Josephine Rowe - Author Interview

Josephine Rowe is a Melbourne based writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her recent work appears in Best Australian Stories, Best Australian Poems, Meanjin, The Iowa Review and Harvard Review. She is the author of short story collections How a Moth Becomes a Boat (Hunter Publishers, 2010) and Tarcutta Wake (UQP, 2012).

Is writing in the short-form something you plan or is it more organic than that? Is there a reason for the brevity? Can you describe your process for me?

A lot of my fiction is poetically-influenced, and in some ways my methodology for fiction writing—the polishing of fragments, the assembling followed by the endless paring back—is not dissimilar to the way I construct poetry. But I’d consider myself as a fiction writer foremost, whereas poems for me are mysterious creatures that come largely unbidden, and I might only write a handful of them a year.

That fragmentary element is a constant, whatever form I’m working in (non-fic included), but beyond that, the processes differ depending on the piece. Within my shorter stories, or those strange beasts that exist in the space between poetry and fiction, it’s what I call ‘cold drip’ writing; a slow filtration process where the end result is very dense, very sensory; ‘overfull’ (‘Atlantic City’ might be a good example).

More recently I’ve been writing longer stories (long for me is a few thousand words), and I think that in part, the length corresponds to how deeply the story is rooted in a particular landscape (‘TarcuttaWake’, for instance). Something about that geographical grounding invites sprawling. I’m thinking of the root systems of trees here, their relationship to the canopy.

As for brevity, I’ll be honest and say I don’t know the reason for it beyond instinct. Perhaps it can be narrowed down to two basic things: a dislike of waste, and a dislike of condescension—I can’t stand fiction that overexplains.

Raw. Honest. Exquisite. Emotional heart. I’ve read your work and in my opinion these are all accurate descriptions. When you sit down to write are you writing for yourself, for the sake of the story, or do you have an audience in mind? Do you have an ‘ideal’ reader?

‘For the sake of the story’—that’s wonderful, I haven’t been given that option before! For the sake of the story, always. A question that’s often asked is ‘what should a good short story do?’, and I don’t believe there is a form-specific function, or if there is, it’s so broad as to be meaningless (to entertain, to move, etc., etc.). The beauty of the short story as a form is how open and adaptable it is, and I think readers are more willing to go into unfamiliar territory—be it stylistically, linguistically or thematically unfamiliar—purely because of that brevity. Look at Eudora Welty’s ‘Where Is the Voice Coming From’, which is an incredibly brave and troubling story told from the p.o.v of a thoroughly reprehensible ‘other’. No way would you want to spend a whole novel with that narrator, but to spend those few pages with him, that’s manageable. 

In regards to readers, I’m mindful of ‘a’ reader, that the story has to be communicable. But no, I don’t have a particular audience in mind when I write, nor an ideal reader.

Do you ever suffer self-doubt? How do you deal with/push through it?

My self-doubt is highly-evolved, and has the astonishing ability to adapt to any environment. Did I say the right thing? Do I actually take X up on her invitation to drinks/dinner/etc., or was she just being polite? Is this the right brand of tumeric to buy? It’s a running joke, old enough to be funny despite the real and measurable setbacks.

When it comes to writing, it is certainly the biggest inhibitor. A bad morning or a bad day is small change; I might try to shake myself out of it with a walk, a phonecall to a friend or a visit to a gallery. Or I’ll put on some music or the radio and try to do boring admin things, so at least something productive gets done (again, that dislike of waste—what was it that Hemingway said about wasted days?)

But sometimes that doubt proves unshakeable, and it might settle in for a week or even months. I’m getting a little better at riding those dry spells out. They used to terrify me; I thought I’d never write another good thing. But the older I get—well, ha, I’m twenty-eight but please humour me—the older I get the more time I feel I have, the more time I feel I can and should take, and any urgency comes from outside; from deadlines, commissions and such. I sometimes see those unproductive periods as almost a sub-conscious intervention, a kind of opening up to let the rest of life in.

Do you think there is still a market for short stories? Give your reasons.

