A Conversation between Winners of the Scugog Arts Council Ekphrastic Writing Competition: Eleni Gouliaras (Poetry) and Tristan Marajh (Fiction)

Chair Series ll, by Charles Choi (Canada) contemporary

​A Conversation between Winners of the Scugog Arts Council Ekphrastic Writing Competition: Eleni Gouliaras (Poetry) and Tristan Marajh (Fiction)
 
written by Tristan Marajh
 
A series of coincidences led Eleni Gouliaras and myself to discuss ekphrastic writing and our recent Win in the 2020 Ekphrastic Writing Competition from The Scugog Arts’ Council in Ontario, Canada.

The first coincidence, evidently, is our win: we were both awarded 2nd Place in our chosen genres: Eleni in Poetry (Adult), and I in Fiction (Adult). The second coincidence is that not only are we co-winners but co-workers: we both work at The Markham Public Library, a system neighbouring Toronto’s. That we met up in the latter city’s Greektown to have this conversation is the final coincidence – Ekphrasis being Greek for “description.”

Over a meal and drinks, we caught up with each other’s lives, discussed our winning pieces as well as writing itself – both Ekphrastic and otherwise. Ladies first the saying goes, and so Eleni graciously asked first about the young lady of my piece, Min-Ju Kim – protagonist of The Complete Works of Min-Ju Kim.

EG: What inspired the character of Min-Ju?

TM: Some of Min-Ju’s challenges, like challenges of characters conceived from many authors, echoes a personal experience of mine. And like those authors, I did not wish to make her evidently myself, since there are parts of the tale that necessitate fiction.

EG: I found that Min-Ju’s inner thoughts transform Erin LePage’s seemingly-unassuming print of a girl sleeping on a couch into an exploration of mental health.

TM: Such a tableau is common in a depressive person also: lying down curled and covered up, avoiding eating, avoiding the world. Having set the scene for Min-Ju’s background of depression, I was able to expand on her breakthrough through it. She endured that pain particularly acutely because in the original, longer version of The Complete Works of Min-Ju Kim, a person she loved broke up with her for cultural reasons; a situation that unfortunately happens frequently in Toronto and in a place and time where it needn’t.

EG: Are most of your stories character-driven, then?

TM: I would say most of them are message-driven; or, at least, philosophically driven. Characters of course remain crucial, though: a well-constructed character can help drive those perspectives home.

EG: The idea of Presence is very important in the story. How does Min-Ju, as reflected in Erin LePage’s Pizza Box, show a lack of Presence?

TM: In short, because the Min-Ju in the image is depressed. Initially she displays all the symptoms of a depressed person: dark, discouraged, debilitating thoughts and a loss of appetite because of that. If one is completely identified with those symptoms as Min-Ju initially was, then one can’t claim to be Present. One can, though, claim to be Present even while depressed, because then it is more of a witnessing thing: I’m sad about this; I’m feeling this way. The recognition of that pain is a crucial part of Presence, in that I am the Person who is feeling “this”. Depression doesn’t characterize Presence, but it often is a catalyst for Presence.

​EG: That was actually personally helpful as well, so thank you.

TM: Onto your winning poem, Silence... With similar unassumption as you had for Min-Ju in Erin’s sketch, I thought Charles Choi’s Red Chair was a not-negative depiction of quietude and tranquility in a well-considered space. I realize the sentiments in your poem are not so.

EG: Silence views Red Chair through loneliness and isolation: sitting alone in a room, watching the arrivals and departures of people.

TM: And then the poem takes a turn into referring to the dissolution of a relationship.

EG: The entire poem, coupled with Charles’ painting, was intended to reflect on the relationship as a house that was built; including the time, effort and energy placed into building that relationship.

TM: I get it; people view relationships as a dynamic mutually built together.

EG: And despite that, a relationship can end: the descriptions of splintered wood and shattered glass.
TM: You’ve hosted and performed at events in Toronto; your work has also won the recent Power of the Poets contest (another Ekphrastic venture) hosted by The Power Plant and the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Another poem of yours, upcoming in Feel Ways: A Scarborough Anthology, is a meditation on your time working at No Frills. Does Toronto inform your work and how?

EG: Yes, for sure. I also write about natural and iconic scenes in the city: the Humber River and the Gardiner Expressway, for example. Being connected to the local writing scene here, for example at Art Bar, allows me to keep up with events and acquire valuable feedback from Toronto writers. I would also love to see poetry featured at Nuit Blanche, and in a grand spirit of ekphrasis be accompanied by the other forms of art at that event.

TM: I hear that. It would be nice if forms of more “obvious” art could accompany written pieces at events like that.

EG: I think that speaks to the real value of Ekphrastic writing: I reached out to Red Chair artist Charles Choi, told him my poem complemented his painting and shared Silence with him. Art-creation can be a lonely world, and Ekphrasis allows one, allowed me, to build community in that world.

TM: I agree Ekphrasis is beneficial to artists across all forms: visual artists, writers, poets, performers, musicians… we can all contribute to one unified collaboration from an initial standalone piece in a standalone genre. There is a lot of potentiality there. Thanks for the talk.

EG: Thank you, too.
 
Read all of the winning entries here.

Click here and scroll down to see the artwork that inspired Tristan's winning story.scugogarts.ca/news/literary-contest-winners/

Tristan Marajh is the 1st-Prize winner of the Stratford Writing Competition and a recent Winner in the Scugog Arts Council Ekphrastic Writing Competition, both based in Canada. His work has been published in The New Quarterly, The Nashwaak Review, Existere: A Journal of Art & Literature, Ricepaper Magazine, Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices and down river road, a print journal out of Kenya. With a childhood spent in Trinidad and Tobago, he resides in Toronto.


Eleni Gouliaras is a Scarborough poet who studied Creative Writing and History at York University and graduated in 2012. She was long listed for the 2019 Vallum Award for Poetry and was a winner for the 2020 Power of the Poets contest co-presented by The Power Plant and the Toronto International Festival of Authors. She has a poem forthcoming in Feel Ways: A Scarborough Anthology, to be released in March 2021.