Carmen Mathes is a writer, artist, and UBC PhD candidate who took time out of her busy schedule to chat with Sad Mag about her contributions to the upcoming Issue 9, plagerizing Jack London, and the best gymnastics video on YouTube. Read on!
Sad Mag: Who are you?
Carmen Mathes: I am an academic and a romantic, who is spending the next six months in the South of Germany reading poetry.
SM: What are you writing for Issue 9?
CM: I’m interviewing two twins who, having grown up together and then settled at opposite ends of the country (Vancouver and Montreal), are both breaking into the Canadian fashion scene. Although they are going about “making it” in extremely different ways, both possess panache, style and sophisticated cosmopolitanism.
SM: What is the first piece of writing you were proud of?
CM: I wrote a short story in grade three that was a rip-off of Jack London’s White Fang. The teacher read it aloud to the class and my cheeks were definitely flushed with pride the whole time.
SM: Favourite Vancouver authors?
CM: Gillian Wigmore (although she’s based in Prince George) and Rachel Rose are two of my favourite Vancouver poets. I brought Gillian’s collection Soft Geography with me to Germany, and it’s currently living bedside.
SM: Favourite place in Vancouver to read and write?
CM: Upstairs at Trilussa pizzeria on Main Street. Go say hi to Alessandro and he’ll make you a breakfast pizza with nutella, strawberries and parmigiano-reggiano.
SM: Best bookstore?
CM: The miniature Pulp Fiction on West Broadway
SM: Current favourite YouTube video?
CM: This 1979 recording of Russian gymnast Natalia Shaposhnikova’s bar routine, which I found on the wonderful Rick McCharles’s website GymnasticsCoaching.com.
SM: Favourite annual Vancouver event?
CM: Eastside Culture Crawl!
SM: Where are you as you answer these questions?
CM: Die Vogelhaus Café und Kaufhaus. I’m sitting on a cushion in a little space between the regular tables and the window. I’m at street level, looking out onto the Münzgasse in die Altstadt of Konstanz.
SM: Last album you listened to?
CM: “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” from Yo Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.
SM: What are you most excited about right now?
CM: This new word I’ve just learned—Möglichkeit—which means “possibility” in German. That is how my life currently feels: filled with possibilities.
To help support Issue 9, come to our St Patrick’s Day fundraiser GINGA NINJAS at the Cobalt!