did that.
As to how such
comments influenced the fate of submissions, the answer is they had very little
impact. Sometimes the comments on poems would suggest an interest in
certain topics or poets, and in that sense might have increased the likelihood
of poems on that topic or by that author appearing more frequently. Generally,
though, such editorial decisions were made without consideration to the
"commentariat," and instead were based on the quality of the poems.
ANTWI: How would
you respond to the critique which examines OGOV as “a sovereign space,
especially charitable to Ghanaian verses, but narrowly keen on quality
discretion – resulting in a huge inventory of mediocre titles”?
TAYLOR: I would
agree, at least partially. As I mentioned above, my goal wasn’t to publish
“only the best”. It was to bring people together (and to give young poets their
first shot). But we also published some really incredible poems by poets from
Ghana and around the world.
To highlight that, we
worked hard to give extra promotion to the strongest poems – as determined by
editors and readers – via our “Poems of the Year” feature, which we ran
annually from 2007 until 2012 (http://www.oneghanaonevoice.com/search/label/Poems%20of%20the%20Year).
This was an effort to “have our cake and eat it too” – to both make a space for
everyone and to particularly celebrate some of the very best work being
written.
ANTWI: Under what
circumstance would you recommend the value of self-publication to a poet of OGOV
advent (or any poet of similar experience)?
TAYLOR: Oh, this is a
question with so many answers! First, there is self-publication early in your
writing life: say, an online blog, or Facebook posts, or a self-published print
chapbook for friends and family. I think all these things are brilliant, and
everyone should do them when starting out and finding their footing. Gain some
confidence! Find some readers! Have fun!
For many, doing the
above will satisfy their desires as writers. Others, of course, will want to go
further – to publish poems in larger magazines, to publish books, etc. Then my
answer is (mostly) to minimize self-publishing. I completely understand the
temptation to self-publish. The reality is you’re going to write a lot of bad
poems, and face seemingly endless rejection, in the journey to becoming a
successful writer. It makes perfect sense to want to shortcut the process.
It took me almost a
decade of writing before my first book was accepted by a publisher. Along the
way, I had over 900 poem-rejections by magazines (now over 1200, and counting).
And sometimes it hurt. Sometimes a lot. But it made me a better writer, too, by
forcing me to face my shortcomings and improve on them.
The “(mostly)” above
refers to a couple things:
1.
I still self-publish here or there as the spirit moves me (if, say, I write a
topical poem about a political event and want to get it out to readers
immediately, or I write a personal poem that I only am interested in having a
few friends or family members read). But these are the exceptions rather than
the rule.
2.
Social media (Instagram poets, for instance) has opened up some paths to wide
readership that are being created as we speak. The future may all be online self
publishing, for all I know. But for now that seems like a massive sea to drop
into, with very few islands to swim to.
ANTWI: How has life
after OGOV been?
TAYLOR: Great! I have a
bad tendency of holding on to projects for too long – I become used to the
routine, and sentimentally attached. But with OGOV I knew from the
beginning that a time would come for me to walk away, which made finally doing
so easier.
Looking back, OGOV was an incredible amount of work! When the magazine was at its peak – for about six years there – I was reviewing, accepting, editing and publishing a poem a week, year round, alongside an interview with the author. It was madness, really. But I loved the work, and didn’t realise how much of my life it was taking up until I stepped back.
I enjoyed that extra
time for a few months, and then Marta and I had a baby. So now “OGOV time” has
become “baby time” (and “writing time” has become “baby time”, and “sleep time”
has become “baby time”, etc.). On top of that, I have a new book out, The News (poems written during, and
about, Marta’s pregnancy), the promotion of which sucks up whatever tiny spare
moments the baby allows.
ANTWI: Two years after
your resignation, have you ever felt an OGOV Saturday poetry nostalgia?
TAYLOR: Yes! I miss joy
of opening an email and having a poem from a stranger knock me sideways. More
than that, though, I miss the friendships. I miss exchanging thoughts on poems
and poetry with people like yourself, and Prince Mensah, and Martin Egblewogbe,
and Nii Parkes, and Mariska Araba Taylor and most of all, the late L.S Mensah.
I've met few finer minds and I miss her dearly.
ANTWI: We appreciate
your interest and service toward the development of Ghanaian poetry. Thank you
very much!
TAYLOR: Thank you
for this chance to chat, Darko – and for all you do. It’s always a pleasure to
speak with you, and to be able to talk about such a happy time in my life.
Rob Taylor is the author of two poetry
collections, The News (Gaspereau Press, 2016) and The Other Side of
Ourselves (Cormorant Books, 2011), and five poetry chapbooks. The News
was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and The Other Side of
Ourselves won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize. Rob lived in Accra in 2006/07,
where he co-founded One Ghana, One Voice, Ghana's first online poetry
magazine. He now lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and son, where he
coordinates the Dead Poets Reading Series and teaches Creative Writing at the
University of the Fraser Valley.
Title: The News
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Gaspereau Press
ISBN-10: 1554471648
ISBN-13: 978-1554471645
