How did
you first come to poetry?
Via prose, song lyrics, and visual art. Language is everywhere but it takes time to realise which groups you might belong to and how to find a way in.
How does a poem begin?
With fingers on keys, with a rush of emotion, with a remembered thing, with an overheard thing, a stolen thing, reappropriated, masked, recycled. With a fast ejection that can then be viewed and toyed with.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
After my first book I was then able to call what I was doing poetry. It brought me into a kind of focus.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I write when I should be sleeping. I learnt to write on my phone, in transit, that freed things up for me—took the pressure off, that smaller screen, also gave me anonymity (rather than trying to write on paper) as everyone had their phones out, so no one knew I was doing it. I write in scraps and bursts, whenever a phrase comes into my head, I try and work with it. It's about doing it before I'm expecting anything from the task. I work, I have a small child, I try to write every day, even if that writing some days is nothing more than retaining those regularly appearing phrases.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry! Anything with prose poetry in it really.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I bought Natalie Whittaker's chapbook at an event recently and am really enjoying it. And, aside from poetry, I just came across the music of The Caretaker, and his song titles are something else. Also, the last non-fiction that really surprised me was Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passarello—I opened that and was very pleased to find what was essentially prose poetry between the covers.
Lydia Unsworth is the author of two collections of poetry: Certain Manoeuvres (Knives Forks
& Spoons, 2018) and Nostalgia for Bodies (Winner, 2018
Erbacce Poetry Prize). She has two chapbooks forthcoming in 2019 from above /
ground press and Ghost City Press. Recent work can be found in Ambit, Litro, Tears in the Fence, Banshee, Ink Sweat and Tears, and others. Manchester /
Amsterdam. Twitter @lydiowanie Longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize 2018.
Photo credit: Amy MacLeod
A selection of her poetry appeared in the second issue.
Via prose, song lyrics, and visual art. Language is everywhere but it takes time to realise which groups you might belong to and how to find a way in.
How does a poem begin?
With fingers on keys, with a rush of emotion, with a remembered thing, with an overheard thing, a stolen thing, reappropriated, masked, recycled. With a fast ejection that can then be viewed and toyed with.
How did publishing your first chapbook change your writing?
After my first book I was then able to call what I was doing poetry. It brought me into a kind of focus.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I write when I should be sleeping. I learnt to write on my phone, in transit, that freed things up for me—took the pressure off, that smaller screen, also gave me anonymity (rather than trying to write on paper) as everyone had their phones out, so no one knew I was doing it. I write in scraps and bursts, whenever a phrase comes into my head, I try and work with it. It's about doing it before I'm expecting anything from the task. I work, I have a small child, I try to write every day, even if that writing some days is nothing more than retaining those regularly appearing phrases.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry! Anything with prose poetry in it really.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I bought Natalie Whittaker's chapbook at an event recently and am really enjoying it. And, aside from poetry, I just came across the music of The Caretaker, and his song titles are something else. Also, the last non-fiction that really surprised me was Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passarello—I opened that and was very pleased to find what was essentially prose poetry between the covers.
Photo credit: Amy MacLeod
A selection of her poetry appeared in the second issue.