Dr. Geraldine Green has asked me to host her answers to the following questions for The Next Big Thing.
The Next Big Thing, for those who don't yet know, is a way to network with fellow writers and to find out a bit more about what they're working on. The idea is fairly simple. The writer answers a set of questions on his or her blog one week, and then invites five other authors to answer the same questions the following week. They in turn invite five more.
The Next Big Thing, for those who don't yet know, is a way to network with fellow writers and to find out a bit more about what they're working on. The idea is fairly simple. The writer answers a set of questions on his or her blog one week, and then invites five other authors to answer the same questions the following week. They in turn invite five more.
What is the title of your new book?
How did you choose the title?
The idea gradually evolved as
I wrote the collection, realizing that the poems formed an unconscious journey
from my childhood self, to working at Vickers Shipyard as a young woman, to the
yearning to escape office life and travel across the sea, across time and space
to connect with times and places, other people and cultures…
The title is both real – it’s
the Jubilee Bridge that connects Barrow Island with Walney Island in Cumbria –
and metaphorical – it’s an imaginary bridge that spans the Irish Sea and
Atlantic Ocean, connecting the west coast of Britain with the eastern seaboard
of North America, following in my ancestor’s footsteps who emigrated from
Ireland to America during the Great Famine.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
I write poetry on a regular
basis and this, my latest collection, evolved once I began my Practice-based
PhD in creative writing poetry. Brief explanation of a Practice-based PhD: the
original body of work, i.e. the raw material upon which one reflects in the thesis,
is a new body of creative work; in my case, a new poetry collection. During my
MA it emerged that my poetry addressed certain issues, such as time and place,
placement and displacement, inner and outer landscapes, dreams and myth. I
wanted to explore these issues further and that’s how come I undertook a PhD.
When I write poetry I don’t
consciously think OK, I’ll write a poem in response to, say, displacement,
rather I write a poem in response to an image, rhythm, idea, dream, travel,
people I meet, a memory, myth or place
– and often a poem is an amalgamation of all of these. So, when I
discussed this with my PhD supervisor Prof. Graham Mort, we agreed that I’d
write my poems organically and then, when I began to amass a substantial body
of poetry, I’d begin to reflect upon issues that arose out of them.
What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Hmm! Too many characters in my
poems to begin to answer this one!
Will your book be self published or published by an
agency?
It was published in July 2012
by Indigo Dreams, editor Ronnie Goodyear.
What other books would you compare ‘The Other Side of the Bridge’ to, within the genre?
I think that’s best left for readers to answer.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Places and people I’ve met, or
dreamed up, or read in myth, or imagined; poets such as John Burnside, George
Wallace, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich. Celtic mythology, indigenous people’s
stories and myth,; the land, especially Cumbria and my family, particularly my
Mum and maternal Grandad.
What else about the book might pique a reader’s
interest?
The fact that the poems are
‘world poems’ not confined to one country, culture, time or place; they’re
poems of connections and I hope that there’s something in the collection that
readers and audiences can relate to.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Poetry that reaches out beyond
boundaries of time and space, that attempts to connect and re-connect with
humans and non-humans, animate and inanimate ‘others’, with
whom we share our earth-home.
Geraldine tells me she has invited the following writers to carry on 'The Next Big Thing' ...
- Carol Hamilton (Poetry Oklahoma)
- Mankh (Walter E Harris III)
1 comment:
Great book you dropped a line. But please tell me where i can buy a copy of this book. Can anybody suggests me any website's link or whatever for that.
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