How did you come to poetry?
The first book of poetry I remember reading and loving was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I don’t really know how old I was. Maybe 9 or 10 or maybe younger. His poems were silly and about absolutely everything and anything. While many of his poems involve rhyme, some don’t and I think that was an important thing to be exposed to early. I also had a class in school on poetry which was taught by someone who helped us learn different poetic forms and again introduced us to poetry that wasn’t always rhyming and was about topics we could understand at the age of 12 or 13. From then on, really, I became someone who wrote poetry. Not every day or even every month. But regularly. And it has always been something that I return to. About 15 years ago, I started to take my writing seriously by building a morning writing practice, joining a local writing group, and taking classes.
Did you study literature or poetry at college or university?
Although I majored in communications, I loved reading and took several English classes that covered a lot of literary ground, including Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales and the like. I also had an opportunity to take a creative writing course with a guest writer; however, that was fiction oriented. I think it would be fair to say that my university years were full of all sorts of writing. I was a news editor for the university paper, submitted to and had pieces accepted by the university’s lit mag, and spent a couple of years on the editorial team for the lit mag. University is a rich time of exploration and took classes that I was interested in. I moved to New Zealand not long after graduating from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and many years later attended the Hagley Writers’ College in Christchurch, New Zealand, for a year under the tutelage of Bernadette Hall. I also have taken and continue to take classes offered by Joanna Preston.
Do you have any major influences?
New Zealand poet John Allison has been a major influence on my poetry. His writing has taught me the value of looking and looking again, and again, and perhaps one more time, too. I had the good fortune to work with him one-on-one as a mentor and my writing is all the better for it. I’d also say that New Zealand poet Joanna Preston has also been a major influence primarily through her poetry classes which have exposed me to many poets that I otherwise would not have known, and she has taught me how to understand poetry through close reading. And finally, Michelle Elvy, but from a flash fiction perspective. Flash fiction and poetry are like twins – very similar but also unique. I worked with Michelle as a fiction mentor one year and her editing guidance, in particular, helped me immensely.
How did you develop your technique/ writing skills?
I’m always learning and hope that my technique and writing skills are still developing and will continue to develop for as long as I choose to write. But how did my technique get to here, today? About 15 years ago, I decided I wanted to give myself the chance to really develop my writing and I invested in a year-long course with the Hagley Writers’ Institute. We would meet for a 3-hour class on Saturday mornings and we were expected to write and read every day. The practice of daily writing is really what has helped me to become the writer that I am today. I believe that all writing leads to better writing.
In addition, for a few years, I taught a small group of teenagers at Write On: School for Young Writers. Teaching anything helps me understand it better. Teaching poetry is always a scary prospect for me. I feel a bit of a fraud. I don’t know the literary forms very well. But I know what works and what doesn’t work as well and I know about word choice and the thinking that goes into line breaks. Young writers are so intuitive in their approach and I find I learn as much from them as hopefully they learn from me.
What themes or ideas do you interrogate through your work?
To date, my writing has explored identity, connection, and grief. And place. Place is very important to me in my writing. Life exists within a place and I like that place to be present, almost as a character itself, within my poetry. From the floor of a canyon to my childhood home to the beach I walk every day — place is an essential element of nearly all of my poems.
Where to now?
In 2024, I published my first collection of flash fiction, The End of the Beginning (At the Bay | I te Kokoru) and in December 2025, I published my first collection of poetry, The Dancing Bicycle (Sudden Valley Press). I’m working on a short story collection which I’d really like to complete this year. I also have a young adult novel that was shortlisted for the Text Prize but hasn’t found a publisher, yet, so I’m going to take another look at that to see what I can do to make it better or perhaps even change it into a verse novel or a flash novel. One thing I know for sure: I’ll be taking more poetry classes with Joanna Preston and writing every day.
To see more of the work of Jenna Heller go to the link below
