Bookmark Interview: E.D. Blodgett: Praha

E.D. “Ted” Blodgett is a former poet-laureate of Edmonton and spent 34 years at the University of Alberta as a professor of Comparative Literature. A widely recognized Canadian poet, literary critic and translator,  Blodgett won a Governor-General’s Award for Literature in 1996 for his volume Apostrophes: Woman At A Piano. He has published 2-dozen books of poetry, including two new volumes this year. Blodgett, who now lives in coastal British Columbia, has just published Apostrophes Seven with the University of Alberta Press and Praha with Athabasca University Press.


Praha is an homage to Blodgett’s beloved city of 
Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, original home of Blodgett’s wife and the city to which he has returned time and time again. Praha consists of 65 poems featured in English on one page and in Czech on the next.
Prague is an eleven-hundred year old city, a sharp contrast to the relatively young city of Edmonton where Blodgett spent so much of his life. Prague was the centre of the Bohemian Empire and at one time was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Today a popular destination for tourists, Prague is renowned for its architecture, including its ancient castles and cathedrals.  Blodgett seeks to capture the gentle melancholy that hangs over Prague and which he says is embedded in the souls of its citizens; a city that has seen perhaps too much over too long a time so that even a visitor feels its retiring ancient spirit. 
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I reached Ted Blodgett in May 2011 at his home in B.C.’s lower mainland to talk about the writing of Praha. You can hear that interview by clicking on the Title of this Blog Entry. The week after the interview, Blodgett flew to Prague where a book launch was held for Praha.
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