On November 26 & 27 we’re hosting our second-ever AugurCon, our virtual celebration of speculative literatures! We’re joined by over 45 amazing guests, including authors, poets, editors, and publishing professionals, to explore the intersections of the world we know—and the ones we dare to imagine.

We connected with Manahil Bandukwala, writer of the poetry collection MONUMENT, who is a panelist at this year’s AugurCon.

Get your ticket to attend her panel:

Speaker, Voice, Persona: Exploring Speculative Poetry
Sunday, November 27 at 3–4:00 PM EST / 12–1:00 PM PST

To see the full weekend program schedule, visit our website.

Congratulations on your debut poetry collection! This latest work has a distinct voice and takes the form of a conversation with Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal. And many of your chapbooks are collaborative, too. So we’re curious: How have collaboration and conversation shaped your voice as a writer?

I’ve published a number of chapbooks, and most of them are collaborative. One chapbook is with my friend Conyer Clayton; another is with my partner Liam Burke; another is with my sister Nimra Bandukwala, and two are with my collaborative writing group, VII.

Publishing five chapbooks in three years feels like a huge feat in retrospect, but at the time putting each of these collections together was an exercise in joy and play. Each chapbook is different from the last, but each one has allowed me to think about how I write and what I write about.

I wrote MONUMENT before I was actively collaborating with other writers to produce multi- and poly-vocal works, but this idea of conversion has a clear influence on my writing. With experience in stepping out of my own voice through the collaborative endeavours, though, I was able to edit MONUMENT into the collection it is today.

Collaborating with other writers has let me fully embrace the idea that all (my) writing exists in an ecosystem with other writers and artists. Above all, collaboration has made it easier to write. There are more active and continuous sources of inspiration. I’m up-close to new ways of creating poetry. I’m pushed beyond what is familiar or comfortable to me, which keeps my writing fresh and exciting—or at least I hope it does!

Tell us a bit about your writing process! Are there any writing haunts, rituals, or thematic through-lines that have stayed with you since you began writing? Or does the process of writing each poem, chapbook, collection look very different?

I have to admit—my writing process is non-existent right now as I’m swept up with the post-book publication promotion life. Perhaps this is because I’m not very good at keeping a consistent writing practice, or because I’ve exhausted everything in the particular area of my interest. Not writing as a writer isn’t uncommon, though. I’ve heard other writers talk about the post-book lull. It’s a time to observe, ruminate, ponder. To collect bits from the world and tuck them away for something grander, later.

Some projects unspool thematically from others, while some feel tucked into their own world. The personal writing projects do have links—post-MONUMENT, I’m interested in ghosts and afterlives, but rather than being from history, I look several hundred years in the future. As that wraps up, I’m not sure where the next threads will lead, but likely connected somehow.

The poems I’ve written lately feel very strange and somewhat disconnected. A spider holds winter in its belly. An alternate universe in the style of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Another poem about the moon. Something that has changed since I first started writing and publishing seriously is that I don’t feel like every single piece has to go somewhere. These poems might morph into something bigger—or they might not go anywhere at all.

Do you have a favourite spec genre to read? To play in as a writer? If these genres are different, do they interact with each other? If so, how?

I love poems and stories about worlds tucked within our world: tiny creatures in the hole in the wall; the fairies in the hollow of a tree trunk, and what makes its home beneath the dresser. In all of these worlds, I imagine the creatures and beings living their day to day lives — nothing fancy or grand, just the coziness we all need.

At Augur, we talk a lot about “stories for the futures we need.” We know what it means to us—but what does that mean to you?

To me, this means the future that you, personally, need. Each person’s needs are different, and that means we need as many stories as possible. A story about the same topic can be written over and over again but it’ll be different—it’ll signal to the plurality of futures rather than attempt to capture a single vision for everyone.

Hear more from Manahil: Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022

Manahil Bandukwala is a writer and visual artist originally from Pakistan and now settled in Canada. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award. She works as Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine, and is Digital Content Editor for Canthius. She is a member of Ottawa-based collaborative writing group VII. Her project Reth aur Reghistan is a multidisciplinary exploration of folklore from Pakistan interpreted through poetry and sculpture. She holds an MA in English from the University of Waterloo. Her debut poetry collection is MONUMENT (Brick Books). See her work at manahilbandukwala.com.

Join Manahil at AugurCon! Our panel on Speaker, Voice, Persona: Exploring Speculative Poetry takes place on Sunday, November 27. Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022 now!