Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Jill Abram

is Director of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, a collective encouraging craft, community and development. She grew up in Manchester, travelled the world and now lives in Brixton. She regularly performs her poems in London and occasionally beyond, including Ledbury Poetry Festival, Paris and USA.  Publications include The Rialto, Magma, Under The Radar, The High Window and Ink Sweat &Tears. Jill produces and presents a variety of poetry events and she created and curates the Stablemates reading series.

jillabram.co.uk

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I’ve always put pen to paper but when I gathered my poems together to take on my first Arvon course, it was a very thin portfolio! That course in 2007 kicked things off and I came back wanting to do more. I’m not very good at self motivation so looked for some external discipline. Someone told me about Poetry School and I thought their monthly Saturday Sessions with Jane Draycott would suit me. They did and I attended those for 5 years (on and off) until Jane stopped leading them, when a group of us carried on meeting monthly to workshop poems and became Tideway Poets.

In 2008 I started performing my poems and took some performance workshops. One of these was led by Malika Booker and she subsequently invited me to join her collective, Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. This has been the greatest influence on my practice, learning to craft, to turn the inner editor off when writing and make editing a separate process, and to read read read!

I never took English Lit at school, though I did quite well in Lang, so wasn’t brought up with the canon. My early influences were Edward Lear, AA Milne and Lewis Carroll, ie so called nonsense verse, so I used to write mainly with rhyme and meter. I still haven’t read many “dead poets” but have immersed myself in contemporary poetry and love going to hear poets read their own work.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

My earliest memories of poetry are from Infants/Junior school:
When I was 4/5, I took part in the top class’ end of term play – I was a child in bed as my “mum” narrated Hiawatha and the rest of her class acted out the story. (I had one line – when she mentioned the warriors, I had to say, “Gosh, I bet they were fierce!”)
A year or two later, I narrated The Jumblies while the rest of my class (in green balaclavas and blue gloves) performed the actions. I have a book of Edward Lear which my mum gave me wen I was very young – maybe it was around this time.
I also remember my whole class learning “You Are Old, Father William” together with Mr Gee in Junior 2 (year 5).

I don’t remember who introduced me to adult poetry, but some of the books I bought before the time I was writing seriously are by Lemn Sissay, Henry Normal, Maya Angelou and Edna St Vincent Millay.

3.  How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

It depends where you go – my first performances were at slams and they were youth dominated, the classes and courses I did were attended by an older demographic (and more women than men).

I heard a statistic a few years ago that 90% of published poetry books were by dead people and 9 of the other 10% were by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, so how has that changed now..? The recent surge in poetry book sales has, to a large extent, been down to a few poets – eg Rupi Kaur accounts for at least 1m of the £12m increase.

In terms of the “establishment” where experience counts, naturally you are right, but I see a lot of talented and successful young poets – and think of all the schemes and prizes for young poets. The poetry underdogs are those who came late to writing so of course are older.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

Hahahahahahaha!

Sorry for laughing in your face- I don’t have one. In fact I have no routines in my life (a long career of unpredictable/irregular hours working)!

5. What motivates you to write?

Usually external stimuli – a workshop, a deadline. A successful workshop (for me) is when one of two things happens: either I come up with something I would never have come to on my own, or I find a way to express something that has been stuck in there for a while. I don’t give myself the headspace often enough to allow inspiration in, but sometimes I see something that really clicks and triggers something off.

For example:
A couple of years ago, I saw news footage of refugees walking through Hungary and it reminded me of a scene from a film when Jews were being exiled from their village about a century earlier – which is the history of my forebears. I wanted to write a poem connecting them and the result was Like A Fiddler On The Roof, published in Tears in the Fence Issue 67
Home

I want to write more about migrants and refugees, linking recent/current stories with those from the Jewish diaspora over centuries. Not just the Holocaust, which is still in living memory for some, and survivors bore witness so that we should “never forget” – but despite that, there are so many parallels in the way people are being mistreated now and the rise of the far right again.

6. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I’m not sure they do.

7. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Top of the list has to be Malika Booker – I’m biased of course, because she founded Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (a collective focusing on craft, community and development since 2001) from which I have gained so much. She invited me to join in 2009 and I started running it a year later, so I’ve been its Director for half of its existence now! (We’re celebrating our 20^th anniversary in 2021 with an anthology to be published by Corsair, which will include poems from alumni past and present, and a series of events so watch this space!) But MPK is exactly one of the reasons for her being my number 1 – not only is she a fine writer, dedicating herself to her craft, and great performer but she gives so much back. She’s mentored so many poets, often voluntarily, and has given so much help and encouragement to others – often, but not exclusively, to young poets of colour, no doubt remembering the difficulties she had when starting out as a black poet with few role models and rejected by the establishment. I can barely even start to list all that she has done to enable others and am delighted to see her recognised in the September edition of British Vogue in the “Leaders and Proteges” section (with one of her protégés, Theresa Lola).

8. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I can’t draw – not even a straight line with a ruler – or sing/play an instrument. I guess I write because I can. I’m a big show off so writing poetry means I have something to perform and, with open mics/slams, you can do that without needing an invitation, passing an audition, or having to commit to fixed rehearsals, which can be tricky with my job. (Please note that I do now get asked to read so I hope that is some indicator of quality!) Outside of Poetry World, I often feel no one listens to me so at least I can express myself through my writing – and it turns out some people even read/listen to it!

9. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Just do it!. Put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard or whatever) – you can get a lot of joy and satisfaction from doing it even if you’re no good.

If you want to be a good writer, the first  – and only essential – other thing is to read read read! Read stuff you don’t like as well as stuff you do. You have to be aware of all the possibilities before you know what suits you.

You can do courses and classes, you will be exposed to loads of other poets as well as techniques and ways of writing, and (perhaps more importantly) make poetry friends. If you don’t have much money to spare, many organisations offer bursaries/grants etc. and there are MOOCs and other free online resources. But you can invite a few pals for nothing to share work – online makes so much possible even if you can’t get to meet face to face. And thanks to the Poetry Society there may be a local Stanza group you can just turn up to. If you’re lucky enough to live near one of the poetry libraries you can borrow books for free.

10. Tell me about the writing projects you’re involved in at the moment,

I’m working on my submission for the MPK anthology, a sequence about my chronic health condition and the refugee poems I mentioned earlier, although I have been far from prolific lately. I had mentoring with Mimi Khalvati last year which led to a manuscript for my debut collection and I’m waiting to hear from a publisher about that. I’m applying for ACE funding to continue my Stablemates event series (in which I interview three poets from one press, then they read) and want to do more of those in London and at Festivals further afield. I’m also trying to build my career as producer/presenter so if anyone needs a poetry event (reading/interview/panel/launch etc.) organising/hosting etc. – look no further!

 

Brochure https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/62766015/brochure via @yumpucom

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

 

Find Her Here:

Evrah Rose

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

am honoured and privileged that the following poets, local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.
The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Michael Pettinger

The Interview

1. What were the circumstances under which you began to write poetry?

I’d written rants to post on Facebook but never thought of using them as poetry.
I’d gone to a meeting at Mexborough Resource Centre to get involved with a local short film around 2014.

There I met Paul Dyson, who advised me there was an open mic night at the Concertina Club across the road and that I could just listen if I wanted, but if I felt comfortable, I could say my rants.

After visiting the first “Pitman’s Poets” hosted by Tony Goodwin and being allowed up to say my rants it helped inspire me in to writing in different styles similar to the ones I’d heard at the Pitman’s as there were some brilliant poets.

I also attended Read To Write with Ian Parks and Write On Mexborough with Steve Ely which helped develop my story writing and poetry.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

I would have to say Tony Goodwin’s “Pitman’s Poets” as everybody that attended wrote (+ spoke) what I describe/define as “local poetry”.

I’d heard academic poetry and other famous poetry at school but never understood it so it had no meaning to me and therefore no interest to me.

You could say school introduced maybe one poem to me but at the time I didn’t care to know any more about poetry.

I would say that the poets at Pitman’s introduced me to poetry because when they shared their poetry it was always a topic I could connect with or I could associate with in some way. I’ve always preferred local poetry.

3. How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?

Not even slightly aware of how far back poetry went or any of the poets from older, even ancient times.
Even today people tell me famous poets names and I haven’t a clue who they are.
Except maybe Ted Hughes (because he lived in Mexborough), Dylan Thomas, Cavafy, Keats or Yates (just because they are mentioned a lot).
So for me they haven’t got a dominating presence. At least not in my life.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I don’t write daily.

I write sporadically when a line comes in to my head or a feeling which I need to write down on my phone.
Then when I get time and I think about the line again or the feeling I’ll sit at the laptop and write (+ edit) a poem out on “Notepad” (the computer program) which I’ll read through and edit as I see fit.

It usually takes me around an hour (depending on the length) and I just keep reading it until I feel it sounds correct when being said.

5. What motivates you to write?

When I see something that I don’t like about the world it makes me angry, which inspires the rants.
When I feel low, I put my pain in to the poem in a kind of cathartic way, so that people can understand the pain I feel for the moment that they hear it.
The same when I’m blissfully happy and I can get down on paper the happiness and try to make it so that when someone hears it they feel the same internally for a moment.

6. What is your work ethic?

I believe that no one chose to be born in to a world of competition, corruption, war, inequality, poverty, climate change and greed.

If we had the free will to choose, I can almost guarantee that no one would choose to join the world unless they were guaranteed wealthy parents.

It is through the sexual drive of parents that children are forced in to the world to live lives they might not want to live due to the suffering and social issues the world is full of. The violence that inequality drives, the behaviours that are caused by poverty and having such poor education systems is beyond traumatic.

How bad must your life be if the only way to escape it is to take spice or heroin and soil yourself in public?!

