Karen Connelly speaks about her distrust of academic settings and critical theory, the change in critical attitude towards her when she won the Governor General's Award for Touch the Dragon, and the lack of value placed on poets in Canada, especially when compared with the respect for poets and poetry in other countries. The painterly quality of and the significance of many different landscapes (Thailand, Spain, Greece, and Canada) to her work is discussed. Connelly says that "to praise what is alive" is what she is does in her work.
