rob mclennan's 12 or 20 questions interview

Rob mclennan interviewed me for his blog; the result can be read here. I'd be interested in any responses....

A mini-interview with Patricia Ann McNair

Some months ago, Chicago fiction writer Patricia Ann McNair interviewed me, and it's now on her website here. My favourite question was "If your writing were an animal, what animal would it be?" That took some thought.

A new review and interview in Exeposé

A review of my reading at the Exeter Poetry Festival and an interview appear in Exeposé, the University of Exeter's online student magazine. You can read them here.

"My Writing Process"

Poet Dan Wyke invited me to follow him in answering these four questions about my writing process.


What are you working on?

I have a poetry collection in progress titled The Weather in Normal, addressing family, home/place, climate change and death. It builds on my pamphlet/chapbook, Homecoming (Dancing Girl, 2013). I also occasionally nurture the seeds of several other projects: a series of poems expressing grief over my mother's death, Grief's Alphabet; poems on the memorials at Bath Abbey and questions of commemoration and place; and an erasure of Esther Summerson's chapters in Dickens's Bleak House. One of the pleasures of these embryonic projects is that the poems' styles are wildly various, and I wonder if I can sustain that range throughout each project, especially Grief's Alphabet and the Bath Abbey poems.


How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I think it's highly unusual to have three books so wildly different from one another in style, especially one's first three books. I worry when someone likes one of my books and says she's going to buy another that she'll be disappointed in its difference. On the same principle, I'm delighted and relieved when I learn someone likes two or more of my works.


Why do you write what you do?

I have a choice? I write what engages me both intellectually and emotionally; I tend to take less pleasure from writing, art, etc. that seems to draw solely from the intellect or the emotions.


How does your writing process work?

It comes and goes. There are periods during which I'm writing regularly, periods in which I hardly write anything at all; the latter usually because of university commitments, especially marking, which seems to diminish my creativity. I don't understand writer's block--if I have time to write, there's always something and indeed usually some things I'm eager to grapple with in one form of writing or another.



A week from today, my poet-friends Zoe Brigley and Jackie Wills will answer these same questions on their blogs. 

"The Next Big Thing"

The indefatigable Sophie Mayer has tagged me in a blog game called "The Next Big Thing," where one uses a set list of questions to interview oneself about one's most recent or next book and tags others whose work s/he admires to do the same. Here I answer questions about my (presumably) forthcoming third collection, Imagined Sons; my pamphlet/chapbook The Son (Oystercatcher, 2009) provides a sample of it. Thanks for thinking of me, Sophie!

What is the working title of your book?

Imagined Sons

Where did the idea come from for the book?

It began with a prose poem I wrote in 1995, where I imagined meeting my son when he came of age. I wrote half a dozen such poems over the next ten years. 

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I think a different actor would need to play each new incarnation of the imagined son, to suggest the breadth of possibility. I'd love Christina Ricci to play me. 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Imagined Sons explores a birthmother's consciousness through two kinds of poems: Imagined Sons, where the birthmother imagines meeting her son once he's come of age; and Birthmother's Catechisms, where the same question recurs over time with different answers. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first poem was written in 1995, but I didn't work on the series wholeheartedly until 2006 (at that point only six  "Imagined Sons" had been written). The first draft of the manuscript took the better part of a year, but I've been revising the manuscript steadily since then. 

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The desire to explain or share my experience as a birthmother in a more immersive, less confessional poetry. 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I expect people who enjoy flash fiction would like the generally narrative drive of the prose poems.


The poets I'm tagging are two wonderfully imaginative, intelligent, and kind poets. Their interviews should be up within a week:
Jennifer Militello
Zoe Brigley

I Don't Call Myself a Poet: Interviews with Contemporary Poets Living & Working in Britain

As part of her teaching at the University of Middlesex, Sophie Mayer has done a wonderful thing, creating a compendium of interviews with a wide range of UK poets, including, happily, myself. It includes Andrea Brady, Vahni Capildeo, Mimi Khalvati, John Kinsella, Ira Lightman, Chris McCabe, Daljit Nagra, Shazea Quraishi and Jane Yeh--and many more! Apparently the 68 interviews are just the beginning, with more forthcoming. It looks to become a valuable resource for readers and students alike.

The Other Room Interview

with me is well-edited; I've only delayed posting it because it shows me with two chins (and so I am dieting again). Here it is, for the interested, brief and pertinent.

A short survey of writing habits

For the annual anthology, last year's Bath Spa University MA graduates decided to do a short survey of writing habits, beginning with writers teaching on the programme and extending outward into the larger literary community. Respondents include myself, Peter Finch, George Szirtes, Samantha Harvey, Mimi Thebo, Gerard Woodward, and Lucy English, among others. You can read them here, as well as dip into extracts from the graduates' work.

Interview in Bath Life

There's a light interview with me at the end of the September-October issue of Bath Life (page 170, to be exact). It was a pleasure to talk about Bradford on Avon and Bath in particular.

Radio interview today

Hi, all. Some weeks ago Rachel McCarthy interviewed me for The Blah Blah Blah Show she hosts with Damian Furniss the first Sunday each month, and today the interview, along with appropriate music, will air from 12-2 on Phonic FM. You can listen to it online by going, during that time, to the live stream at www.phonic.fm.

Etter and Crowther review and interview

In the new issue of the online journal Horizon, there's a piece where Claire Crowther and I comment on each other's work and interview one another. It was a great pleasure to do, as I'm so fond of Claire's work but have little opportunity to write about it given that she's one of my closest friends.

An interview and poems on Matt Merritt's Polyolbion blog

Matt Merritt has asked me some questions about The Tethers &c. and chosen a couple poems from the book to post. I'm grateful for his interest and thoughtfulness--thanks, Matt.

An 'aggressive' interview with yours truly...

...about Yet, the value of pamphlets, being a transatlantic poet, and political poetry is up at Gists and Piths.