Are we talking about the Australian market or the global market? We do seem to have it a bit trickier here. I certainly think the short story is still valued in Australia, but ‘short story market’ is something of an oxymoron. Nobody puts out a short story collection in response to the demands of the market—rather, the market demands to know why you aren’t writing a novel. But short stories are still being written and published and read, and will continue to be written and published and read. I do two of those things avidly, and I’d do all three if I had the funds. My advice is to ignore the market and write for the love of it. Let the marketing folks worry about the market.

What are your thoughts on the publishing industry at this time? Indie vs Mainstream? Paper book vs ebook?

I haven’t known the publishing industry at any other time, so I don’t have the strongest grounds for comparison, beyond what I’ve read and what I know from older writers and artists. But I get the sense that the same crises are on something of a rotating roster—the novel has been dying for decades. There has never and will never be a market for short stories. There has always been a treacherous smoking chasm between industry standards of pay and actual pay*, so why don’t we all just burn our manuscripts and take up law?

As mentioned in the last question, I don’t think all that much about markets and the state of the industry (which can’t be all that miserable if million dollar book deals are becoming passé). I just write as well as I can, and try to maintain some perspective—nine years of writing, that’s an eyelash. I plan on sticking around long enough to be painfully embarrassed by everything I’m writing now.

Recently, I came across a quote from Dorothy Hewett in a 1998 interview with Overland: “…there will always be little presses, I believe this. There will always be people who believe in us, in creativity, who set up with virtually no money and just enthusiasm and idealism, to get out books.” That’s still very much the case, fifteen years on.

I don’t see paper books as being in competition with ebooks; the two are simply different platforms for the same content, both with their own limitations and possibilities. I am a paper book buyer and borrower, and imagine I always will be. But I appreciate that ebooks allow for greater accessibility, so I’m not going to launch bottle rockets into the e-camp. It doesn’t have to be an either or.

Name the last five collections you have read. Which was your favourite and why?

Alice Munro The Love of a Good Woman

Ali Smith Free Love

Stephanie Vaughn Sweet Talk

George Saunders Tenth of December

Chris Somerville We Are Not the Same Anymore

Let me clarify/fess up by saying that these are the five collections I am currently jumping between. It’s rare that I’ll read a short story collection straight through, unless it’s for review, or it’s my sole companion on a long-haul flight, or I have to give it back to someone very quickly. All the abovementioned authors are wonderful, but George Saunders… I think anyone who has read or is reading Tenth of December will appreciate my hesitation to talk too much about him here, lest I gush. So I’ll just say that this is the best collection I’ve read since Alistair MacLeod’s Island, and that it is nothing at all like Island, except inasmuch as both works show astounding generosity and humanity, even when dealing in the devastating and the mediocre.

*actually, if there was less of a treacherous smoking chasm between industry rates and actual rates of pay for writers, that would be great. Jennifer Mills has a great post about it here.

Learn more about Josephine here.

A Sport and a Pastime - Review

I wanted to love this book. I didn’t. It didn’t satisfy.

I need to be gripped by a story and dragged headlong through it. I want to regret closing the book so I can sleep. I want to race through to the last chapters and then slow down because I don’t want it to end. Because it was that good.

Salter’s language was delicious. The sound of the words, the way he combined them, the rhythm and shape of the sentences. The eroticism. The sometimes surprising frankness was refreshing and delightful. Not since reading Sonya Hartnett’s Surrender have I thought so much about the language of a story, the author’s choice of words. But the story (A Sport…) itself didn’t grip me. I found myself resisting picking it up again. Found myself disconnected from the characters. It felt as though giving them names was an afterthought, and they were there only as vehicles to drive the language of the book.

I remember feeling a little like this while reading Surrender too – as though the writer was keeping me from fully entering the story by ensuring I oohed and ahhed over the language and sentence structure. Like Surrender, A Sport and a Pastime’s language is luminous and poetic and exciting. It rolls from the tongue plump and juicy. It sounds like music to the ears. But for all that this adds and shows the skill and deft touch of the writer, for me. It also takes away from the experience of reading.

