S3 Episode 13: Michael Prior talks about poetry as a medium for asking questions

ABOUT THIS EPISODE: In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Michael Prior, whose book Burning Province is a finalist for the 2021 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. In their conversation Michael talks about watching Star Wars with his grandparents, the way literature is bringing the history of Japanese Internment into the present, and how he finds metaphors within his work to help with the writing. ABOUT MICHAEL PRIOR: Michael Prior is a writer and a teacher. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous magazines and anthologies across North America and the U.K., including Poetry, The New Republic, Narrative, Ambit, Poetry Northwest, The Margins, PN Review, Verse Daily, Global Poetry Anthology 2015, The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. He is a past winner of Magma Poetry’s Editors’ Prize, The Walrus‘s Poetry Prize, and Matrix Magazine‘s Lit POP Award for Poetry. His first full-length book of poems, Model Disciple, was named one of the best books of the year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Prior holds graduate degrees from the University of Toronto and Cornell University. He divides his time between Saint Paul, M.N. and Vancouver, BC. ABOUT MEGAN COLE: Megan Cole the Director of Audience Development for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in The Puritan, Untethered, Invisible publishing's invisiblog, This Magazine and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book titled Head Over Feet: The Lasting Heartache of First Loves. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com ABOUT THE PODCAST: Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen. Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.