What gets you to poetry?
It started when I was relatively young, school work, those sort of general assignments. I always enjoyed being creative at school, and I was quite drawn to writing from an early age. It didn’t start with poetry though, because I was interested in literature, especially fiction, Horror, Mystery and the Sci Fi genres.
So not poetry in the beginning. How did that change?
I discovered poetry when I was around 10 years old; it might have been an assignment at school or a writing group. I was already going to writing groups by that stage. As I became more familiar with the genre, I started writing and then I would try out for competitions. I submitted to the 100 word challenge which was a big thing for me.
Poetry was the genre which captured your imagination?
Poetry just seemed so unique, so different to anything I had come across before, it had this alien, foreign way about it, a beauty unlike anything else I had been exposed to. I was really drawn towards the musicality and the subtlety of that form of writing. I had a background in music so that drew me towards poetry as well.
Once I found poetry it almost instantly became my thing. I don’t think I have ever looked back to focusing in on writing prose, fiction or the other longer forms of writing. There just hasn’t been anything which allows someone to transform the world, in the mind of the author and the reader, the way that poetry does.
Did you get support at home?
I did got support at school, that’s where it started initially, and then once I talked to my family about poetry, and let them know this was what I was interested in, they supported me. I think, despite me being a bit of a bookworm and a voracious reader, poetry might have seemed like an unexpected turn of events, but my parents signed me up for the School for Young Writers with the Write On organisation when I was about 12 or 13.
I am still working with them and my parents have supported me all the way through this process. If it wasn’t for my parents, who have always encouraged me to follow my dreams and work at what I am passionate about, it would be very unlikely that I would consider at a career in poetry.
And what about school?
At school, my Deputy Principal at the time had came across my love of writing, and he must have known other students who loved writing, because he set up a Creative Writing Club––which was a first at my school. I was very involved with that.
That sounds very supportive?
It was and I have had lots of support through my education, from my English teachers especially. I have had plenty of support and encouragement from many people around me, and at school I found that I was given many opportunities to express my poetry and to develop my writing.
How have you developed your craft?
I’m currently studying the Undergraduate Diploma of Creative Writing at the University of Oxford, and through that programme I’m getting a lot of valuable experience, understanding and knowledge, working one on one with very talented minds and I am collaborating with some brilliant writers in that programme.
It is incredibly valuable to be surrounded by a group of writers who share your passion, and beyond that, have fresh sets of eyes to look over your writing. That is something which is often overlooked. There is a sense of community at Oxford, and it seems they consider writing to be a much more social pursuit that most people realise. This community is a community of support; there is a sense of lifting you up and helping you develop your work.
Before Oxford, I had the School of Young Writers which was where absolutely I developed my craft and my writing. It was through Heather McQuillan and Gail Ingram and the rest of the wonderful WriteOn team there that I was inspired to keep working on my poetry.
What themes do you investigate in your work?
I tend to look at ideas emanating from Intersectional Feminism, I discuss racism, sexism, homophobia and I look at those issues using a feminist lens. I use my poetry to look at issues emerging from social injustice. I like to think that I talk about the darker and grittier truths regarding the reality of the world we live in, and particularly the experiences of women and the oppression we face.
Do you have any influences?
I would say Margaret Atwood. I find her writing voice extremely powerful, charged with passion and strength, and while this comes through in her fiction, it is especially strong in her poetry. She has certainly be an influence for me.
Have you produced a collection?
I am working on a collection but it is not a full time pursuit. At the moment with my studies we have yearly assignments called portfolios and we work, one on one, with an expert on that area of writing of our choosing on a writing project––which for me, is poetry. My hope is to use my portfolio as a first step to producing a collection.
Any final thoughts?
I am working with a group of young writers at the School of Young Writers to produce a radio show with a local radio station which will look at promoting the voices of young writers in New Zealand. That is an important project I am working on at the moment.
