Hannah Green is a writer and poetry editor at CV2. She was a poetry finalist for the 2021 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She lives in Winnipeg.
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Xanax Cowboy (my recent work) is completely different from the way I used to approach poetry! Xanax Cowboy feels different because it is loose, unhinged, and most of all--vulnerable. I let myself live in the poems instead of writing myself out.
I can get very caught up in the technical aspects of poetry, the showiness of language, like “OH, LOOK WHAT I CAN DO, DID YOU CATCH THAT?”. I let all that go in Xanax Cowboy. I gave up the control and just said fuck it and wrote something completely new to me.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I think when I was just starting out as a writer, I could see it was easier to complete a poem, than say a work of fiction. It was easier to stay up revising & revising & revising a poem until it was finished, since it was a shorter piece of work than fiction would be.
I gotta feed the dopamine rabbit in my brain, and to finish a poem is to give it a carrot. I would have been starving it if I started out trying to write a novel.
ALSO OF NOTE: poetry just sort of clicked with me. I felt like I could finally articulate what was in my head and have it come out the way I wanted and that was an amazing feeling.
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?
I am an extremely slow writer, and my drafts are absolutely batshit. Most poems I write have drafts of at least 10 pages. It is a lot of labor, but I love it. A finished poem for me is generally very different from the first draft. There will always be lines from the first draft that haunt their way to the final version, but a lot is exorcized through revision.
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?
An individual poem almost always begins with the last line, and I rarely change it. I need to know where I am going or I get lost along the way. Expanding upon that, I need to be working towards a larger project, because then I really know where I am going. I think that is why I <3 the long poem so very much.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
If I had a checkbox available here I would select “Neutral”.
I’m fine with doing readings, but I wouldn’t say they are part of or counter to my process.
I’m just going to chill on the fence here with a Coke in one hand and a Pepsi in the other.
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’m looking at the romanticization of addiction and mental illness in relation to the artist, and I use the Wild West as a backdrop. I’m interested in how the image of the Wild West/cowboy is forever shifting to match what the current era wants/needs, much like a diagnosis does. Those are some of the themes and imagery I am calling into question.
So I guess I am trying to answer--what does all that look like, how can addiction and mental illness manifest in daily life, impact someone’s daily life, destroy a “normal” life.
And the current associated question might be: why the fuck don’t we feel well?
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?
To entertain, to puzzle, to make you think or see something differently.
To express something and to have someone find the words that they need within it.
Language = framework = visibility, understanding, community.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Essential! I love working with an editor. I trust my own instinct enough to know what I am wanting to do, and the feedback I receive is almost always what I already know I need to do, and was sort of hoping I could get away with not fixing (sort of sweeping under the rug and hoping nobody will notice).
And if the feedback I receive doesn’t match what I am wanting to do in the poem, then I can work through that with an editor--see how/why it isn’t coming through, figure out what window I need to open.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Sue Goyette came and spoke at the University of Winnipeg when I was doing my undergrad. She spoke about how no matter what we do, no matter where we are at as a writer, that all we would ever really want was to outwrite the poem we wrote yesterday, to push ourselves farther than we previously had. And it stuck with me.
I’m happy it did. She was right. It is what makes me keep pushing myself and my boundaries and expectations for what a poem can be and do. It taught me very early on not to measure myself/my writing against anyone else. I’m of course inspired by and in awe of the work of other writers, but I’m just out here trying to be a better writer than I was last week.
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?
Routine isn’t something that my brain can seem to wrap itself around, so I don’t have a writing routine. I try to write at least a little bit every week though, even if I don’t feel like it!
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Lit Mags! If I am stalled, I curl up with a pile of Lit Mags, and I always find a poem that gets me thinking differently, a line that inspires me. I like Lit Mags for inspiration because I am introduced to so many new voices and styles and forms to fall in love with.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I really want to give an answer for this, but I have a terrible sense of smell.
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?
Science! But I guess that is still “book”, damnit. Research is very important to my writing, so reading books or articles that aren’t literature is great because then I better understand all the cogs of my own experience, rather than just accepting the machine and leaving it at that.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Anne Carson is my favourite poet. She does not give a FUCK. When I am lost, I read her work, and I’m reminded of tomfoolery and cheekiness, and not being afraid to get outside the boundaries of every other poem I have written. She never disappoints and is never boring.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
SO MANY THINGS. I’m trying to just relax though. I’m realizing that I never learned how to slow down or take a break so I am trying to figure it out now. I’m going to leave it at that, or I’m going to get myself excited about some unfinished project and be off to the races on it.
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?
Mechanic!
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I always wanted to be a visual artist. And when I knew I wasn’t meant for that I tried music. And the list goes on. I tried a lot of stuff. I tried all of these different forms of expression but I could never get what was in my head out correctly. It never looked right. Poetry just stuck. I didn’t ask for words to be my bitch, but they are. Poetry found me and I am happy it did.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is definitely a stand-out for me when thinking about books. For film, I’m going with X and Pearl ( I love horror movies).
19 - What are you currently working on?
I am working on Xanax Cowboy Vol. II! This rodeo ain’t over.
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