The Monthly discusses writing, poetry and Monostich poetry with Amanda Anastasi – Part 3 – Climate Change and Grief – Writing about difficult subjects

Are there any writers who have influenced you?

The first poetry book I read was Sylvia Plath’s ‘Ariel,’ which had a huge impact on me. My Italian grandmother lived near a library that had a tiny poetry section, but Sylvia Plath’s ‘Ariel’ was among the few poetry books there and I borrowed it. I was 9 years old. I didn’t quite understand everything Plath was writing about at that age, but her use of language fascinated me!

I was introduced to Shakespeare in Years 10 and 11 at school. I found the soliloquies in Hamlet so wonderful, this play will always be very special to me.

In Literature class in Year 11, I discovered T.S. Eliot. I was exposed to poems like ‘The Wasteland’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. Eliot remains my favourite poet to this day. As I was considered advanced in Literature at school, I was given the opportunity to start studying 1^st year university Literature (via Monash University) while still in Year 12.

And how does that affect you?

I was excited. I read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ for the first time and other classics. When I studied Literature at Deakin after I finished Year 12, I was introduced to contemporary Australian writers. I studied Irish literature in 2^nd year, Yeats, Joyce.

When I found the Melbourne poetry scene some years later, I had the privilege of meeting living writers and to read and hear their work. Ian McBryde’s ‘Slivers’ had a substantial impact on me. This collection introduced me to the concept of monostich or one line poetry. This form excited me immensely and I immediately started writing monostich of my own and sent them to him for feedback.

What are the underlying themes of your work?

I have explored many subjects in my writing. I write a lot about climate change, which led to a three-year poetry residency at Monash University centred around communicating climate science. I have always been deeply interested in the disconnect between humans and the natural world. My latest collection is about grief, childhood and love. I lost my father in 2022 and my book ‘Taking Apart the Bird Trap’ is basically a book of unsaid things shaped into poems. It was the first time I wrote poetry from an urgent, compulsive place. Writing that book healed me in so many ways.

As you say, you have written a lot about Climate Change. How does the residency at Monash University come about?

I was reading at a poetry salon at a poet’s house, and I was performing a futuristic poem depicting a time when frogs had become extinct, as well as some other poems which could be considered ecopoems. The Director of Monash University’s Climate Change Communication Research Hub was in attendance at this reading. Hearing my work gave him the idea to bring a poet into the Hub. He encouraged me to apply to be a member of the Hub as a Research Associate. The Hub was bringing in all sorts of communication professionals to communicate climate science.

Scientists are researchers and not necessarily communicators, and the message of the urgency of the climate crisis didn’t seem to be penetrating with the general public at the time. They wanted accessible short messaging bout climate change that brought the science to life and to cause people to feel something about it. I wrote climate poetry across a three year residency and it was a confronting, challenging and unforgettable experience.

Was the material you produced for that residency always going to be one line poetry?

I was writing monostich poems prior to my residency. The Hub saw this poetic form as a great fit for climate messaging. The then Director of the Hub suggested we pair my one-line climate poems with images and circulate them on social media. This was all happening during major climate events including the Australian bushfire crisis, when there were fires burning in every state of the country, and during the very destructive floods in Lismore, NSW.

On a slightly different matter, you have won and been shortlisted for many awards. Do awards make a difference to the work of a writer?

I think in the beginning, I wanted to challenge myself and so I entered prizes. I still do enter them occasionally, as I find deadlines are very good for me. They push me to get a poem to that next level, to complete it and to stop tinkering with it, as I can do that for a while!

Where to now?

At the moment I am simply writing one poem and then another. I still have climate change very much on my mind, though I am now not only thinking about the disconnect between humans and nature but the disconnect between human and human. With the rapid rise of AI, I am interested in writing about what this means for our relationships, our interactions, our ways of moving though the world. No doubt my future poems will reflect my thoughts and emotions around this. I also wish to continue writing about ordinary, fallible human beings that I love, and our interactions with the ever-changing natural world – a world that we desperately need much more than it needs us.