I need to be immersed, not only in the language but in the story itself. I want to connect with the characters, to feel as though I am personally involved in their story, and to be swept away by it. I didn’t really care about Dean and Anne-Marie, nor did I care about or for the mystery narrator – though they at least had some substance. The other characters felt more like cardboard cutouts there only to populate a scene.

I am in awe of Salter’s skills as a writer, but I need more than beautiful words. I need a compelling story, and characters I can care about.

Matthew Reilly - Author Event

I freely admit I have not yet read a Matthew Reilly book, but that certainly didn’t stop me from attending his author event at the Cranbourne Community Theatre on Monday night. The event was organised by the Cranbourne Library and well publicised both in the library and in the local media. I was only one of about 250 people who had flocked to see the popular writer of the Jack West Jr.  and the Scarecrow series.

Matthew Reilly is funny and friendly, and he does a great Sean Connery impression. He spent the time before the official event chatting with the early arrivals, his readers, his fans. They talked about movies and why the fifth Die Hard didn’t work, and the last Indiana Jones movie should never have been made. He shared with his fans, his own anger and frustration when his favourite books get butchered in film. We can all relate to that.

When the theatre was filled and the official event started there was a sudden hush where moments before there had been a cacophony of sound. Matthew began by reading to us some of his bad reviews. These were ‘really’ bad reviews. One in particular described his books as “light-weight adventure crap.” Ouch!

Contest – his first stand-alone book – was initially self-published. Here’s the blurb from his wesite:

The New York State Library. A silent sanctuary of knowledge; a 100-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and spiralling staircases. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his eight-year-old daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare. For one night, the State Library is to be the venue for a contest. A contest in which Stephen Swain is to compete – whether he likes it or not. The rules are simple: seven contestants will enter, only one will leave. With his daughter in his arms, Swain is plunged into a terrifying fight for survival. The stakes are high, the odds brutal. He can choose to run, to hide or to fight – but if he wants to live, he has to win. Because in a contest like this, unless you leave as the victor, you do not leave at all.

One interesting piece of trivia is that for the US edition, the publishers asked that he change his imaginary ‘State’ library to the actual New York Public Library, which he did. He visited, took photos, drew up a floor plan and changed the scenes in the book to reflect the true layout. That’s dedication.

Matthew says his writing has evolved since his first book (first published in 1996 with a print run of just 1000 copies), and as a writer I know that the more you write the better you are at it. There’s more to it though. Matthew said that he feels he has to keep up with the audience, “the audience evolves, grows more sophisticated.” He needs to “up the ante.” In regard to Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, he said “I wanted this book to be relentless in its relentlessness.”

“Your hero is only as good as your villains.”

Some critics have described Matthew’s books as formulaic. He said the only part of his writing that may follow a formula are the openings of the Scarecrow books. “They always start with Scarecrow zooming into danger.”

Matthew headed off one of the most common questions a writer is asked by telling us that he reads a lot of non-fiction and watches a lot of documentaries; both “fire his imagination”, he said. He wants his ideas and his stories to be “world changing.”

“The strangest things in the books are true.”

One of the questions from the audience was “Do you have to visit a place to write about it?” He said that although it’s not necessary, it does help. That said, he revealed that “about 85% of the stuff in Ice Station is true” and no, he hasn’t been to Antarctica; he researched the facts in his local library. The two best places he ‘has’ been in the world are Egypt and Easter Island in that order.

“Don’t antagonise your biggest fans.”

Matthew has long made it a habit to end his chapters on a cliff-hanger. While writing The Six Sacred Stones he decided he would end the whole book in the same way. “It was a good idea at the time,” he said. The trouble was, his fans read fast. They usually purchase his books the moment they hit the shelves and finish them within the first week. They then had to wait two years to learn the outcome of those final pages. To say they weren’t happy would be putting it mildly.

An audience member asked the question that many of Matthew’s fans would probably like to ask. “With the Jack West Jr. series will you continue to write them until you reach number one?” Matthew said he probably will, but with how long it takes him to write each book and the other projects he’ll be working on in between it may take a while.

