Terese Mason Pierre: The Literary Life

By Cat Lee

Cat Lee in conversation with writer, editor, and poet Terese Mason Pierre.

It is a chilly evening in downtown Toronto where the subway pulsates under the concrete, rattling the icy steel vents. The city roars with too-important people rushing across the street from one towering structure to another. Yet, in a quiet corner of the Reference Library, I taste the decadent juice of a mango as it drips down my elbow, feel the sun against my cheek, and explore a mangrove forest teeming with snakes, all through the immersive poetry book, Myth, by Terese Mason Pierre. It is hard to believe these faraway, fantasy-like lyricisms are conjured by a Torontonian who has seen more snow warnings than sandshores, but such are the works of Pierre: utterly transportive, nearly fantastical.

Writer, poet, and editor Terese Mason Pierre’s fascination with tropical imagery and speculative literature shines through her complex poetry. Her influences lie deep within Canada’s literary scene, including the Toronto Public Library and Augur, a speculative literature journal. During the interview, we discussed her literary journey from her beginnings at her library branch to her recent book releases. Pierre’s experience volunteering for the ‘Young Voices Magazine’, a youth magazine run by the Toronto Public Library, launched her into her local literary sphere as a teenager. More recently, the writer, a recipient of the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, appeared on shelves across Toronto through her poetry collection and anthology, both of which were published within the past year. 

In our discussion, Pierre was warm and communicative as she shared her best advice on starting a writing career and leading creative projects, something that I, as a writer and editor myself, found exceptionally useful. Pierre’s fierce love for writing shines through in her newly released anthology of Black Canadian speculative literature, “As the Earth Dreams”, available on House of Anansi Press.

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"As the Earth Dreams" released October 14, 2025, Courtesy of House of Anansi Press

C.L: As I was reading a portion of your poetry collection, Myth, I noticed that many of your poems connected tropical elements to abstract thoughts on intimacy and identity. What inspired you to use faraway settings to explore these familiar themes? 

T.M.P: I use a lot of island imagery in my poetry. My family is from the Caribbean, but I didn’t want to name the specific islands in my poems. I wanted to still maintain a level of abstractness and defamiliarization in terms of the landscape, but I’m still very much a fan of the natural elements, like the sand, the ocean, the moon.

 I wanted to include those in my poems because I really liked those image systems. It felt most familiar to me, and it was what I connected to most when I thought of mythological places or dream landscapes. It’s like when people say, ‘go to your happy place’, and it’s somewhere on a beach, you know? And because I associated it with a softer, more dreamy landscape, that’s the imagery that I used for all the themes I wanted to talk about in my work: intimacy, identity, family.

C.L: What does the process of writing poetry look like for you, from getting the ideas to creating the polished final product? 

T.M.P: I write very slowly with poetry. By slowly what I mean is that poems sit in my head for a long time, months, sometimes years, before I put pen to paper. I get ideas and inspirations from all sorts of places. A lot of them are natural landscapes, which show up in my poetry a lot, but sometimes it’s a moment or a feeling of connection with someone else, or something that I completely made up that I want to explore, or even an extended metaphor that I want to play with. They sit in my head for months and I sort of rework them internally; once I put them on paper, I no longer need to do something with the poem. 

It’s months of rumination, of pregnancy. And when I write it down, it’s usually fully formed, and I don’t need to touch it again. A lot of my work ends up being a first or second draft because I’ve said all that I need to say. But if I still feel like it needs some work, I will go back usually when I’m submitting it to a journal, and I’ll edit it, rework the lines. I’ll take a look at what it looks like on paper rather than just in my head, and I’ll think about whether I want the form or the appearance of the poem to add a layer of meaning.

 I typically default to couplets: two-line stanzas. I think they’re great; it’s just enough white space. But sometimes I’ll do one long stanza, or play with the white space. 

C.L: I’m guessing this  process is quite different from writing prose. 

