The Monthly interviews Irish Poet, Molly Twomey – Part 1 – Finding poetry at college

Are there any early memories of connecting with poetry?

I didn’t write poetry until I went to college in Galway. Poetry in secondary school was very much seen as something you studied and analysed, rather than something you might write yourself. When I was in college, around 19 or 20, I went to my first poetry class with Kevin Higgins, who has since passed away, and I found it really exciting.

At that time, I didn’t know who I was, I was a little lost, as many 19-year-olds are, and I was struggling with my mental health and poetry offered me a way to express myself. I was able to explore feelings, that I didn’t feel safe talking about, through writing poetry. So, I started writing then and I have pretty much been writing non-stop ever since.

You didn’t write very much as a child or when you went to school?

I did love writing essays and there was a teacher in second year, Ms Doolan, who was really kind and encouraged me. I would have been 14 or 15 when she told my father that the essay I wrote about Clonea, a campsite in Dungarvan, was amazing and that he should be proud of me for it. That was the best support in terms of writing that I was given at school.

I did win an essay writing competition in Transition Year when I was around 16 but there was no hype around it. My parents got me a grind in English for my leaving cert because I had a schoolteacher who said things like ‘don’t bother reading the poem, just read the analysis’ and they knew I loved literature and wanted me to keep loving it. I directed a lot of my creativity into music, I sang and was in the choir. There were about 6 or 7 of us in my music class and that was lovely; it always felt like a respite from the chaos of teenage life.

Once you took the class with Kevin Higgins did you get support there for your writing?

I was in a poetry class with my peers, and they were wonderful and very supportive, and Kevin Higgins was very encouraging. I owe a lot to him.

It was exciting going to his class every week, reading my own work out and listening to other people’s work. It was the first writing I did that I didn’t feel afraid of reading out loud and I think that was all due to the atmosphere which was created in the class. It was my favourite part of the week.

What happens then?

I had trouble with my mental health, and I went into treatment for a few months. I transferred to University College Cork to be closer to home. I did my undergraduate degree in English Literature, and I did my Master’s in Creative Writing.

Leanne O’Sullivan was someone who made it seem possible to become a writer. She taught me poetry as part of my undergraduate degree, and I did my dissertation on her poetry. She went on to supervise my master’s thesis and, in many ways, she is the person who has kept me writing, she has been a huge influence on me.

What ideas do you investigate through your writing?

The ideas I am trying to look at usually have to do with modern life as a young woman, relationships, self-perception and socially constructed pressure.

My first book deals with the pressure faced by women or vulnerable people to look and act a certain way. I was analysing the internalisation of harmful ideas; asking myself are these thoughts my beliefs or are they society’s ideas derived from capitalist and misogynist structures. I was also asking myself how these ideas impact life choices, happiness and relationships. I would say I was interrogating the pressure that a lot of us feel daily.

What are you trying to achieve with your writing?

When you are writing about body image, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders, you want to make sure that you are not causing harm because these issues have been massively sensationalised in the media. There is an impulse to go into great detail which might shock and provoke, or to create an objectified character out of someone who is struggling. I aim to capture the human element; I do not want to put a person who is suffering in a cage for people to stare at.

I am highly aware of the vulnerable reader, the person who is struggling. Particularly with eating disorders, you can have a situation where someone unwell might get tips from the details which are offered in memoir writing and these end up being destructive. I know when I was getting treatment, I was reading biographies and they weren’t always good for me.

I think one of the key things is to try to create some sense of hope. In my book, there are very difficult and intense topics, but by the end of my book, there is a sense of joy. It isn’t saying that things won’t be difficult, life is difficult but there can be a happy ending in a realistic sense.