The 2026 O:JA&L Masters Series: Flash Fiction
Featured Writer Interview
ASSOCIATE EDITOR JEFF STREEBY
INTERVIEW WITH FEATURED WRITER BRUCE MCRAE
Click HERE to explore or download Bruce McRae’s free PDF chapbook MY CRAFT AND SULLEN ART…
BRUCE MCRAE, a Canadian musician, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with poems published in hundreds of magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and North American Review. The winner of the 2020 Libretto prize and author of four poetry collections and seven chapbooks, his poems have been broadcast and performed globally.
Bruce McRae doesn’t spend much time theorizing about poetry—and he’s happy to tell you why. In this interview, he talks candidly about how he came to writing, what keeps him at the desk, and why he’s more interested in clarity, momentum, and enjoyment than in fashion or literary posturing. Self‑taught, sharp‑tongued, and deeply committed to revision, McRae reflects on influence (from Emily Dickinson to Bob Dylan), the practical mechanics of making a poem work, and the pleasures—and irritations—of a long writing life. Along the way, he discusses WOLF, his use of recurring figures, his skepticism toward contemporary poetry culture, and his enduring belief that poems should entertain first and explain themselves second.
The O:JA&L interviewer adopts an open, craft‑centered approach, using clear, generous questions to invite reflection rather than argument or theory. The emphasis is on practice, habit, and lived experience, giving McRae room to speak in his own idiom while gently guiding the conversation across influence, composition, poetics, and audience.
ON THE MATTER OF ARTISTIC LINEAGE
Streeby for O:JA&L: Which writers, artists, or composers have most shaped your ear—even through disagreement or resistance?
Bruce McRae: I’m not sure how interesting my influences would be to the casual reader– Charles Simic; Don Domanski; Charles Wright; Kenneth Patchen; Billy Collins; John Ashbury. They all seem to tickle my fancy. I’ve not read fiction in a long time but if I did, I’d want to write books like Kurt Vonnegut or Kafka. My taste in art is fairly unsophisticated: Kandinsky; Dali; Picasso, Warhol; Basquiat. As for songwriters, I’m all rock and roll, the Beatles and Dylan, Elvis (Presley and Costello); many things from the 60s British invasion or 70s punk era. Bowie, of course. I find music of the 2020s to be fairly bland, and AI is destroying what’s left of it.
Streeby for O:JA&L: How did your formal education intersect with your poetic development, if at all?
Bruce McRae: Zero. I was thoroughly bored with school, so I’m in the ‘if at all’ camp. School was nothing but a nuisance. I suppose I did need a babysitter, but I was a troublesome little so and so. The class clown, most of my teachers probably wanted to drown me in my own sputum. As it was, I didn’t start writing poems until my mid 40s, school by then just a bad dream.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What informal experiences or artistic communities were most formative for your work?
Bruce McRae: The Poetry Library in London was a wellspring I returned to again and again during the 2000s. My favourite library I made sure a few of my books were on its shelves. The performance poetry scene in the 90s also helped encourage this madness I’ve been pursuing ever since.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Looking back, what do you recognize now as a decisive influence that you couldn’t see at the time?
Bruce McRae: You know, if I had to think about it, and apparently I do, I’d say it was the first poet I ever fell in love with, the enigmatic Emily Dickinson. I think I was about 11 when I first read one of her poems. I found her approach captivating. Good old Mr. Bob Dylan affected us all, the crossover between music and poetry to the front.
CONCERNING INVENTION AND COMPOSITION
Streeby for O:JA&L: Describe your drafting conditions: what do you protect when a poem is beginning, and what do you invite?
Bruce McRae: I write by hand, revising along the way. I then type the poem into that year’s writing file, with more revising on the wing, re-reading and re-revising over the months. If I can’t save the poem I may recycle ideas, lines, phrases, titles, but that duff poem is never seen by anyone. The temptation for writers is to fall in love with their own voice. ‘If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out.’
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do poems typically enter the work—through image, sound, statement, or disruption?
Bruce McRae: It can start with a single word. That word becomes a sentence. More sentences follow, and hey presto! A poem. Image, sound and statement are factors which figure, but disruption, not so much. I don’t write to change the world, or even myself. The world is too much with us.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What does revision mean to you at this stage: clarification, resistance, escalation, or erasure?
Bruce McRae: Heaps of erasure! Which leads, one hopes, to clarification. As those who are interested in literature we forget that many, if not most, people don’t read that well or easily, if at all. There’s no sense in telling a joke if it’s in ancient Sumerian. What’s that line about muddying the waters in order to appear deep?
