1 - How did your first pamphlet change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
It has been gradually changing ever since a reading in which I participated online for Cheltenham Lit Fest that Aaron Kent (editor of Broken Sleep Books) was also attending. I read a poem and he reached out to ask if I had a manuscript. There were many different elements at play that year, I was about to begin an MA in creative writing at University College Cork, I had won a mentorship so I was already working on some poems with the poet Grace Wells but that intense period during the summer of 2021 in which Temporary Stasis came to life really marked a shift. I knew these poems had to come out and be written in order for me to begin exploring everything else I wanted to say. My most recent work is very different to the book because it is informed by so many other experiences but Temporary Stasis represents the stories I lived and travelled with as a younger woman and at sea. The pamphlet explores a theme and definite period of time but my consequent work has been informed by art, Ancient Greece, translation and the role of the muse. There are a lot of longer poems that didn't make it into TS because of space that do belong in print so maybe a section in a poetry collection will serve them well. Also, TS was informed by another, very old book called 'Hundreds of Things a Girl Can Make' in which I had been making erasures, and there was a strange correlation between the themes of domesticity, servitude and the role of the feminine in the home which warranted exploring. I am not finished with that part of the project but I am finding that my interests are diversifying.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I can’t really explain but suddenly it felt like the right medium. Some of the poems I was trying to write initially didn’t really work and I knew they would be better left aside and re-formulated as CNF or fiction at a later date, but I found that the smaller canvas of a poem really fit the vast chaos of the sea and themes such as adolescence, loneliness and dislocation if I could just learn how to concentrate the material and narrow the focus a little. My father died at the end of 2019 after I had just begun to think about publishing my work and his obvious pride in me and encouragement of my writing meant that I knew I had to pursue it with no more excuses once he was sadly no longer around. It was too raw initially to write about the grief I felt but I am starting to explore it in non-fiction now that three years have passed.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
If I have a thought or an idea I start scribbling it down anywhere, preferably a notepad but my notes app on my phone also serves as a great tool. I can often grab random books and bits of paper and jot things down and I would say it’s quite a quick process. I enjoy deadlines and the pressure of having to come up with something and that joyful feeling of words and ideas spilling out onto the page and then putting it away only to return to it the next day and not remember all of what I wrote. I like being surprised by where my mind went. First drafts are always pretty close to how it ends up but I keep all drafts and sometimes if I feel I have edited a poem too rigorously I just go back to the first things I wrote and see what I did initially as sometimes the rawness can be edited out.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
Not from the very beginning. It can take a while to find its shape and purpose but I am often writing to get to the heart of something so the poems can feel similar and then I will start to see that it should be a sequence or an idea. It can take time to see how the themes are taking shape or what exactly I am exploring but ultimately the real underlying story will start to surface.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I began publishing my work at the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, so obviously the pandemic meant that everything became an online event. It worked for me as I felt that the fear and intimidation was missing. Performing is such a different feeling from writing and I don’t always feel comfortable doing it but I am now beginning to experience much more excitement about events and I enjoy the feeling of being in a completely silent room and that slight awkwardness that comes from not knowing how an audience is going to react.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I am asking a lot of questions about solitude in my work, I think, and what a person needs to do or the decisions they must take to safeguard the part of them that wants to create and be free to absorb new experiences. I spent many years travelling at sea away from family and friends and then I married, it broke down and I dealt with divorce, all while being away from home and still in this microcosm of a seafaring life. My life now could not be more different. I retired from yachting, I live in Ireland, am happily re-married and we have three small children. I have pursued my determination to write relentlessly despite many pitfalls across the years. I ask questions frequently about how I got here and why now? Why not when I was straight out of university or when I had all those endless hours on Atlantic crossings and a circumnavigation? I could have written four novels if I was ready back then! But I clearly wasn't and it took until now, when I have no free time and am constantly pulled in different directions, that I am at my most creative and productive.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I am not sure if a writer has a role in larger culture unless they have a large platform, or specifically promote and / or explore a set of cultural concerns in their work. Obviously writers should read prolifically and read the work of other writers, teachers and thinkers and know where they stand on pressing cultural issues but particularly when it comes to poetry, if you are exploring the microscopic, why should you need to have considered all of the broader ramifications? That being said, I think the same themes have always been explored in poetry over thousands of years, themes like motherhood, feminism, grief, failure, loneliness and desire to name a few and there are always new and intriguing ways of approaching these subjects depending on which voices have been given the space and freedom to speak. I like to think that writers can help other writers with confidence and talk about how they write or how they stay focused because I definitely take inspiration from favourite writers such as Zadie Smith, Elena Ferrante, Deborah Levy and Annie Ernaux, to name a few, but I could tell you more about their writing processes then the other facets of their lives or where their political concerns lie, as that is what I am most interested in learning about them.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