I believe that if someone wants to leave this world, has had the mental health assessments and can’t afford to survive then they should be allowed a dignified death with the chance to say goodbye to their family and friends and explain why – usually because they can’t afford to survive and/or have so much turmoil in their lives.

So my work ethic is; If work is not monotonous, if work is not repetitive, if work stimulates your brain, if work means you are directly helping the environment, helping someone or the rest of humanity to become healthier, safer, more technologically advanced, then do as much of the work as you can without hindering your emotions and becoming too tired/over-worked.

The rest of the work should be done by automation and a lot of jobs out there are useless to the benefit of humanity or the environment. It’s usually just there to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

I am against capitalism (though the best system we have to date, it is failing clearly) and I learn about a “resource based economy” as envisioned by “The Venus Project”
( http://www.thevenusproject.com )
7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?
I only read children’s stories at school, I didn’t read any poems I can remember.
I would say the stories I read (I can only remember reading “The BFG” and “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe”) helped with my imagination.

8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Gav Roberts from Rotherham.
I’ve not got any of his work in writing but as a poet he is brilliant.
He says everything in terms everybody can understand, there are no codes to break down and his poems hit everything from happiness and sorrow to peace and humour.

9. Why do you write?

I write because it’s something I’m not absolutely terrible at.
I have written plenty of poems that aren’t what I would describe as good or a decent standard but sometimes when I write something and I can see people like it, it makes me feel like I’m not worthless.
Like I have something to give to the world other than my labour.
I also like the idea that I can take words and put them in a combination that hasn’t been used before to present a topic in a different way.

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Write down your feelings, write down characters and places. The things you like and don’t like. Write about truth, write fiction but most of all listen or read other people’s poetry, stories or scripts. Go to open mic nights and listen to the variety of individuals and the massive amount of different ways to tell one thing.
Have fun. Don’t do it as work or for money or at least not for your main supply of money.

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I’m currently writing scripts for some sketches I hope to film and put on YouTube.
I’m not really writing much else at the moment.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Laura Cok

Originally from northern California, Laura spent time in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Waterloo, Ontario before settling in Toronto, where she now lives. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, where she won the E.J. Pratt Poetry Medal and the University of Toronto  Magazine alumni poetry contest. She has been previously published widely across Canada and works in corporate communications. Her first book, Doubter’s Hymnal, was published by Mansfield Press in summer 2019.

Doubter’s Hymnal

Her own website: https://www.lauracok.com/

The Interview

1. What inspired you to write poetry?

I’ve been keeping journals since I learned how to write, and writing has always been the way I made sense of the world. Some things are harder to make sense of, and that becomes poetry.

Plus, I got a lot of adult approval when I first started, and I’m an oldest child. So I stuck with it.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

Shel Silverstein is the first poetry I remember reading, or having read to me. I started trying to write my own when I was around eight, and it was not at all Silversteinian, so there must have been other elementary-age influences/teachers that I don’t remember. Soon enough I started stealing my dad’s anthologies — lots of Byron, Keats, etc. — and bookmarking heavily, and being introduced to more serious poets in middle school and onward. I can still recite Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay from memory, which I did for extra credit in seventh grade. I had a strong memory for poetry and was trying to absorb it, as literally as I could.

3. How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?

They don’t feel particularly dominating to me. I think the biggest shift in my perception has been from “well, I’m a high school writer, I’m pretty good at this for my age,” to measuring myself (a full-fledged adult) against published writers. Attempting to consider myself their peer. And now that I’m 30 and have a book out myself, surely the imposter syndrome will fade any day now…

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I wish I had one! I work 9-5, so writing is squeezed in around the margins. I am not an early morning writer so it’s often a matter of whether I have the wherewithal to stare at a screen in my downtime after having stared at a screen for eight hours for work. Weekends are better for this. For poetry, I do what I would never advise anyone else to do, which is “wait for inspiration” until I get fed up with the lack of it and write something terrible in a coffee shop. For prose I am much better at the butt-in-chair school. 500 words here, 500 words there. They all add up to something eventually, even if that something is only practice.

5. What motivates you to write?

It’s cheaper than therapy.

6. What is your work ethic?

I always think it’s poor, but here I am still plugging away when plenty of more talented writers have stopped. When the Love of the Work isn’t quite enough on a given day, spite will do the trick quite nicely. I’ll show my mean middle school English teacher!

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

Oh, tremendously. I write a lot of formal poetry, by which I mean sestinas and modernized sonnets and the like, or I incorporate formal elements, and I think that’s because the poetry I really loved when I was younger was all formal. Edna St. Millay’s sonnets! Elizabeth Bishop’s sestinas!

8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

I loved Kayla Czaga’s latest book; I think she has such a smart, funny way with poetry that never gets overly precious, but neither is it banal. That’s a hard needle to thread. I’m reading Paola Ferrante’s debut now and it’s incredible, full of fury and power (and I’m not just saying that because we’re published by the same press!).