Streeby for O:JA&L: Is there a recurring craft problem you wrestle with—tone, endings, abstraction, momentum—and how do you approach it?
Bruce McRae: Endings are tricky. The whole poem can be ruined by an unsatisfactory last line, or even an errant comma on some days. I can start a poem on a whim but the ending has to resolve itself.
Streeby for O:JA&L: In what ways has your background in music shaped your sense of rhythm, pacing, or sonic pressure in the poem?
Bruce McRae: Music has helped with pace, momentum and beat, I reckon. With musicality. Each line I write has a little drummer in my ear, though that may just be tinnitus. Song lyrics and lyrical poetry are twins, though I find poems that rhyme rather old fashioned and limited in scope. I put much more time into poems than I do a song’s lyrics.
ON A PERSONAL POETICS
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do you understand “voice” in poetry: as signature, mask, method, or a set of permissions?
Bruce McRae: I’m not even sure I even understand that question. I’m self-taught and don’t approach writing from a scholastic point of view. Heaven forfend. I do it solely for enjoyment and write what first comes to mind. Poems are instigated by a word or memory or what I’m reading, that sort of thing. I’m an entertainer.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What do you want contemporary poetry to do that it often resists doing—formally, ethically, or perceptually?
Bruce McRae: I would like contemporary poets to stop writing about themselves, unless they’re a very interesting person. The ‘I’ in my poems isn’t even me. I’m trying to escape reality, not wallow in it. As for publishers I wish they’d drop the whole themed issue kick they’ve been on since covid. It makes for monotonous and dull reading. Poems should be chosen for merit alone. Trust the poem and not the poet.
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do you think about lyric intensity in your work: where does it come from, and how do you pursue it?
Bruce McRae: I never think about lyrical intensity and won’t even attempt to comment on it. That sort of approach is beyond me. I do know you have to read if you’re going to write. Read up on grammar, syntax, tense, sentence structure, that sort of thing. There has to be some need to ‘say’, and if not maybe you’re dabbling in the wrong art form. Yeats once said ‘We are too many’ when referring to poets. He’d swallow his tongue if he were alive today. I never think about lyrical intensity as such, and any attempt on my part to comment would just be me waffling.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What formal habits or strategies do you find yourself returning to, and what do those habits help you avoid?
Bruce McRae: I’d call them ‘practices’. I need utter silence. I need books and coffee. I need to write first thing in the morning, and in bed. I need to revise. Then revise again. Then some more revising. After that, I’ll revise again.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What role does risk play in your writing now, compared to earlier stages of your career?
Bruce McRae: I’ve always written what I’ve wanted to write, as and when, so little risk has ever been involved, other than working up the courage to submit poems. Just barrel on through, do your 10,000 hours and remove as many imperfections over time as you can. Also, that word, ‘career’; it’s not one I’d use when I speak of writing. That would imply there’s some sort of payment involved (be still, my heart). I write for love and not for money.
ON WOLF
Click on the title WOLF to explore or download the PDF poetry chapbook.
We see WOLF as a chapbook‑length lyric sequence in which you mobilize the figure of the wolf as a site of formal and philosophical inquiry—a destabilizing energy rather than a consistent emblem. As you move skillfully across human, animal, and mythic registers, we watch the wolf signifier resist an available conventional allegory in favor of an unexpected set of intellectual and emotional impressions that rises from tonal accumulation, declarative pressure, and associative logic. These formal and thematic pressures give rise to the following questions, with which we invite you to reflect on the sequence’s evolution and methods.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What drew you to the wolf as a sustained poetic figure in WOLF?
Bruce McRae: I live on the edge of the wilderness, with bears on the porch, cougars in the yard, elk, deer, whales, seals, otters, eagles and of course wolves gallivanting all over the province. So, there’s that. But at the time I was reading Vasko Popa’s collected works and was inspired by his sequences. I also have a number of characters like Wolf I’ve employed in the past. I suppose someone might suggest the wolf represents man’s more primal aspects.
(For a detailed discussion of WOLF, follow this link.)
Streeby for O:JA&L: As the sequence developed, how did the wolf’s function or meaning shift for you?
Bruce McRae: Not, not as such. The whole premise was rather steadfast. He’d just keep popping up.
Streeby for O:JA&L: How conscious were you of shaping WOLF as a unified chapbook rather than a gathering of individual poems?
Bruce McRae: The Wolf poems came about during a writing session of over 400 poems. It was only after writing enough of them that I considered putting them together as one sequence. There are many Wolf poems that didn’t make the cut, revisions be damned.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Several poems employ declarative, dialogic, or interview‑like frames—what do these forms make possible for you?
