Liisa Ladouceur is a rock star to us. She is a Toronto-based poet and arts reporter, the go-to-goth-girl if there is darkness about and an opinion is needed. She has worked and written for CBC Radio, MuchMoreMusic, Eye Weekly, and Chart magazine to name but a few. She is the Blood Spattered Guide music columnist on Rue Morgue Radio all-horror podcast, a board member of the Polaris Music Prize, a member of the Royal Sarcophagus Society arts collective and PEN Canada. She is editor of the poetry anthology Nuit Blanche and is presently working on a collection of her own work due out this summer.

Photograph © Kayla Waymark

We asked her for a few points about her life and she said this:

I’ve put my feet in 2 of the 5 oceans of the world (Atlantic, Pacific) and the following seas: Caribbean, Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Red Sea. If all goes well, in 2008 I will visit the Arctic.

Former gothy zine editor

I like to point out typos in my hate mail.

I like dead things and arcane words.

My dream date is Jack Skellington

Liisa is totally dreamy, smart, talented and a very inspiring person. We are honoured to present her Pomegranate Questionnaire.

The Pomegranate Questionnaire

1. Can you tell us a little about what you do?

That is a very odd, question, don’t you think? I mean, it’s what people say to each other, nowadays. Rather than “how are you?” they ask, “what do you do?” And then, of all the things we do in a day, most of us will answer back the thing we do to make money, as if that’s all there is to say. Me, I write. All kinds of things. I write poems and to do lists and concert reviews and thank you letters and documentary treatments and feature articles about the music and movies and books that I find more interesting. I do a lot of other things in a day and night as well – I read and I dance and I sleep and I pet my cat and pick off cat hair from my sweaters – but writing is the most important.

2. Why that?

Gloria Steinhem once said, “Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” Me too.

3. Does it pay the bills? Does it matter?

Some writing pays some bills. Some writing pays all the bills. Some writing pays no bills at all. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living writing one thing or another for more than 10 years now. Of course, that matters.

4. What book did you last read?

I can tell you the last book I read that made me cry: The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. It’s a mystery/thriller/horror/love story about a shark and identity and memory loss, things I’m particularly interested in of late. Well, not the shark so much, although it is pretty cool.

5. What is your idea of prefect happiness?

I’m not so interested in perfection, or happiness. Handy, as life is messy and chaotic, and that suits me fine. I must admit that dancing to Daft Punk live in the Nevada desert last year with my love and my good friend was as close to a perfect moment as I can imagine.

6. What achievement are you most happy about so far?

Isn’t pride a sin? Handy, since I have yet to achieve what would make me most happy.

7. What is your most treasured possession?

I think most people are much to attached to objects, particularly ugly, useless ones. Really, do we really need tankers to ply the world’s oceans so we can buy $1 Halloween themed socks? Cheap plastic trinkets are scourges of the 21^st century. There is no object I couldn’t live without. But I do treasure the journals I’ve written, the photographs I’ve taken, the sand and seashells I’ve collected, which contain my memories. All that said, I’ve got a pair of pretty awesome latex stiletto boots bought on a fun trip to Chicago I’m quite fond of though…and I love my purple bike.

8. Have you swooned in the cinema?

I cry at sad movies. Even not-so-sad ones.

9. Do you have a hero?

I don’t think so. I admire many people – living poets, mostly – but believe there is nothing on earth greater than my own self. The concept of hero or heroic acts generally makes me cringe.

10. What is your motto or favourite expression or both?

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light” – Dylan Thomas. Life is so short, do whatever you can to make it count. “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” by Rage Against the Machine works too.

Can I ask you a question back? Why do goth girls like striped socks so much?

Also, I just watched Pirate of the Caribbean 3. Was that a waste of time or what?