Meet Micah Pawluk ... ![]() How long have you been a member of NOWW? I just joined NOWW around a month ago. What do you write? I write poetry, songs, choral works, and am currently working on a memoir about my (mis)adventures hiking and mountain climbing in Scotland. Do you have a favourite book or favourite author? There are very few things in life that I can name as my favourite. I am deeply moved by the works of Mary Oliver, Heinrich Heine, Johann Goethe, Robert Frost, Fyodor Dostoevsky… the list could go on, but suffice it to say that I am constantly searching for new reading material. Let’s get to know you a bit better. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your way to writing. I grew up in the small town of Dorion. My father is a trapper by trade, so I am no stranger to the outdoors; trapping, hunting, fishing and exploring were all integral parts of my upbringing. I moved to Thunder Bay to study piano at Lakehead University, where I finished their Honours Bachelor of Music program, and their new Artist Certificate in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. I won top prizes in two international music competitions: one in Italy, and the other where the prize was to play in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Music is my first and greatest passion, but I am also deeply in love with words, photographic images, and the connections between all three. I am a Romantic, drawn to writing by the need to express myself. The natural word and my own experiences are most often the sources of that inspiration. Tell us a bit about your writing and your writing style. I recently self-published my first large-scale work, a collection of poetry entitled “A Boy from the Woods”. This collection reflects on my upbringing, and the struggles faced by a country boy and his artist self; coming of age, trying to find one’s voice, and, of course, love. It is available in both Chapters and Coles in Thunder Bay. I hope to publish my Scotland memoir when it is polished, and will keep you posted on that front! As for how I work, I don’t schedule times to write. I write in the same way that I compose music; I don’t write a single thing down until I know what I want to say, and then I work feverishly until it is completed. It’s not the healthiest or most orthodox method, but it is the only way that makes sense to me. And, really, what are my writing and composing if not simply efforts to make sense of the world around me? Who has inspired and impacted your writing? I love beauty. I love to climb and I love to walk and I love to sit and listen. I love poetry and I love novels and I love photography and I love our notoriously bad weather. I love Rachmaninov and Brahms and Arvo Pärt. I love autumn and pushing myself to go beyond where others dare go. I love birds and fish and all the wild animals, the great expanse of our beloved lake and the roar of hidden waterfalls. And all these things, in separate and similar ways, inspire me to create and reflect, to search for answers where there may or may not be any. Can we see you at any upcoming NOWW events? I’ve been contacted about doing a reading sometime in the fall, but I always keep my ears open for upcoming events! (After all, I’ve only just joined, and am still getting a feel for the community.) Where can we learn more about you and your writing? I’m an avid photographer and hiker, and my work can be found on Instagram as micah.pawluk, or on my personal facebook profile. I also have a facebook page dedicated to my music: Micah Pawluk - Pianist. And to end things off, tell us something surprising about yourself! There are two moments that come to mind, two “pinnacles” of achievement, if you will. As I mentioned, I once performed in Carnegie Hall, and I also climbed the north face of the highest mountain in the UK without any climbing equipment (and survived to tell the tale!).
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NOWW Writers
Welcome to our NOWW Blog, made up of a collection of stories, reviews and articles written by our NOWW Members. |