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Profile of Writing Students # 2

What do you write? Poetry.

Why do you write it? Because I don’t think I’m brave enough to do anything else that might change people’s points of view. And it’s fun.

Inspirations and influences? Selima Hill, Clare Pollard, John Donne, Dylan Thomas, The Smashing Pumpkins, the Terminator Films, Jonathan Lyon, tabloid news stories, woodcuts, accounts of captivity by savages, grimoires.

Where can we see your work? Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century, which is in Blackwells. Most of that is old and crusty and I wrote it at school. You can Google me, if you promise not to laugh. I have a debut collection which is out soon on Luke Wright’s Nasty Little Press.

Has your work been featured anywhere? The Guardian, and a bunch of ‘zines: Pomegranate, Rising, Magma, FuseLit, Cake, Cadaverine.Most of them have silly names. I performed at Latitude. I was really stoned, but pulled it off. I think.

Working on anything great? I’d sound like a bit of a dick if I said yes. I’m writing.

How has your writing developed and what about it’s future? Yeah, there’s a lot less ex-boyfriend bile now. In exam rubric terms, I’m engaging with the question more fully. I could see my poems getting longer in the future.

How supportive and fertile is Oxford as a space for creative writing? You can’t write unless you’re reading, so in that sense it’s perfect. There are lots of opportunities to be published, also. The only problem, I think, is that I’m a page poet, not a performance poet, and a lot of open mic things aren’t my cup of tea. I can’t do the rapping, commentary- on-the-status-quo hing. I’m pale and awkward and would rather stay inside.

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