Rob Taylor is the author of four poetry collections, including Strangers (Biblioasis, 2021) and The News (Gaspereau Press, 2016), which was a finalist for the 2017 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Rob is also the editor of What the Poets are Doing: Canadian Poets in Conversation (Nightwood Editions, 2018) and the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry 2019 (Biblioasis, 2019).
Rob's poems, short stories and essays have appeared in more than 50 journals and anthologies. In 2014 he was named one of the inaugural writers-in-residence at the Al Purdy A-frame, and in 2015 he received a City of Vancouver's Mayor's Arts Award for the Literary Arts. He lives in Port Moody, B.C. with his wife and children.
Rob's advice for Writer's Studio applicants
What are you looking for in your workshop group?
Hard-earned trust. Workshops thrive when all participants are open and generous with one another (in praise, in criticism, in attention). When your classmates see you sweat - in how closely you are reading their work, in how thoughtfully you are communicating your responses - they will respond in kind.
Also: laughs. We are all writers because writing brings us joy. A workshop should never lose sight of that.
What do you look for when reading an applicant's submissions?
Technical skill is nice, but mostly I'm looking for heart. Are you writing about things that are vital to you, and are you finding ways to communicate that vitalness to readers? Also, to what extent are you already working hard at your craft: how much are you reading within your genre? Outside it? How much are you experimenting/playing? How willing are you to fail?
Success in writing is not about how talented you are at the start, but how determined you are to keep getting better. If I can sense your determination, then I'll be with you all the way!