Photo credit
Sarah Race Photography

Biography

Dina Del Bucchia is a writer, podcaster, literary event host, editor, creative writing instructor, and otter and dress enthusiast who grew up in Fruitvale, BC and now lives in Vancouver on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. She was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and is the author of the short story collection, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, and four collections of poetry, most recently, It’s a Big Deal! https://talonbooks.com/books/its-a-big-deal Her writing has been described as "exacting in its humour and badassery and irreverence," and is often about contemporary culture, pop culture, and how it influences our lives. She is the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series, hosts the podcast "Can’t Lit," with Jen Sookfong Lee, is on the editorial board of fine.press and teaches writing comedic forms at the University of British Columbia. She was previously a senior editor of Poetry Is Dead magazine. 

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?

I didn't read much poetry in high school and I wish I had and I didn't even know what a literary magazine was until I went to university. I did obsess over song lyrics and would listen to Mazzy Star and Hole for hours on end. Besides reading epic poetry in Literature 12, that was my main engagement with poetry in my teen years, the lyrics to songs I loved. 

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

I wrote my first poem about a kitten in second grade and I think that is exactly when I started to consider myself a poet. Though my work has changed a lot, I've still been writing poems about animals since I was seven years old, whether kittens, otters or, as in my most recent poetry collection, extinct megafauna, like megaldons, giant beavers and mammoths.

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?

I think a poet's job is to write, to write in the way they want to write, about the things they're interested in. Poetry is so broad, and I think the more we try and narrow the definition of poetry and what a poet's job is the worse poetry becomes as a mode of writing. 

If you have a poem in our anthology what inspired you to write it?

When I wrote, "Wow! You've Changed" I was writing a lot of other poems using common phrases that seemed to be repeated, whether in popular culture or regular conversation. This poem started as a rumination on the phrase as it's used in popular culture, often in teen dramadies or reality TV shows. I then started thinking about what change looks like to the person who is saying this, and wanted to fool around with that concept. What literal manifestations might that take on? What physically could change look like? Building on that idea of change. I think the title could be used as a writing prompt very easily, and anyone could write about the way a person has changed, or how they themselves have changed. 

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

I love Emma Healey, a great writer, and I love "Trust Fund Witches." A perfect title for an incredibly wonderful poem.

Publications

Title
Coping with Emotions and Otters
Publisher
Talonbooks
Date
2013
Publication type
Book
Title
Rom Com
Publisher
Talonbooks
Date
2015
Publication type
Book
Title
It's a Big Deal!
Publisher
Talonbooks
Date
2019
Publication type
Book
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