George Bubb, better known as his pen name g.d. bubb, is a 25-year-old wordsmith within the online poetry community on Instagram, having spent the last few years dedicating his spare time to really honing his craft and more so himself and style.
“it’s easy to get sucked into the ‘this is what we are doing, so this is the right way’ mentality and easier so to lose yourself, it took me a while to understand that just because I approach the scene more narratively doesn’t mean I’m far from poetic, it’s just a different style.” – George 2020
George tries to slip into the title of Calgarian where he can, seeing as he has a thick British Accent due to having only been in the Providence the last six-ish months after quitting his job, selling all his stuff and dragging his girlfriend 4412.5 miles from their home in England to Calgary for an exciting new life, but understands he has some way to go before he claims the title truly.
In late 2019, George debuted his first poetry book for the world to read through his publishers Leaf Publishing and now has no plans to slow down with writing his feeling in a creative form for the world to interpret in their own perspective., often using the city and its vibes as an influence and inspiration to conjure and create new pieces.
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What ‘hood are you in?
I currently reside in the Beltline, which honestly, seems to be entirely perfect for me being somewhat introverted. It means I’m 5 minutes from the hustle and bustle of 17th Ave for when I want to go explore some civilisation and maybe grab a bite to eat, and then I the other direction I’m only 10 minutes from the Bow River Pathway, which allows me to escape and be more in tune with my mind when I need or want it. Having lived near the ocean all my life in the UK, having the river so close to me was somewhat important as it’s comforting to some degree.
What do I do?
By day, I am a trainee barista for Calgary’s finest coffee shop (I wasn’t paid to say that and I won’t tell you which one!) which is something rather new to me in some degree, as I spent previous working life in restaurant management, so it’s nice to be learning a new set of skills in a different environment. By night however (or when I’m not working) I am an Author and self-confessed writer of poetry. I never really found myself exactly working towards being a writer, if that makes sense, I look back and somehow, it’s just kind of happened… with some hard work of course.
What are you currently working on?
My second and third book, actually simultaneously. I get rather bored rather quickly working on the same project and I think I’ve always been that way. My second book is written but still needs proofreading, editing and all that jazz which I do myself before outsourcing a second opinion, so during the proofreading and editing I find myself getting distracted and putting the kettle on because, well its boring *laughs*. To stop myself wandering out the house entirely I’ve started my third book, and I’m constantly writing new material so that I deem to be worthy (if you will) I have begun compiling, becoming my next book, it’s exciting really!
I’ve also started another project on Instagram called #collaborationforisolation. I spent a lot of my time on Instagram, with it being my primary medium for sharing my work, and there is a fantastic poetry community that I am part of. While wondering around my front room (bored of editing of course) I just started to think of the impact that isolation due to this pandemic could be taking on some individuals within the community. I wanted to do something to focus on connecting one another during this time as I wanted to minimise the effect on mental health and loneliness to some degree within the global isolation. It was just a little project with another Calgarian writer Kate G in which we wrote a piece together, then each selected another writer to collaborate with each other’s picks, going on and so forth. Sounds confusing, I think, I don’t how else to explain it BUT the concept was just to bring writers who probably don’t know each-other, that could be time zones apart, together in order to create art. A project I really enjoyed actually, so much so I started another collaboration project this week!
Where can we find your work?
My debut collection of poetry and prose ‘when the water washed me away’ can be found online on Amazon (Worldwide) and Indigo here in Canada and then Barnes and Noble (US) and Waterstones (UK).
I live on my Instagram account @g.d.bubb where I regularly post all my latest pieces and snippets from my book. I also have a segment on my IGTV called ‘In The Kitchen” which is basically a one on one talk show, with myself, where I just discuss random things regarding life and my perspectives. I hope to get myself involved some poetry nights where I can around Calgary, just need to find them.
