Anna Quon
Alt text: Quon has short curly hair, and is smiling softly against a bright green background. She is wearing a colorful, patterned scarf .
Biography
Mad, mixed-race and middle-aged, Anna Quon has worked in the not-for-profit sector for more than two decades, except for several years as a freelance writer. She self-published a number of small, handmade poetry chapbooks, including Mental Illness Poems (2011), before her first traditionally-published poetry chapbook, Body Parts, came out with Gaspereau Press in 2021. Anna’s latest novel Where the Silver River Ends was released by Invisible Publishing in 2022, making a trilogy with her first two novels Low (2013) and Migration Songs (2009).
Since winning the film pitch competition The Launch in November 2022, Anna created her first short documentary film, Me and My Teeth which premiered at the Lunenburg Doc Fest in September 2023. Anna is currently working on writing poetry and memoir, and facilitates writing and other creative workshops. She likes to make zines and films of her own poetry. Anna lives in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) and is Halifax Regional Municipality’s Poet Laureate for 2024-27.
Poetics Statement
“I like to write poems, what I call poems,
for people to enjoy and find meaningful.
I write for myself first and second for
and audience that is partly composed
at least in my mind
of people who don’t generally read poetry,
or think of themselves as people who like poetry.
If you can’t take anything from what I wrote
I feel deflated and question my poem.
If you take enjoyment and/or meaning
from my poetry, I consider that
a success.
I usually want to communicate
clearly with my poems, feelings and ideas,
but sometimes I want to write something
that only I know what it means and see what happens,
I think I’m the kind of poet who likes to observe
what I experience and what’s going on around me
in the natural and human-made world
and write about what I think and feel about it.
I believe that reality is something
most of us don’t really perceive and poets
can help us catch glimpses of it.
So poetry can be a mirror, a window, a door—
a microscope, a telescope, a kaleidoscope!
Sometimes, though, I have an agenda
and want to convince you of something.
As a poet, I’m like I am in real life
sometimes I listen, sometimes I talk
sometimes I want something
sometimes I’m giving you something.
Poetry often confuses me
I don’t always know what
to think or feel when I read a poem.
The worst is when
I feel nothing and get bored.
I like to be clear
when I read and when I write poetry.
I think I am probably old-fashioned
but I don’t like to leave people out of my poetry
except when I leave everyone out of it
except myself.
”
Sample of Poet's Work
Medication Time
Somewhere
there is a great hole
where all our happiness is buried
We walk the streets
in cloaks of fog
puddle-soaked and dreamless
Our umbrella closes weakly
over us, a broken thing
We look for the sun's
Ragged spot in the sky
but it's endless,
cloud upon cloud
Inside us is a tap turned off
The dark drip into a tin can
that's all
There's nothing to be done
but get in line and wait for
the latest dispensation
Little circles
ovals, oblongs
bitter as dandelions
