How did you first come to writing poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
I originally believed that poetry was something that better resembled song lyrics, with plenty of repetition. It was until a little over a year ago I had a choice between writing a children’s story or a series of poems for a project that I really got into the diversity of writing poetry. I wrote four pages of haikus on Sylvia Plath for that end of term assignment, and somewhere I really started to love the freedom of it.
How does a poem begin?
Usually when I’m driving I get a string of words that come to mind, so I usually end up having to pull to the side and frantically jot down my ideas in a little notebook I got from a Dollarstore before I end up forgetting all of it.
You’ve published poetry in numerous journals. Do you see your writing as a single, extended project, or a series of disconnected threads? Are you in the process yet of thinking about collecting any of your work into a manuscript?
There’s a general focus to my work. At first, I was considering true crime as just true crime. But now, I really have been focusing on the obsession with true crime, and how consumable it has begun via media interest. As an example of something I’m focusing on, I have been searching articles of murdered and missing Indigenous women, and looking at the bias in headlines and articles.
I’ve been really lucky to receive support from different journals, and I’m slowly gathering everything into a manuscript. I don’t want to rush with this project, which is why I’ve taken my time to re-examine my own biases and reflect on what I’m writing as a whole.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I work two jobs which means I get pretty creative when I’m finding time to write. I’ve been working on a fantasy novel this summer, so I shift back and forth between it and poetry, in the early morning and also late at night. I don't really have the ability to set aside a standard time of the day for writing, but I also spend a good chunk of my time scribbling on napkins.
Some weeks I end up reading far more than I write, and other times it is the opposite. I find it important in making my independent time valued, and take joy in it as a whole, rather than focusing on the quantity of work churned out.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Thorn Literary Magazine is my favorite corner of the internet lately. I’ve probably saved every email they have sent me to a special folder, and I get pretty excited when I have something new from them in my inbox.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Elizabeth Knight. I found her on Instagram and fell in love with her use of mythology in her writing. Sarah Weinman is a recent favorite as well, for her take on true crime.
I’ve also spent this pandemic reading the books that my friends love, so I’ve gotten into some more contemporary fantasy writers like Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare. It makes me feel a little bit closer to my friends to spend time looking at what makes them excited and happy, so it really helps with the distance.
Her poetry appears in the second issue and the fourth issue.