1 – Can you start by telling us a little about your current book?
“The Significance of a Dress” explores issues around refugees, often held in limbo in camps or holding centres for long periods and the impact that has. The title poem is set in a refugee camp in Northern Iraq where a Syrian woman who used to work in the fashion industry created a wedding dress hire shop. Some poems are based closer to home and #MeToo. There are some light-hearted moments too, such as imagining revenge on an officious bureaucrat who thinks he knows how to spell your name better than you do. And the man who set up a piano on Bristol’s College Green to win back his ex-girlfriend whom he called Rapunzel.
2 – Are you a plotter or a panster?
Definitely a pantser. If I’m writing a story, I start with characters and dialogue before a plot takes shape. With poems, I pick up ideas and write until I have enough poems to justify thinking about whether they are sufficient for a collection. I couldn’t sit at my desk and decide I want to write poems about a certain theme.
3 – Savoury or sweet?
People who don’t do desserts are weird. When I say I’m going to do a poetry reading or event, the first question isn’t “What poems are you reading?” or “Where and when?” but “What are you baking?” Definitely sweet.
4 – Three books to a desert Island. Go!
Only three? Pushed into making a virtually impossible choice: “Ariel” Sylvia Plath, “Good Morning Midnight” Jean Rhys, Han Kang “The White Book”. It’s very rare I read a book more than once, but I can return to these. 5 – Star Wars or Star Trek?
Since neither isn’t an option, Star Trek.
6 – If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
To temporarily clone myself so that when book launches, readings, poetry nights, literature festivals clash in Leicester, I won’t miss out because I can’t be in two places at once.
7 – Music or Silence when writing?
When in the flow of writing, I don’t notice what’s happening around me so playing music doesn’t work and potentially interferes with the rhythm/musicality of what I’m working on. I might play music to set a mood or create ambience or just provide white noise if there’s roadworks or similar nearby.
8 – If you could live anywhere in the world, and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose?
Would I have to leave Leicester? Tempting as it is to pick somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit but not yet been to, it would be more sensible to pick somewhere I’ve actually been so I’m picking San Francisco. A fairly compact city with the City Lights Bookstore, ocean views and a reasonably temperate climate.
9 - Your favourite karaoke song?
I don’t do Karaoke.
10 – One piece of advice to an aspiring writer?
Read. Reading is how you will learn your craft and will spark ideas. Read beyond your genre: novelists gain from reading poets and poets gain from reading stories. Reading includes audio books, graphic novels, films and TV (someone had to write the script); the format is not important.
11 – You win £1 million, but you must give half to charity. Which charity do you chose, and what do you do with the rest of the money?
The National Deaf Children’s Society – it can’t be right that children are falling behind simply because they are deaf and not getting the support they need. The remainder? Probably split into small grants to support literary projects, e.g. independent presses and poetry projects or helping local literary events become hybrid/more accessible.
12 – Horror films, yes or no? If so, any favourites?
Yes. I think both “Suspiria” and “Near Dark” are underrated.
13 - What are you currently working on?
I’ve been writing a sequence of poems in response to Rose Ayling-Ellis’s journey on the BBC’s “Strictly Come Dancing”. One project I was involved in which I’m proud of is Arachne Press’s “What Meets the Eye” where D/deaf and hard of hearing poets contributed to a print anthology. Some poems were translated from BSL into written English and English poems were interpreted with videos made. It was fantastic to see Rose, who is deaf, make it all the way to the final and lift the trophy. She’s also been a supportive campaigner to get BSL recognised as an official language and signed Raymond Antrobus’s “Can Bears Ski?” as a CBeebies bedtime story.