Photo credit
Shawna Lemay

Biography

Adriana Oniță is a Romanian-Canadian poet, artist, educator, and researcher. She is the editorial director of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the founding editor of The Polyglot, a multilingual magazine of poetry and art. She writes poezii în limba română, English, español, français, and italiano. Her recent poems appear in CBC Books, The Globe and Mail, Tint Journal, The Humber Literary Review, in her chapbook Conjugated Light (Glass Buffalo, 2019), and in the Romanian Women Voices in North America series. Adriana recently completed her PhD in language education, focusing on how youth can maintain their heritage languages through arts-based practices. Twitter: @adi_onita; IG: @adi.onita; Website: adrianaonita.com

Micro-interview

Did you read poetry when you were in high school? Is there a particular poem that you loved when you were a teenager?

Absolutely! As a teenager, I remember reading e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, and Christina Rossetti. I was obsessed with “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. In my Grade 9 L.A. class, I even wrote a "remix" or parody of this poem. I was lucky to have brilliant teachers in junior high and high school who made space for creative, fun, inspiring poetry projects like that. I even remember analyzing Eminem's “8 Mile” for an English class!

When did you first start writing poetry? And then when did you start thinking of yourself as a poet?

I started very young! Poetry is embedded in my mother language and culture (Romanian). I remember memorizing and reciting poems at home and school at five years old. I began writing poetry in grade three, and continued throughout my schooling, but it wasn't until I studied with Derek Walcott (Nobel laureate in literature) in university that I gained the courage to start imagining myself as a poet. I was around 20 years old when I began to take poetry seriously, and incorporated it into my research, my teaching, and my community work. It was also in my twenties that I realized I can mix and play with the languages I know. I read bilingual poets like Gloria Anzaldua, Oana Avasilichioaei, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Tato Laviera. So I now write in Romanian, English, Spanish, Italian, and French — sometimes within the same poem!

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?

I once asked a 10-year old the same thing and she said: “to inspire an absolute sense of freedom.” But I won't steal her answer (lol).

I would say a poet's job should involve a mixture of both individual and community work. Yes, we should work at our writing, experiment with language, and perfect our craft. But we must also remember that poetry, historically, has been a social and political activity. We must make space for others to thrive and to have their voices heard. This is why I consider myself a poet, but I'm also a community arts-organizer with the Edmonton Poetry Festival and The Polyglot magazine.

If you had to choose one poem to memorize from our anthology, which one would it be?

I would memorize “From thirsty by Dionne Brand because it is full of passion and great imagery. Also, you have a poem by one of my current favourite poets, Ocean Vuong, “Deto(nation),” that is so powerful. I don't know if I could recite it without weeping, though.

Publications

Poem title(s)
Hărnicie, Ie, Dor, Nădejde
Title
CBC Poetry Prize Shortlist
Publisher
CBC Books
Date
2021
Publication type
Periodical/Magazine
Poem title(s)
Landing in Edmonton, December
Title
The Art of Winter
Publisher
The Globe and Mail
Date
2020
Publication type
Periodical/Magazine
Title
Conjugated Light
Publisher
Glass Buffalo Publishing
Date
2019
Publication type
Book
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