“My head was exploding by the end of Temple.”

Temple, another of his stand-alone books, is a split story. It is the longest of his books and was also “the hardest to write.” Matthew said if his fans reread the description of character William Race, they would soon realise that it is an exact description of the author himself.

Hover Car Racer is a book you could give a ten year old to read. Matthew said, “It doesn’t have the violence or, let’s face it, the swearing of his other books.” He wanted Hover Car Racer to be fast, fun, and to contain some life lessons. The best message in the book is what Matthew referred to as the ‘Bradbury Principle’ – based on the 2002 Winter Olympic gold medal win by skater Steven Bradbury. Essentially this message boils down to:

“Never give up.

Never say die.

You are always in the race.”

Find out more about Matthew here http://www.matthewreilly.com/

Follow Matthew on Twitter https://twitter.com/Matthew_Reilly

Like his facebook page www.facebook.com/OfficialMatthewReilly

POETRIX - The Final Issue!

After 20 years, Poetrix poetry magazine is about to publish its 40th and final issue!

Poetrix began in 1992 when the Western Women Writers group decided to start a poetry magazine just for women. This was at a time when the NSW Poets' Union had just completed a survey showing that women were still not being published as much as men. There was evidence that some male editors were being discriminatory in their selections, with one quoted as saying he wasn't interested in publishing "domestic suburban vignettes".

After being published in my TAFE magazine a couple of times, Poetrix was my first outside publication. What a joy it was to receive that first acceptance letter! 

harmful purpose

i cut myself, and

bleed

memories

of hopelessness

recurring dreams

nightmares

of repetition

darkness and shadows

a storm

in my mind

thoughts

like razor blades

slash me, with

sharp edges and

harmful purpose

first published in Poetrix 28, May 2007

Submissions are by mail only and close on 28th February.

• send no more than 6 poems at a time
• do not forget to include a self addressed, stamped envelope for reply
• poems should be typed, and if longer than one page this should be clearly indicated
• if poems are in a language other than English, please supply a translation
• a short bio note would be appreciated.

Send your poems to:

POETRIX
PO Box 532
Altona North
VIC 3025

I'll certainly be submitting to this final issue of this very special magazine - why don't you?

What have you got to lose?

2012 - My Year of Reading

The last two months have shown an incredible spike in the page views this blog has been getting. I haven’t blogged anything new in the last two months so I can only assume that Google has found me or that through you good people reading and sharing I’m getting some pretty good backlinks.

Anyway, in honor of this increase and to show people I am still indeed alive and kicking (well, kicking back anyway, I’m on leave) I thought I would end the year with a bit of a list of some of the books I have enjoyed in 2012.

I read some amazing fiction this year - 31 titles in total - but my top ten were:

Nine Days by Toni Jordan.

White Horse by Alex Adams.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett.
The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail.
Revived by Cat Patrick.
Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell.
House Rules by Jodi Picoult.
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

  
I also read a lot of poetry, a couple of biographies, a handful of writing reference and one self-help. All up I devoured 55 books total for the year which isn’t half bad. The best of the non-fiction were:

The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring King’s Magnum Opus by Bev Vincent.

Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak.
Help! for Writers: 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces by Roy Peter Clark.
Wannabe a Writer by Jane Wenham-Jones.
Tamam Shud: The Somerton Man Mystery by KerryGreenwood.

Well, that’s it! Why not get along to your local library and borrow some of these to read over the summer? If you do, come back and leave me a comment to tell me what you thought.

No matter how you spend this holiday season I wish you a wonderful time with good food, family and friends and all the best for a happy and safe 2013.

The draw of the Dystopian novel

I am drawn to the dystopian novel. Perhaps it's because I've lost my faith in the happy ending; or perhaps I never had faith in it to start with. I have long been a fan of anything a little dark, a little menacing. I'm too much of a realist, not enough of a romantic, I suppose. I like the stories I read to be gritty, messy, complicated - because that's how life is. I thought I'd write something about two books I've read recently that fit that description.