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I’m bad at drawing. More seriously, writing feels the most like what I’m supposed to do. Like it’s the real work of my life.

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Read widely, fill up notebooks, keep a journal. In this current moment we’re all writers more than any other point in history — Twitter, Facebook statuses, instant messaging of whatever kind — which is incredibly exciting, especially for linguists (read Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet for a fascinating exploration of this). So the question, if posed, is maybe more “How do you become A Writer.” I have only just started to get comfortable with calling myself one! If you write, you’re a writer. If you like to take long walks in the woods and tell anyone who will listen about the amazing novel idea you have, but you never actually put the words down, you might be an interesting and contemplative person, but not a writer. That’s fine! There’s just no shortcut.

10 Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

While my book was in post-manuscript, pre-publication process, it was very hard for me to draft any new poems, so I’m just starting to get back into that now. In the meantime I switched my attention to prose, and I have half a first draft of a novel, which means my great new idea for a completely different novel is right on schedule.

Three Neighbours by Paul Brookes

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Richard James Allen

is an Australian born poet whose writing has appeared widely in journals, anthologies, and online over many years. Creator of #RichardReads (https://soundcloud.com/user-387793087) an online compendium of Global Poetry, Read Aloud, he has written ten books of poetry and edited a national anthologyof writing for performance.  Richard is also well known for his multi-award-winning career as a filmmaker and choreographer with The Physical TV Company (https://www.physicaltv.com.au) and as a performer in a range of media and contexts.

The Interview

1) When and why did you start writing poetry?

I came from a very literary family so there were always books around me and an abiding love of literature. An ancestor was the ‘Allen’ who set up the publishers Allen and Unwin. My grandfather took his copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare with him to the trenches in the First World War. My mother and uncle were journalists. My father wrote short stories and later novels. My brothers did their PhDs on Marcel Proust and James Joyce and used to put on Samuel Beckett plays in the lounge room.

I started writing diaries at the age of 10, I can’t say why. Perhaps to try to fix some moments in what I was coming to understand as the fluid flow of experience. Perhaps it was a response to the dislocation of returning to Australia, where I was born in Kempsey, NSW, after a childhood spent with my family as expats in Vietnam and Japan. Gradually, I got less and less interested in recording specific events and more and more interested in recording colours, impressions, and feelings into dynamic literary forms that encapsulated a vortex of different experiences and these became my first poems. Looking back now, I see that it was only through writing that I was able fully to access the nuances of these experiences and my relationship to them. By the age of 14, I knew I wanted to be a poet.

2) How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

I grew up during Australia’s ‘Poetry Wars’, so I was very much aware of the dominating presence on the landscape of, and the combative narratives that had been set up by, the earlier generations of traditional and contemporary poets. I am not really one for conflict, I can see both sides of most situations, so I never wanted to align myself with one group or another. Instead, I tried to have genuine relationships with each individual poet and to understand and appreciate their work for itself. Sometimes I thought this might have been to my detriment, politically, but I am glad I stuck to my ‘pacifist guns’.

At one point I was called ‘the heir to John Tranter’ but Les Murray also put me in his major anthologies. Perhaps through all this (and so many other influences) my work became a synthesis of traditional and contemporary impulses.

In 1999, when I was Artistic Director of the Poets Union, Inc., I created the inaugural Australian Poetry Festival. My idea was to bring these warring voices all together in a shared space, to create a poetic ‘roundtable’ of sorts. While not all the old warriors agreed to sit down together, I did feel that this initiative may have made a small contribution, as this spirit was carried on when Martin Langford took over the festivals after I left, and I don’t feel we have had those ‘wars’ with the same virulence since that time.

3) What is your daily writing routine?

I wish I could give you a simple answer to this. My father, Robert Allen, who, as I said, wrote short stories and novels, used to tell me about Georges Simenon’s legendary writing discipline and unbreakable schedule in creating novels in 11 days. And I was interested and surprised to learn that the poet Les Murray used to sit down every day with a blank sheet of paper. The best principle I have is to try to be creative first, before mundane realities and responsibilities swamp your imagination. How that actually works in practice, in negotiation with the multiple challenges and opportunities that each day of each week presents, ends up being different every day, so I don’t think I will go into details. But I will say that a saving grace is that you can ‘reset the clock’, reset your sense that of ‘first’ state of awakening quickness, through various activities of clearing away mental and physical tensions and distractions. That’s the best I can offer at the moment – to try each day to put creativity first in your life. It is truly the best part and actually makes everything else more joyful or at least more bearable.

4) What motivates your writing?

Writing is how I process the world. Writing is how I take deep breaths. It isn’t exactly voluntary. But it is necessary.

Whether these are the deep breaths of the fish coming up for air, or the smoker sneaking into a back alley, or the mountain climber who has finally reached a summit, I don’t know.

I also like the idea that something I discover and share may be of value to others, as so much writing has been to me.

