Andrusyshyn’s Mammoth Up for Award

Fringe ArtsAlex Manley — Published November 23, 2010

Despite its, well, gargantuan name, Larissa Andrusyshyn’s first volume of poetry doesn’t attempt to be big poetry.

It deals with big things, yes. Life, death, memory are all present and accounted for in Mammoth. Organ donation, extinction, human cloning, the Drake equation and a mathematical formula for calculating the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe—these all make appearances. The titular mammoth—well, its modern-day clone, at least—even gains the infamous freshman fifteen while attending college.

And yet, it is not these sizable or expansive things that stand out, but the little ones; the gifts of oranges, the stuffed extinct animals in museums, the anthropomorphization of things—a stomach on a dinner date, a heart attack, hiding in wait behind a parked car, a death that is 18 years old, being registered to vote.

This is hardly tear-stained verse, however. Over those 18 years since her father passed, Andrusyshyn had some time to come to terms with the pain of losing him. Rather, the emotion driving Mammoth forward isn’t an out-of-control sadness, but a sort of forlorn longing.

As she put it, she “wanted to address [her father’s death] in a way that would eliminate the possibility of sentimentality.” The feelings that remain are like a light snowfall: cold, beautiful, and strangely refreshing. Too much of them would be overwhelming, but there is something magical about them in small doses, and Andrusyshyn has adroitly apportioned them in Mammoth.

Though she professed to find herself frustrated with her own writing more often than not, the Quebec Writers Federation has been more forgiving. Mammoth is up for the QWF’s First Book Prize for the best debut, along with Doug Harris for YOU Comma Idiot and Sean Mills for The Empire Within.

She admitted to being “really shocked,” but also extremely pleased about the nomination—not only for herself, but also for her press, DC Books and for Quebec poetry, noting that she was pleasantly surprised to see a poetry collection listed along with two novels.

If the QWF nod suggests that poetry is still taken seriously in Quebec, it should also act as an affirmation of the value of the Concordia creative writing MFA program. Mammoth “began in grad school,” and Andrusyshyn admitted that her experiences in her workshops helped form both individual poems and the overarching ideas behind the book.

After experimenting with a mammoth character, Andrusyshyn recalled that her classmates had said, “I want to see more of the mammoth!”

It’s hard not to think they were right; these poems are worth seeing more of.”

To listen to the full interview with Larissa Andrusyshyn please Click here

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 15, published November 23, 2010.