How did you go about producing your collection?
Before turning to poetry in my 40s., I hadn’t written for many years; as I said, I was a mum and didn’t have a lot of time. Then, when I started writing again, I realised everything had changed – it used to be that you typed your work up, sent it away via snail mail, waited months and months for a reply, and then waited even longer for something to appear in print.
But when I began considering publishing again, I realised everything had changed: it was no longer necessary to wait to be published by someone else, you could publish yourself online. So I decided to start a blog and put my poetry out there, not thinking that it would be read by many people. Luckily, a wonderful Australian poet called Les Wicks contacted me. He was part of an old-school poetry publishing collective called Island Press which had been running since the 1970’s. That was during a time when most of the publishing in Australia was coming out of the universities, and it was academic and very stuffy. Island Press was established as an alternative to this, and was the longest running independent poetry publishing house in the country at the time,
When Les contacted me to say he liked my work and asked if I had enough poems for a collection, I was excited but nervous. I had only been writing poetry for around a year and had not envisioned publishing a book this quickly. But I printed out every poem I had written to date and was relieved to find that I did indeed have enough poems to pull a collection together. I set them out in long rows on the floor and shuffled them around to see how they might fit together, how they might speak to each other, and how they might create a thematic journey for the reader. It was a lovely surprise to have a book published, and since then I’ve published two poetry chapbooks and another full-length collection.
Would you have any poets who influenced you?
I love confessional poets such as Plath and Sexton, and contemporaries such as Sharon Olds. I’m drawn to dark and sometimes even violent work, such as Olds’ Satan Says. It’s such a powerful book, quite shocking. As I said, I like poetry which hits you in the gut, rips your heart out, and makes you feel something. I definitely write more in the confessional vein, and am proud to say so. Often ‘confessional’ is used to disparage poetry, but I don’t see it that way.
Where to now?
Although I said I never plan when writing a book, I must be maturing as a writer, because I am currently in the planning stages of my next book, called Dis. I have lately become obsessed with Dante’s Divine Comedy, particularly the realm of the Inferno. I am writing a book-length prose poem set within the city of Dis, which comprises the four lower circles of hell housing those who’ve committed intellectual sins such as heresy, fraud and treachery,. I want to link these to the narcissism of our current age. I’m fascinated by Dante’s depiction of Satan, who was the original narcissist, and want to explore the various negative states of mind he presents in Inferno within the context of a contemporary, virtual setting. It’s an ambitious project, but a hugely exciting one. I only hope I’m up to it!
If you want to know more about the work of Michele Seminara see the following link – micheleseminara.net