This can definitely depend on the type of connection you have and how willing both are to compromise and listen to each other's concerns. I have worked with brilliant editors, one of whom being Cal Doyle, poetry editor of The Stinging Fly. It was a short poem and he had a couple of very nuanced suggestions and questions but I felt like he wanted to understand where I was coming from in order for it to be the best it could possibly be. Another exceptional editor is Naush Sabah of Poetry Birmingham who I recently worked with on edits of a lyric essay written for the next issue, because she has a razor sharp eye and genuinely can take your work to another level of comprehension and elegance.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
It was from the editor of a very well regarded poetry journal in the UK who gave me some very helpful advice and said to me that although my submission was unsuccessful on that occasion, he could predict it would really engage another editor and added that even though it can take time, once you find the right editor who champions your work everything becomes easier as the process of submitting is so subjective, you need to wait often to find the person who appreciates your work. It felt both encouraging and wise.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I can usually only write after the children have gone to bed. My partner works away from home for seven weeks at a time (and spends seven weeks at home) so when he is back I have a bit more time but I have to work during the day — (I write stories and blog content for a wine company as part of my day job) so the evening is the only time when I can work on poems or essays and do some submission admin!
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
It's hard because there is nothing worse than wanting to write but feeling devoid of anything original or exciting but I try to stop writing and taking notes and just read. I find it works to immerse myself in non-fiction or find a new album I haven't listened to and start thinking generally and 'blankly' without the pressure of having to create anything. That is when inspiration usually comes.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I have a few. I would say that the citrus, pine nature of hops reminds me of Kent but I also have strong associations with the Caribbean from spending eight seasons there when I worked in yachting so scents like pear, honeysuckle, clementine, jasmine and tuberose remind me of the sweetness of the night air in places like Antigua and St Kitts.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Nature and the changing of the seasons definitely informs my work. I walk daily with my dogs and I love to see the trees change, lose their leaves and come back again in the Spring. I always walk by the docks in Cork and love the cycles of the river and the ships that come and go and how the seagulls react when the trawlers come in. Music is also hugely important, I normally listen to a mixture of classical and electronic music when I write and find I can listen to one track obsessively when concentrating on one piece of writing.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I find it so important to read other contemporary poetry. I was shocked when I completed a creative writing MA at UCC and found that some students were almost proud of the fact that they didn't read other writers. I don't believe you can grow unless you read other work. I have loved work this year by Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Victoria Kennefick and Zaffar Kunial this year and every time I read work by authors who write very differently to me I just feel so energised and inspired.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I would love to publish a book of essays.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I always loved acting when I was young, especially on the stage, and really enjoyed musicals so I think maybe acting or singing in musicals might have been something I would have enjoyed doing as a career. When I see my children acting the little skits they have composed and see them singing and dancing I absorb the joy they derive from performing and I remember how it felt when I was young and discovering my voice.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I put it off for so long that I couldn't ignore it any more. It was impossible avoiding writing because it found me again at a time in my life when I needed it.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I think the last great book I read was The Years by Annie Ernaux. The last great film was Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog which I found extraordinary due to Kirsten Dunst's incredibly expressive acting and it had a really great quite profound twist that I did not predict.
19 - What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on about four different essays one about my time training as a sommelier in London, one about my father's death and another about the imagist poet H.D's visions in Corfu, as well as putting my first full-length poetry collection together.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
1 comment:
Really enjoyed reading this. Interesting questions,thoughtfully answered. Lucy's poetry is beautiful.
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