Bruce McRae: Dialogue is a great way to debate an idea while displaying more than one point of view, often in a humourous fashion. Plato used them to explore philosophy, while for Virginia Wolff, no pun intended, it was all about emotion and consciousness.
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do you prevent metaphor from becoming static or illustrative when working with a recurring figure?
Bruce McRae: By going to extremes and using varying images. The more outlandish the better. I’ve never metaphor I didn’t like
ON THE INFLUENCE OF AUDIENCE
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do you imagine your reader, if at all, while writing?
Bruce McRae: I’m the ‘audience’, so I imagine what I’d prefer to hear, or not hear. I try to make my sentence as easy to read as possible and rarely write of current events. I like the idea of a poem that’s not of any one time and place.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What kind of reading do you hope your work encourages—slow, unsettled, amused, resistant?
Bruce McRae: Amused. I like that. Bemused? If the reader has to go over the line time and again I’d say my sentences wasn’t as comprehensible as I’d wished them to be. Some of my poems can get pretty ugly.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Across your books and chapbooks, what feels like the most significant shift in your practice?
Bruce McRae: I take longer now with a poem than when I first started. And much more revision. But honestly I go at it much as I always have, writing for fun. Remember fun? At this stage of my life though I think I’ll put poetry on the back burner and try other avenues, like plays and non-fiction.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Which project currently feels most essential to you, and why?
Bruce McRae: I have 19 unpublished poetry manuscripts, of which 9 are currently with publishers waiting to be rejected. The system is so clogged up with writers of all ilks that I’m considering self-publishing for the first time in my life, just to get my poems out of the house. All the publishers complain now about being swamped with submissions.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What questions or pressures are driving your work now?
Bruce McRae: The only question I can think of is ‘Who is going to publish my book?’ There’s little pressure as I’m not competing with anyone but myself.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What has sustained you through the long arc of a writing life?
Bruce McRae: The fact that I enjoy doing it. I’ve been wordy since day one. It’s a form of play and I’m just a big kid at heart. Rampant insomnia has played a major role. I guess I get my REM period in while writing.
CONCERNING CURRENT PROJECTS
Streeby for O:JA&L: Are there forthcoming books or chapbooks you’re currently preparing or thinking toward?
Bruce McRae: Presently I’m writing a daily short essay every morning of 2026. I’ll be submitting poems till the end of time as well, it seems. I think I’ll have more work read in magazines and the like than I’ll ever have with books.
Streeby for O:JA&L: What stage is your next major project in, and what questions are guiding it now?
Bruce McRae: Day 78 of 365. I do wonder if I have the resolve to continue to the end of the year, but it’s been enjoyable so far. I’m learning a lot. If I can entertain someone as much as myself I’m on to something.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Do you have any upcoming readings or public appearances scheduled in the near future?
Bruce McRae: Living on a small island, every reading elsewhere requires 2 ferries and a motel and thusly 500 dollars, so readings are rare and generous patrons are in short supply. Myself, I don’t really enjoy poets reading their own works. Writing and oration are two different skill sets. In a perfect world I could send out avatars to do the grunt work for me.
Streeby for O:JA&L: How do live readings factor into your relationship with the work once it leaves the page?
Bruce McRae: Only when I put them to music do the poems alter in any way for me. I’ve had many of these played on radio stations and podcasts around the world. I like that, the two disciplines going hand in hand.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Will there be opportunities for readers to encounter your work through book launches or signings?
Bruce McRae: No, not in the foreseeable future. I think there are more writers of poems than readers.
Streeby for O:JA&L: Where can readers best follow news about your publications and appearances?
Bruce McRae: A throwback to another time, I don’t dally much with social media, other than a facebook page and The Bruce McRae Channel on Youtube. Much madness ensues there.
About the writer:
BRUCE MCRAE, a Canadian musician, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with poems published in hundreds of magazines such as Poetry, Rattle, and North American Review. The winner of the 2020 Libretto prize and author of four poetry collections and seven chapbooks, his poems have been broadcast and performed globally.
Image: Surveillance (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creator. 2026. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
This project was made possible, in part, through support from
Grayling and Wraith, a growth marketing company.
O:JA&L’S BUTTONHOOK PRESS MASTERS SERIES
Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks in the O:JA&L Masters Series.
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The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
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The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
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The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
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The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
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The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
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The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Tom Hazuka on Flash Fiction
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The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Kent Dixon on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
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