White Horse (2012 Simon & Schuster) is the debut novel of Alex Adams, and is most accurately described as a 'post-pandemic' novel. The story is reminiscent of McCarthy's The Road, but is not so much a journey to 'somewhere' as a journey to 'someone'.  Zoe, a cleaner at Pope Pharmaceuticals, is the unwitting catalyst of a deadly virus. She travels through a changed and dangerous world but she has hope and humanity. She is prepared to travel across the world to find Nick, but will her journey be in vain? A fabulous debut by a talented female writer. 


Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go (2005 Faber & Faber) was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in the year of it's publication. This novel is best described as an 'alternate history'.  The story is narrated by Kathy H as she reminisces on her childhood at Hailsham, a boarding school in what seems an idyllic 1960's country England setting, and her friendship with Ruth and Tommy D.  As you read you become aware Kathy's naive and almost immature voice. You sense she is different. There is a business-like detachment in the way she tells the story, almost a lack of feeling and yet you feel for Kathy and Tommy and Ruth. I came across the movie by accident and was so moved by it that I immediately went looking for the book. Read the book first if you can.

I like books that have a certain degree of menace and the possibility for tragedy. I think tragedy is filled with the opportunity for greatness - for growth, compassion, selflessness, heroics. After all, courage is not a lack of fear, but action in the face of that fear. Whether the guy gets the girl or vice versa doesn't really do it for me. There must be insurmountable odds to the getting and it's perfectly okay by me if they don't. Sometimes that's the whole point.

Garth Nix - Author Event

 

Garth Nix is the New York Times best-selling author of the Keys to the Kingdom series, and the acclaimed novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen.
 His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian and The Australian, and his work has been translated into 37 languages.

After being delayed leaving Melbourne due to an accident involving two trucks and a tunnel, Garth arrived at the Cranbourne Library to an enthusiastic audience of around fifty who had waited patiently. They knew it would be worth the wait and it was. 

Looking around the room I was instantly struck by Garth's wide appeal. His audience was made up of people ranging in ages from 10 yrs to sixty and with good reason. His writing spans junior fiction to adult and occupies the realm of the fantastic. Genre fiction, especially Fantasy, is the ideal way for us to leave the real world behind. There is nothing I love more than being persuaded by a great writer to suspend my disbelief for a time and enter the world they have created.

When writing, Garth said he often starts with something visual - an image, "one slide inside a frame" - rather than with words or a title. He had some initial advice for any would-be writers in the room (and there were a few). First - "Finish things. You never know what might happen." Second - "Be too dumb to quit." His second novel was rejected by the publisher of his first. If he had quit then, well...

He described his first published novel The Ragwitch as a darker, scarier Narnia. He submitted this novel to five different publishers and three automatically rejected it. The other two asked to see the rest of the manuscript and of those, one failed to get back to him at all and the other published the novel. He was 25 years old at the time and admits to listening to the message on his answering machine many many times, and why not! This is an exciting time for any writer.

When asked what advice he'd give to young writers his advice was simple.

Read everything. You learn a lot subconsciously. The more you read, the more you learn.

Write a lot. Garth is surprised by how many supposed writers he meets who don't actually want to write, but rather want to 'have written'.

Revise a lot. Garth said he didn't believe people who claimed to write perfect first drafts.

Submit. "It's perfectly all right if you want to write purely for yourself," he said, "but if you want to be published you must send your writing out." Do your research. Find out who publishes books like the one you have written then send it to them.

Repeat.

Then there was the advice he'd given earlier - "Finish things. You never know what might happen" - and I think this advice applies as much to life in general as it does to writing.

Find out more about Garth here.

 

Winter Writing Workshop - Kate Forsyth

On a rather dismal wintery Sunday in June I joined a group of thirty or so like-minded souls as we absorbed some writerly lessons from Australian author Kate Forsyth. Already a fan of Kate's work, which has been widely published to critical acclaim, I was keen to learn some of her 'secrets' to success.

The morning was dedicated to "The secret structure of story" - something with which I, with three unfinished novels moldering away for want of the skill and confidence to finish them, need all the help I can get. 