5) What is your work ethic?

It is hard for me not to work. The question is to make sure I am focusing productively on the right things. As I said above, I try to put creativity first before the administration of an arts career or the jobs one has to take just to stay alive.

People often ask me how I can work in a number of art forms and my answer is ‘the bounce around theory’. There is only so much one can do at any given time in one area, so much pure focus, and then it is better to stop, not to force things. But going to another area sparks different questions, energies, creative skills and the opportunities to explore them. And having worked productively in this way in that second area, one can go on to a third area, or return refreshed and ready to work again in the first area, etc.

Life is finite and I try not to waste too much time, though I am as capable as anyone of disappearing into a long form TV series, so I have to be strategic about when I do that!

6) How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I always find the ‘influence’ question tricky, because one reads, sees, listens to so much work over so many years it is hard to pinpoint actual influences. That said, I think there is a sense in which the writers you read when you are young do stay with you, or come back to you, or you find yourself coming back to them, even after many years.

The short story of you and I (UWAP, 2019) (https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/collections/richard-james-allen/products/the-short-story-of-you-and-i?variant=18298644889657) includes nods in the direction of some of these for me: Shakespeare and Dickens and Conrad in ‘Schlafwagen und Wunderkammer’, Pound and Joyce in ‘Spending a Pound in the Metro for Joyce’, Mallarmé and Baudelaire and Verlaine and Rimbaud in ‘Melancholy’, Eliot and Isherwood and Paramahansa Yogananda in ‘Nearer than knowing’, Dante in ‘Lessons from The Divine Comedy’, Proust in ‘Longtemps’, Slessor and Yeats in ‘The Singing Whirlpool in the Guest Room’, and Patanjali in ‘Why we sit’. When I look at this list, I see many who are missing, including Akhmatova and Paz and Różewicz, whom I have expressed my admiration for by reading on #RichardReads, an online compendium celebrating great poems, from a diverse range of authors across time, location and genre, read aloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-387793087

7) What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I would say that, from my experience, you don’t become a writer, you are either born one or not. But you can, and probably have to, go on a journey to discover and realise what kind of writer you are meant to be. And that’s where a wide exposure to the work, careers and lives of other writers in all forms and genres is most likely essential; and creative writing classes, workshops and mentorships can be helpful; along with, if you can, finding a community of like minds willing to support each other on their various trajectories. Further, if you don’t already have it, you will need to develop deep inner resources of patience and resilience, leavened by ever-renewing curiosity and a certain amount of fearlessness; the ability to work alone for long periods of time and then occasionally present your work, with at least some flair, in public; the ability to take on board feedback without losing touch with what you are trying to say; the ability to be self-critical without being self-doubting; the ability to find and maintain sources of income that are often unrelated to your essential work, but which you can hopefully learn from; the ability to survive on a lower income and standard of living than many of your friends, while often having nothing to show from your endeavours for many years; and ‘Titiksha’, a Vedic concept my Yoga teacher, Sharon Gannon, once translated as ‘stick-to-it-ness’. And, of course, joy, don’t forget joy – as there is nothing so wonderful as being creative!

8) Tell me about writing projects you are involved in at the moment.

Like any other writer, I am on my own journey of discovery to find out and realise what is next for me.

That includes, at the moment, in the back of my mind, as I write individual poems, finding a unique tone, shape and the appropriate content for the reading experience of my next poetry book; also solving various challenges of adaptation of poetry to other media; and finding my way through a number of hurdles and obstacles to completing screenplays for films that I want to direct.

Questions – Copyright © 2019 Paul Brookes.
Answers – Copyright © 2019 Richard James Allen..

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.
The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

John Challis

was born in London in 1984. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University and is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize. In 2012 New Writing North awarded him a Northern Promise Award. His poems have appeared on BBC Radio 4, as well as in journals and anthologies including The North, Magma, Poetry London, The Rialto, Stand and Land of Three Rivers (Bloodaxe). The Black Cab (Poetry Salzburg, 2017) is his first pamphlet of poems and was chosen as a 2019 Read Regional title by New Writing North. He lives in the North East and works as a Research Associate at Newcastle University. http://www.johndchallis.co.uk/

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

If I’m going to be honest, I started writing what I thought were songs during my mid-teens inspired by the likes of Dylan and the Doors, but poetry really grabbed me when I was 18. I had appreciated war poetry at school (Sassoon, Tennyson, Owen), but it was a chance encounter while browsing the library shelves with Dante’s Inferno that got my imagination really fired up. I wasn’t all that good at playing the guitar so I gave up songs for poems and gradually came to realize that there was far more I could do with the form. Then a creative writing teacher lent me Michael Donaghy’s Conjure, and I got hooked.