T.M.P: Yeah, prose is a lot more mechanical. One of my friends, who is also a poet, Sanna Wani, described that poetry is like running through a field of flowers, and prose is like driving a car. Like you have a destination. It can still be nice, but it’s very different.

C.L: Could you talk a little about your experience in Young Voices (A Toronto magazine for youth), and how being a part of the teen council and being published helped your development as a writer, or poet?

T.M.P: I credit a lot of my success as a writer to Young Voices. Specifically, what Young Voices had done that my high school English classes had not done was that they invited real, living authors to meet teens. So, teens could see, “oh, being a writer is a real job”. We were reading books like The Lord of the Flies and Shakespeare and To Kill a Mockingbird. And those writers are not only all American, but dead, right? They were not connected to us at all. 

But in Young Voices, I think there was a conference, or a summit, at some point. Once a year they would do a summit with panels of YA authors. You could come and meet them, get your books signed. They would have talks, and I got to understand that being a writer was a thing that I could legitimately do. Like I’d be able to pick up, you know, Emily Pohl-Weary’s or Gary Barnes’ books. Those are two writers who I met through Young Voices and who I’m still in connection with nowadays. They’re people I’ve known for over 10 years, since I was a teenager, and I’m able to pick up their books and see their names on their books. I can be like, this is an actual author that I can connect with and talk to and learn from. And that’s something that Young Voices specifically had done for me and, I imagine, for other teens. 

So I gained a lot of confidence and skills through the programming. I also had joined under the helm of Susan (Young Voices Administrator), a teen writing group at Northbrook Central Library. Her writing group was very influential; it left an impact on me for sure. 

I really believe I would not be the writer I am today if it wasn’t for Young Voices. They were helpful in getting me to believe that I could be a writer. 

C.L: On October 14th, your anthology of writing by Black Canadian writers, ‘As the Earth Dreams’ is being released. What inspired you to take on the initiative of bringing together Black writers from all over Canada into one project?

T.M.P: So this anthology, it’s my first anthology and my second book this year. I do not recommend publishing two books in one year, but that’s for future me. (laughs) So it started three years ago with an editor, because I edit for a sci-fi and fantasy magazine called Augur. My friend was an editor with me and they’d left, and they had started working at House of Anansi which is a Canadian publisher. They had put my name forth for an anthology for Black Canadian speculative fiction writers specifically. I thought the project was really excellent, so I put together a proposal. 

I believe this anthology is the first of its kind in Canada, and I hope to see more. The writers that I had invited to write original work for this anthology were all people I admire, people I know from more traditional Canlit (Canadian Literature) spheres, but also from the Speculative literature world. 

I’m really, really happy with what it ended up being. The contributors are happy with it. I just hope they are proud. And next week, people will be able to buy it in stores! The book contains writers from all across Canada, like people from Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, and Toronto… Yeah, I hope people really like it. 

C.L: As you mentioned, you work for the literary magazine Augur as well, so you’ve led a lot of literary initiatives. What about the role of editing and leading creative projects appeal to you? 

T.M.P: I really love editing. I love editing other people’s work. I’m very interested in understanding what writers–specifically poets because that’s who I mainly work with– what writers think and feel about their work. I’m interested in having conversations with them regarding the choices they’ve made, what they chose to submit and what spaces they were in when they were writing, like that’s part of the editorial process for me. I like supporting writers, especially people for whom Augur is their first publication. I want to make sure that they have a good experience with their editors. 

Yeah, I’m very passionate about creative projects; that’s where I got my start as a writer. And I’ve had some really good editors who were supportive as well. So I see this as a way to give back. Whether or not I’m editing or leading programs, I still find a way to make sure the work I do supports and uplifts writers. 

C.L: I myself love leading groups of passionate people in a similar direction. Currently I’m running an online writing community called The Creative Coterie. As you are such a prominent leader in the current literary scene, do you have any advice for me or other young creatives on effectively leading a group of people?