"The story dictates the structure - the more complex the story, the more important the structure," Kate said. She likened a novel to a train, with linking carriages - a causal chain of events. She said the novels that fail are often 'episodic' in nature - some publishers even have an acronym for them: ODTAT - "one damn thing after another" - the incidents have no reason, no purpose. In a novel, each scene must lead to the next, there must be a story arc, a sense of rising tension that eventually reaches the climax. To make sense, and be satisfying to the reader, the climax must be the result of everything that came before.   

Kate told us a book should offer a cathartic experience for the reader. "You want your reader to feel something," she said. The best way to achieve this is to create a character the reader can connect with. "You want to connect reader and character as soon as possible." Kate spoke about the amount of space the writer gives their characters on the page as 'screen time', saying that "the more time spent with a character, the more emotional connection the reader will have with them." She also said it's a good idea to put your characters in jeopardy - physical or emotional - to heighten that connection.

Later in the day Kate spoke about 'writers block', explaining that true writers block has nothing much to do with fear or not having any ideas or even having too many ideas - though these can all stop you writing - but is more about being 'stuck'. "If you're stuck, you don't know enough about your story," she said, "you don't know your characters well enough. Go back to your original notes. Review your plan. If you haven't made one, now's the time to do it."

This day gave me what I needed - a large dose of inspiration and a gently administered kick in the pants. I already 'knew' so much of this. I'd lost my confidence and forgotten the lessons learned while studying for my Diploma. I've always been a 'pantser' not a 'planner' (even if you're not a writer I think you'll understand the difference), but on this day I finally realised that some amount of planning is not only helpful but necessary. 

The big lesson would-be authors need to remember is that there's no magic formula to writing a novel. The 'magic' that ultimately ends up on the page gets there through sheer determination and will. My favourite tutor at TAFE once told me that the difference between an amateur writer and a professional writer is determination, paraphrased from Richard Bach's original quote which Kate shared with us this day - "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit". 

Now that's good advice.

Kate's latest novel, Bitter Greens, interweaves the Rapunzel fairytale with the scandalous life of one of the tale's first tellers, Charlotte-Rose de la Force. Moving from Venice in the 16th century to the glittering court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in the 17th century, Bitter Greens is a story of desire, obsession, black magic and the redemptive power of love.

You can find out more about Kate here.

Kate is interviewed elsewhere on this blog here and here.

Tiggy Johnson - Poet Series

Tiggy Johnson is a Melbourne-turned-Brisbane writer and editor whose stories and poems have appeared in various literary magazines and on Melbourne trains. Her short story collection 'Svetlana or otherwise' was published in 2008 and her poetry collection 'First taste' in 2010.

When did you first start writing poetry? What do you enjoy most about it?

Excluding limericks about my high school teachers and classmates, I started writing poetry about six or seven years ago, when a friend from my writing group, where I only ever took fiction, pushed me into it. Writing poetry helps me deal with difficult times, particularly the passing of my grandmother and later my father, while at the same time helping me keep those moments and memories alive. At the other extreme, I like it for the same reason, that it helps me hold on to the special moments that come with being a parent, like watching my baby daughter discover for the first time that she was controlling her hand movements. I also like that I can fit poetry writing into my busy life, compared to needing to schedule time in for writing fiction.

Tell me about the first poem you had published.

The first poem I had published (I think) is called ‘Minutes’. It was originally published in Tamba 38: Winter 2006 and has been republished online here. It’s about that difficult time in life otherwise known as the first year of being a stay-at-home mum. I wrote it initially as prose, but it didn’t work, and soon after trying poetry, I had another go at it. The hope at the end was added at the very last rewrite, perhaps to make it (more) appealing, though also because I felt a little apprehensive of putting it out there otherwise.

What is your usual writing routine? Do you write every day?

I don’t have a usual writing routine, except that I like to take a month or two off writing every year, partly so I can feel that itch to get back to it again. I like paying attention to my process though, and once I notice something that works, I run with for a while and then look for something new to try.