2. What was it about Dante’s Inferno that really fired you up?

At first I was captivated by how Dante had imagined his terrifying world in such excruciating detail. The way in which sins were enacted upon the sinner across the many levels of hell seemed a powerful and moral idea. I felt the reach of Inferno far and wide, notably in David Fincher’s neo-noir Se7en, which I’d just studied at sixth form college, but also further: in video games, detective shows, comics. In some ways, Inferno is the perfect dystopia. The way in which Dante assigned figures from history (politicians, conquerors, biblical figures and philosophers) to certain levels seemed to beg for endless comparison to the present. I was also intrigued by how Inferno provided a map to hell as an illustration, as though it was a theme park or a shopping centre. It made something so abstract very concrete.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

It’s difficult to write in a vacuum. Whether the presence of older, more traditional poets dominate my writing life, it’s difficult to say. Guiding lights are both old and young. In particular, there’s a whole raft of American poets (James Wright, Larry Levis, James Dickey, Louise Gluck), all of whom might be classified as ‘contemporary’ poets writing during the second half of the 20th Century, that I’ve enjoyed reading and have learnt something from over the last few years. But then there are younger poets (Emily Hasler, Wayne Holloway-Smith, Ocean Vuong, Hannah Sullivan) who I’ve really enjoyed reading as well. In some ways, everything is influential. When I started to write more seriously I looked to Philip Larkin, Paul Farley, Sean O’Brien, and still do.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

Since having a daughter last year, regular writing has gone out the window. When I was younger, I tried to cultivate a space and a routine, but now it happens anywhere and usually when there isn’t time. If I can, I like to write fast, in between my daughter’s naps or on the metro on the way to work. I like to spend time editing and often play around with form and syntax before settling on one configuration. Though too much fiddling can sometimes strip a poem of its mystery. Generally, I’m more productive and less self-critical first thing in the morning.

5. What motivates your writing?

Many things: to remember and experience; to re-experience and re-examine; to think aloud on paper; to imagine something other than experience; to create connections between seemingly oblique things, subjects and phenomena; to connect with others; to respond to encounters with language in great poems, novels and non-fiction books; the inexplicable need to do all of the above at the same time by writing.

6. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

Inferno taught me to consider what’s hidden below the surface, to drill deeper, figuratively speaking. Heaney said somewhere that the role of writing poetry was to unearth revelations about the self to the self. Given the time-intensive labour poetry seems to demand, it’s not hard to imagine images and ideas from texts I encountered earlier seeping in and emerging. If anything, I think that the sound and meter of favourite poems tends to crop up here and there and echo through my lines. I heard a recording of Michael Donaghy reading ‘Black Ice and Rain’ when I was starting out and his delivery of that poem had an enormous affect on me. Novels by J.G. Ballard and Haruki Murakami, which I obsessively read in my early twenties, have also had some kind of influence, perhaps in terms of subject. And film too, in particular neo-noirish classics like Big Trouble in Little China and The Terminator, and the strange otherworldly, edgy and pessimistic worlds they created.

7. Who of today’s writers do you most admire, and why?

Too many to mention, though one poet in particular whose success hasn’t translated into a huge volume of critical engagement is Sean O’Brien, whose collected work seems to me to show an incredible consistency, in terms of theme, subject and form across a 30+ year period. In particular, I love the way his poetry actively imagines events, moments, situations, that are all endowed with a kind of murky, subterranean sense. In his work time is traversed, history opened and spread out across the present. His work is metaphysical and elegiac, comic and resolute. If you’d like to read more, I have an essay on O’Brien’s engagement with the dead in his work over at Wild Court: http://wildcourt.co.uk/features/permanent-afternoons-underworld-poetry-sean-obrien/

8. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I think writing is something you grow into over time through the act of writing. The more you do it, the more you come to realize it’s essential to your well-being and also to your thinking. I tend to think aloud on paper. It wasn’t always this way, but the more I wrote the more I began to realize that I thought differently on the page. It’s hard to describe what this difference is, except to say that there’s something about that marriage between physicality and cognitive thought that often produces surprising results. You become a writer by writing. Why do you write though? Because.

9. Tell me about writing projects you’re involved in at the moment.

At the moment I’m trying to finish a first collection of poems. I seem to have done this many times. The more finished the collection seems, as soon as there’s a contents page and a title, the more unfinished it becomes. But I think I’m beginning to get somewhere. Many of the poems carry themes over from The Black Cab – London, history, markets, work, class – but others look at parenthood, its affects on memory and a sense of one’s own time, which there is never enough of, as well as the idea of having place or purpose in all that time. I’m interested in fluidity, how a poem can seem present and continuous as it breaks into and dramatizes the past, and this perhaps is what drives my efforts. Elsewhere, I’ve been working with prisoners to produce a book of their work, which has been an exciting and touching experience.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.
The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Ty Williams

is an English Education student at The Ohio State University after 20 years in the corporate world. He balances far too many hobbies with writing, school, his three sons and being a taste-tester for his wife, a chef. Ty’s writing can be seen at Black Bough Poetry, Neologism Poetry, Columbus Alive, Fourth & Sycamore.

