Poet, performer, artist, curator and literary activist, Vanessa Bell is also director of the poetry collection at Éditions du Quartz. Her literary arts practice has taken her work to the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia. She is the author of two collections of poetry, an anthology on women’s poetry in Québec, and an essay on cold water swimming. Her writing is vivid and sharp, a whirlwind of audacity whose central themes are sisterhood, filiation, real and fantasized territories. She has won several grants and awards and is, under the mentorship of Nicole Brossard, the first francophone Canadian to be supported by the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Rising Stars programme.

She sits down with NCW’s Chief Executive Peggy Hughes to discuss how her travels have transformed her as a writer and as a person. Together, they touch on her work in Quebec, the many ways a project can evolve and change over time, and how professional mentoring has uplifted her work.