What advice would you give a would-be poet?

Accept that not everyone will like your style, which doesn’t mean it isn’t good enough. It just means you need a different audience. There are so many different styles of poetry, that everyone’s will appeal to someone. I’ve seen too many poets lack confidence because they think their style isn’t good enough, often because it’s not ‘academic’ (whatever that means) or what I like to call ‘arty-farty’. If you have something to say, say it. Then edit it (that’s probably two things, hey).

What’s your opinion of self publishing? Would you recommend it?

I think self-publishing poetry is very much accepted these days, and I say go for it. I do think it is a good idea to first accumulate a decent number of publications and to include both some of those and some unpublished pieces in the collection.

Do you perform your poetry? What are the differences between writing for the page and writing for the stage?

I do perform my poetry, though I sometimes prefer to think of it as ‘reading’ rather than ‘performing’. The way you communicate with a listening audience is different to when the reader has the time to ponder your words. You can often get away with a less polished version ‘on the stage’ and I sometimes use the opportunity of reading at an open mic to ‘test’ how I feel about a particular poem: it’s a great way to get instant feedback, mostly my own. I’d think twice about ‘performing’ a dense poem that could be too difficult for an audience to pick up on one listen, though I’m not sure I consider whether I’m writing for page or stage during the writing process: it’s something I think about later.

Have you been inspired or influenced by a particular poet’s work? How did it affect your own work?

Of course, and I’ll limit this to two poets (even though you imply one). First: Emilie Zoey Baker. I think she’s amazing for many reasons, but specifically she inspired me to have a go at writing what might be termed ‘feminist poetry’ though I wouldn’t call it that. Like her, I wanted to try this without the angst, ‘poor bugger me’ or other stereotypical attitudes that often come with ‘feminism’. I haven’t done a lot (nor any for quite some time) but it’s something I’d like to come back to. The second poet is Rosanna Licari, or particularly her book ‘An Absence of Saints’. For years I considered that writing poetry was my way of expressing myself and I pretty much only wrote about my own experiences and observations. Last year I took up family research, and I’m super keen to present much of my findings in poetic form, and this book is showing me how it can be done. It’s also great poetry.

If you had to choose a favourite contemporary poet who would it be and what makes them your favourite?

This question is too hard. I like many contemporary poets, for different reasons. As well as those mentioned above, I love that Sean M Whelan can write about love in ways that make it sound fresh and new, I love the way Ross Donlon can evoke emotions with strong images and more recently, I’ve discovered Michelle Dicinoski, who writes about ordinary people and events in extraordinary ways.

What about the masters? Who would you choose and why?

I would choose a contemporary poet over a master 49 out of 50 times, though I have been known to spend time with Sylvia Plath, as well as recently hooking up with a handful of haiku masters. 

Please include a favourite poem of your own to be published with your interview and tell me what inspired the piece.

Family secret #8

She’s on the lounge room floor, an eighteen

year old foetus, clutching her own through

layers of blouse and skin, her undies stained

with thick blood. Her cries are heard by

neighbours, though nobody comes.

Her mother is in the kitchen, pouring

gin into three glasses, the ice chinking

while she laughs with friends.

After four nights in a clinical bed, she

returns home to her own, continues

to rest. When she comes to breakfast

her mother makes tea and toast and says

you don’t have to marry him now.

She stares into her tea, whispers

but I love him, I want to get married

and so she did

                        for a while.

As part of the ‘genealogy’ poems I’m working on, there are a series of family secret poems. I’m titling these ‘Family secret #n’ where n is a semi-random number. I’ve written about ten so far, though my favourite of these is definitely ‘Family Secret #8’. It was published in Vine Leaves in February 2012. I can’t say too much about the inspiration (as it’s a secret) but it is one of the stories I uncovered in my family research that really affected me and made me rethink some of the things I already knew about some of my ancestors. 

‘First taste’ was published in 2010 and is available via Tiggy’s website. It will also be available sometime during 2012 as an ebook. 

Web : tiggyjohnson.com

Twitter : tiggyjohnson

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