Ottawa poet Sylvie Hill will be launching her new collection, Russell Square Station: mine the trash, at Centretown’s Venus Envy bookstore on Feb. 13. Paired with art by Juan Carlos Noria, also known as dixon, Hill’s poems tell the true story of a one-night stand, heartbreak and resolution – the ideal read on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
The book uses the combination of poetry and art to follow the journey of two friends: Hill and her unidentified “Muse,” who lives in Britain. After meeting 13 years ago in the UK and sending countless emails to one another, the two reconnect in London, England – home to the chatty and blunt Muse.
What follows is Hill’s struggle with the pain of realizing this Muse was not what she expected, of a drunken sexual encounter, a potential pregnancy and finally letting go of the man she says is her soul-mate.
“The poems are about sexual naivety and British envy,” says Hill. “The book will question ‘what is non-consensual sex?’ versus ‘bad bedroom manners’ – a topical theme following the Jian (Ghomeshi) scandal.”
Born in Calgary, Hill moved to Ottawa in 1979, at the age of five. She stayed in the capital throughout her education and received a Master’s degree in English Literature and Language from Carleton University in 1999.
Hill says the process of getting the book to its launch kept her afloat and saved her spirit. She began writing the poems in November of 2013 (after arriving home from her trip to Britain and feeling like she wanted to “drown and go away”) and did not stop until last April.
“I did not choose to write them, they came to me,” says Hill. “I knew that was the process for healing from the sexual infraction that took place in a London hotel room with the Muse, for which I was 50 per cent responsible – as my crotch was present.”
She then had to assemble the poems, reliving her story over and over as she did so. Next, work began with Noria, the artist, and Laura Fernandez (also known as Olivia), the book’s designer. A Kickstarter campaign took the book the rest of the way.
“Getting the Kickstarter going and watching the dollar figures rise was a sign of positive growth and we could see the bloody creation start to take shape before our very own eyes,” says Hill.
“Labour pains came when I realized even though we made our funding goal to print the book, I’m out a couple grand.”
However, Noria says he doesn’t consider the collaboration to be money-oriented.
“I see it as a community project where two individuals from the same town . . . came together to share their creative skills,” says Noria. “In doing so, we learned skills that we’d not experience before.
“More importantly,” he adds, “we learned about respect, communication, sharing and how the power of people funding a project is a powerful alternative to anything we have ever (known).”
The launch event at Venus Envy, an education-oriented book and sex shop on Bank Street, will include a multitude of activities throughout the night. Shelley Taylor, owner of the store, says she is excited to provide a platform for local-poet Hill to launch her work.
“Our mandate for the store is to do sex-education,” says Taylor. “So when we sell fiction, it’s often fiction of a sexual nature, or has a sexual component, or theme of gender, sex positivity… all those things.”
Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the activities begin at 9 p.m. The night will include a question-and-answer session with Hill, readings of some of the poetry found in the book, a mysterious “special video” (which Hill says reflects the story told in the collection) and will finish off with a book signing at 10 p.m.
“I don’t expect the Muse to show up like Mr. Big at Carrie (Bradshaw)’s launch,” Hill says, referring to the tortured romance at the heart of the 1990s hit television show Sex and the City.
“At any rate, you’ll know he’s walked in the door by the look on my face. Haven’t decided if that would be fear, disregard . . . or love.”