Email: tywilliamswrites@gmail.com
Twitter: @tywrites1
Instagram: @tjwwrites
Web: https://thelittleknownhistoryofbrooding.wordpress.com

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I started writing when I was about 16. I copied styles of poems I liked and they were all pretty terrible. When I was in my mid-20s, I was frequenting open-mics, featuring here and there, and publishing nonfiction. I have only started publishing poetry in the last year. I’ll be 50 this June.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

You know, I was an awful student. I was terribly unmotivated in school and consequently, I was on punishment quite often. So, I sat in my room and read. I always loved language and enjoyed reading. My 10th and 11th grade English teachers are who really encouraged my reading, introduced me to different kinds of poetry and encouraged my writing, even though it was bloody awful at the time. In 11th grade, I was invited to represent my school at the Young Authors’ Conference and that’s where I first heard published poets read their own work, not famous dead people in well-published anthologies. From that point, I was hooked.

2.1 Who hooked you at the Young Authors’ Conference, and why?

There was an English professor and poet (now retired) from Ohio University named Peter Desy. His work was very melancholy, which appealed to a brooding teen, but also very honest and not trying to BE poetry. It just WAS without being contrived. One particular poem he read blew me away: “My Father’s Picture on the Cover of a Buffalo Bison’s Hockey Program for 1934”. You can find it on the internet. I had a rocky relationship with my father, but always longed for approval and affection, like any normal child, and hearing this poem just completely knocked the wind out of my lungs. (I also am a big ice hockey fan) It was gut-wrenching and beautiful. I’ve been trying to write a poem like it for decades.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

I’ve always been very aware of the presence of traditional and contemporary poets, though I readily follow more contemporary writers. I have and do constantly read poetry, partly out of enjoyment of the art and partly to learn how other poets execute their craft. I’ve never been in a bubble where wasn’t aware of contemporary writers in some form.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

My days are so hectic, I wish I had a daily writing routine! I am a student, I care for my 2 year old during the day, work with kids at the local library in the afternoon and evening, then study for school at night after everyone is in bed. All of that dominates my routine, and sadly, writing happens when it happens. I wish I had a more inspiring tale of how I balance all of those responsibilities and still discipline myself to write or revise a poem every day!

5. What motivates you to write?

Mostly fear and sadness. My wife keeps asking me why I don’t write poems for her. I try to explain that my poetry doesn’t come from a happy place. It’s me wrestling with my fear of death or working through childhood trauma or abusive relationships. I can’t seem to write sunny, complimentary, romantic poetry. So, I guess my writing comes from a desperate need of therapy.

6.  How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I read different writers now. When I was young, I read Whitman, Frost, Kerouac and due to an obsession with The Smiths, Keats ,Yeats and Wilde. These days, I read a lot of anthologies and lit mags, and I read a of local (Ohio) writers. I like to keep up on new writers, and to see what is attractive to publishers and readers. Ohio has some fantastic poets, as well, so I immerse myself in their work. I still read that Peter Desy poem often, though. It’s one of my landmarks of poetry that moves me.

6.1. How did The Smiths, Keats, Yeats and Wilde influence your early poetry?

Well, I haven’t read Keats, Yeats in ages. I don’t think I have much, if any, of my writing from that time, so I’m not sure how much of a direct influence they had on my work. I did try a bit too hard to be an intellectual, and that’s where the Morrissey influence came in. Soon after, I related much more to Joe Strummer and Chuck D. My influences and my work have changed quite a bit over the decades.

8. Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Ohio has an incredible wealth of talented and accomplished poets- many in my hometown of Columbus. Recently, I have been reading the greats from my state and city: Bianca Lynn Spriggs, Scott Woods, Ruth Awad, Maggie Smith (American writer, not Dame Maggie Smith), Rachel McKibbens, Jim Dwyer, and Hanif Abdurraqib. There are many  others, too, but these folks are accomplished poets who live in my area. A couple of them, I know personally. I enjoy hearing these artists create and write about their experiences and stories of living here in Ohio. This used to be a place everyone was trying to escape, but now people stay here and sometimes even seek Ohio out as a place to settle and make art. I relish that and I savor the work that these folks have put into the world.

9. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

The complicated answer is, “What kind of writer do you want to be? Do you want to be published often? Do you want to be paid for writing? Do you want to be able to earn a living from writing?”

The short answer is, a writer is simply a person who writes, whether that’s in a journal next to your bed, or in The Paris Review. So, the first step is to simply write. Write everything that comes into your head. Save all of your writing, whether it’s brilliant or rubbish. Your opinion of that same writing will change from day to day. Now, if you are interested in improving your writing, go to workshops. Go to open mics. Get on apps, like Meetup, to see when there are writing circles and workshops in your area. Talk to published writers and ask them all the questions they can handle. Don’t forget to READ. Read as much as you can. Read work that is similar to what you want to do. See what passes for “good’ or “great” writing in literary journals, in anthologies, in your chosen genre at your local bookstore. Write all of your ideas down. Go back to your “failures” and rework them. If you are at a loss as to what to write at any given time, there are websites and Twitter accounts that have nothing but writing prompts. Practice your craft as often as you can. Read, read, read, write, write, write.

10. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I am currently putting together my first honest-to-goodness chapbook. I have done the cut-paste copy-shop versions in the past, but I’m self-publishing a bound, proper chapbook this time around. I have a feature coming up in September, here in Columbus, that I’m really excited about.-my first major feature since the 90s. I’m working on a goal of 100 literary submissions in 2019. I’m at about 35, so I’m behind a bit, but plenty of time to catch up. 2019 has been a year of several small victories with my writing, so, I’m determined to keep it moving, keep writing, keep learning, keep workshopping, keep publishing.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Jean Lant

is a retired married woman who currently lives in Texas. In addition, she was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI and spent twelve years living in Las Vegas, NV. Jean has various work experiences as a crew member, secretary, a law office manager, a travel agent and co-owner of a handyman business. Her book, “Redemption: My Father’s Story”: is a gripping account of a man’s yearning for healing by revealing his corrupt past to his daughter.

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing fiction?

I have always wanted to write books. I wrote fluff stories and movie reviews for CNI NEWSPAPERS which was a company that published weekly suburban newspapers In Milwaukee Wisconsin, In the mid eighties while I was the receptionist. However In 1970 my dad wrote a manuscript about Dismass the good thief who died on the cross with Jesus. My dad passed away in 1986 and my mom gave me the manuscript. When I retired 2 years ago I found the courage and time to take his story and write a book that includes his manuscript idea while an additional story surrounds his and the life of Samuel mirrors the life of Dismass. Here is the link to my website (link: https://youtu.be/IAQBf69NjZo) youtu.be/IAQBf69NjZo

2. Did your Dad introduce you to fiction?

What a wonderful question. Both of my parents read books often. My dad convinced me I was able to write great stories. He and I worked on several school projects that always seemed to include writing. So he introduced me to writing fiction.

2.1. How did your dad convince you?

My dad was a wonderful charismatic man and he would tell me I had plenty of talent to write great stories. He would add that in addition it’s another thing to be successful. That he would tell me is all about desire and hard work.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

I really never paid attention to that. Now that I’m 68 I’m starting to feel old.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

Because I’m retired I don’t have a regimented writing routine. I do check and respond to different writing groups I belong to. When I sit down to do a project I tend to work between 6 – 8 hours a day till it’s done. The story seems to take over and I just hit keyboard symbols till I am finished. I start each day with coffee and at 4pm it’s time to share a glass of wine with my husband and discuss where the story took me during the day.

5. What motivates you to write?

I love true life events and taking them to another dimension. Almost like taking a photo and putting that photo on canvas and painting it with words of excitement, mystery, emotion and lots of beautiful colors

6. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

When I read I go to the world that the author created for me. I love that feeling of being whisked away and just before I get returned to the real world I have been taught how to make my life better. One of my favorite childhood books was the Wizard of OZ. That message of being grateful for what you have seems to be always in the back of my brain. I want to take people to a world I created and teach them they are fantastic and loved always.

6.1. Interesting that Oz should inspire you yet it is an imaginary world, whereas you write of real life events?

I know That’s true. However my mind  works like nobody else’s.. Now Redemption My father’s is weird mix of true events. Dismass, the good thief was indeed a true life person yet I created a fictional person to mirror his life.  So I don’t really seem to understand where fact becomes fiction.  I am an unconventional thinker.  Sometimes I wonder if I just want everyone to life in a world of fun and happiness so I mix real and fantasy.

7. Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Wow that’s a tough question. I think I’m so fickle that I don’t have just one. I run a book club in my neighborhood and everyone picks a different book so that we read many different authors. Since I have published my first novel I read books with very different eyes. So unfortunately I don’t have a good answer to that question..so I’m sorry to be undecided.

8. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I believe we’re all writers. It’s a question of you taking the time and a leap of faith to tell people your story. I go back to my parents teaching me that desire and hard work equal success. If you believe you can do it, I promise you that the forces of nature will show you the way.

9. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

Currently I’m writing the second book in my 3 book series. “Cook’s book”. A very years ago my husband and I worked for a travel agency. We did 50 plus trips and always hosted the agency guests. We loved that job. So I have taken real life events and am creating a story around those events. We didn’t realize how much we got taken and how the agency went back on what they promised to pay us. Once I have finished Cook’s Books I will be writing my 3rd book in the series “But first let’s have coffee”. In addition I’m traveling to Seattle, Twin Falls Idaho, Salt Lake City, St. George Utah and ending up in Las Vegas. In each of those cities I am doing a book signing event. It’s such a fun journey to be taking at this time in my life. Age is a state of mind and if you don’t mind neither do I. Thank you so much for doing this interview. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Good luck to you in all of your life adventures. Remember to always enjoy the journey.