T.M.P: I will tell you right now, as someone who’s been doing this for almost 10 years – And you’ll figure this out, whether or not you believe me– this is a lot of work, depending on how deep you want to go. As someone who’s leading a project, finding ways to take care of yourself, take care of your mental health, and take breaks whenever you can. That will be deeply important because people come to these kinds of things and they’re very passionate, they’re very excited, and they want to help others. That passion is energy, right? That’s energy you would put into this instead of anything else. 

As someone who’s leading a project, taking care of yourself and knowing when to slow down or stop entirely is very important. When it comes to managing a group, to ensure that the work that they’re doing does serve them in some way. Whether it’s gaining leadership skills or gaining arts organization skills, or having a writing group to share work with. Just making sure that they’re getting something out of it too. 

I find that when I take time to remind myself why I’m doing this, and what I’m getting out of it, I find that that helps to reduce things like burnout and resentment. But I also know that I’m surrounded by people who are doing really amazing work. They’re really good at it, they want to be here, they’re passionate, they’re driven. And they’re supporting me as much as I’m supporting them. That’s what helps to get the projects going. And also, the people whom your work impacts, like writers or the bigger community, that’s important too. (These) People will see you as a valuable resource and they’ll want to keep you around. 

So if keeping you around means you taking a break or you putting this down and exploring something else, people will support that too. 

The fact that you write makes you a writer. Like, that's it. External validation can only take you so far.

C.L: As someone who hopes to contribute how you did to the writing world, I wanted to ask how you started your writing career and what steps you took to get to where you are today.

T.M.P: The first step, I guess, was Young Voices. I’ve been writing since I was eight, but I’ve been thinking more seriously about publishing since I was about 13. I think Young Voices was my first poetry publication when I was 17. But I never really wanted to make this a career. But then I met all these writers who are cool and who have jobs, but who also have books. So I was like, “I can do this too.” 

I do also want to say that there’s a lot of advice out there for writers and starting a journal or collective, and you take and leave that advice as you want. You do not need to publish your work in order to be a ‘real’ writer. 

The fact that you write makes you a writer. Like, that’s it. External validation can only take you so far. But know that the work you create is separate from your worth as a creative and your work as a friend, a daughter, a student, and all those things. It’s going to be hard. There are gonna be situations in life that will, especially as you go through your writing career, cause you to question whether or not you should be on this path and whether or not your worth is actually tied to your work.

 And I think the last thing I’ll say is, if you have to remind yourself why it is you write, well, first understand why it is you write. Why is this a thing you’ve chosen to do? And if you can keep reminding yourself of that when things get slow or tough, that will be useful. It’s a good practice to have. And that will stay with you.

C.L: Finally, out of everything you’ve learned after connecting with countless other writers and poets and creatives, what would you say is the most valuable thing that you’ve learned? 

T.M.P: The most valuable thing that I’ve learned is that there’s no one path. Everyone’s path is different. People start at various stages: some people start when they’re teenagers, some people start when they’re in their 40s and 50s. As you ‘progress’ in your writing career, you’ll hear words like emerging writer, established writer. And those are interesting labels that people like to use to denote things like age. People are very into young writers. People like R.F. Kuang, for example, who are quite young, but also quite prolific. And so you might see that and be like, “Well, why can’t I do that?” Or like, “Oh, I’m 30 and I don’t have a book”, or they’ll get very anxious about that. But everyone is on their own path. Your path is not going to look like anyone else’s path. 

Comparison is a thief of joy; you’ll just go at the pace that you want to go at and there’s nothing wrong with that. People will tell you all sorts of things about it, that you should do XYZ just to get better or get ahead, but if that doesn’t feel right for you, then you don’t have to do it. You can just do whatever you need to do. 

You’re a writer regardless, and wherever you will end up, you will just end up there at that time and place, and that’s fine. That’s the most valuable thing I’ve learned so far.