Biography
Alice Burdick lives in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. She is the author of many chapbooks, pamphlets, folios and four full-length poetry collections. Deportment, a book of selected poetry, came out in 2018 from Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Alice's poetry has been described as playful, surreal and imagistic. She often writes about daily life as well as internal and external landscapes, and doesn't shy away from satire or the anti-sentimental lyric. Influences have included Emily Dickinson, Marina Tsvetayeva, Frank O’Hara, Lorine Niedecker, Ted Berrigan, and Anne Waldman.
Her work has also appeared in several anthologies including Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence and Locations of Grief: An Emotional Geography and she has authored three cookbooks. She co-founded the independent bookstore Lexicon Books, and is also a mentor and workshop leader.
Micro-interview
I have loved poetry since I was a child, but especially since high school and onward. I loved Frank O’Hara's “Having a Coke With You” — and still do!
I started to write poetry in earnest when I was around 16 or so, after attending a wonderful extra-curricular class called The Dream Class in Toronto. I didn’t start to think of myself as a poet really until I immersed in the micropress/small press scene in the early 90s (when I was in my early 20s).
I believe the job varies. The primary job is to perfect your craft — and that means reading a lot of other poets widely, and editing frequently. To explore new realms with your poetry, to follow where it leads, down unknown paths, to change.
Because I love Frank O’Hara so much, I’d go with “The Day Lady Died!” But of course, there are so many very excellent poems from which to choose.