Rhiannon Hooson
In this blog piece, Jen sits down with Rhiannon Hooson to chat about her poetry collection Goliat (published by Seren Books), a shared interest in folklore and how to get started with writing (or publishing!) your own poetry.
Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, editor, and author, who has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City, was a finalist for the Wales Book of the Year award.
Tell us a bit about writing Goliat. Did you set out to write a collection encompassing certain themes or did you write individual poems and then realise they all had a place in the same collection?
Goliat is my second collection, so in that sense I already had some idea of what themes I find compelling to explore, but it was a fairly atypical process putting it together, because just as I was getting ready to do that, the pandemic and lockdown hit. And during all of that, I became ill and unable to work as I usually would for almost a year. So the book was put on hold. I knew I had a lot of work, but also very little idea how it would all fit together. My first book, The Other City, was written with a particular structure in mind, so that every poem had a place as I wrote it. Goliat was very different, the work was there, but it wasnโt until quite late in the process of shaping it into a book that I realised what it might be about. And that in turn helped me to decide what should be kept in the book, and what didnโt need to be there.
The sequence of prose and poetry in the middle of the book, Full Moon on Fish Street, was actually a really late addition. There are quite a few ekphrastic poems in the book, so the idea of them revolving around this sequence about an artist and her muse was one that appealed to me. I also liked the idea of something narrative to act as a kind of foundation for the book. These two characters, artist Aubrey and her muse Elizabeth Kidd, refused to let go of me until I wrote about them, and a love story emerged, a queer love story, told through little poems and snippets of text. Once Full Moon on Fish Street was in place, I felt Goliat as a whole had more of a structure, that it was beginning to come together.
There are a few poems in there about my experience of illness that almost didnโt make it in. My poetry isnโt usually as personal as that โ but they did find a place, and in the end one of them, 7th Nerve, was chosen as poem of the week in the Guardian, so Iโm very pleased I took the leap!
Which was the first poem you wrote for Goliat?
This almost never happens, but in this case it was actually the title poem. It was written for an anthology of poetry with a theme of bodies of water; each poet claimed a particular body of water and wrote something inspired by it. I chose the Barents Sea, which is home to a Russian oil field called Goliat โ the Russian for Goliath โ and found myself wondering what kind of mermaids might be swimming in these dark northern waters where oil is being constantly pumped up from the depths. And more than this, how might they be reacting to that. So the image was born of these massive, whale-sized mermaids, beaching themselves, or certainly contemplating it. I think that sense of alternating determination and despair in the face of climate breakdown carries through the book, as well as the idea of a monstrous, otherworldly femininity.
Are there any poems in this collection that feel particularly close to you? Or one you think about most?
Probably Event Horizons. I spent a long time wrangling it into shape, which probably helps, but itโs a poem that deals with my experience of navigating traditionally male spaces, using the language of science and space. In it, a little robot, Grace, is sent into a black hole, and the conceit of the poem is that Iโm writing to apply to be the โpoet (not) in residenceโ on the project. I had a pretty strong draft, but it wasnโt until I started again and began it โDear Sir...โ that it really clicked. Itโs a great poem to perform too, and it always gets a reaction.
And then two poems that come together right at the end of the book: Horse Skull Crown and Blackberries. I know you spotted the Mari Lwyd in Horse Skull Crown straight away and I was so pleased! The Mari Lwyd crops up in my work now and again. I see her as a personal totem of sorts, a symbol of fierceness and protection and poetry (and that monstrous femininity again). Horse Skull Crown is a poem about preparing for the realities of climate breakdown. I know climate anxiety is something Iโm far from alone in dealing with, so I wrote the poem as a kind of call to arms, but also a moment of recognition that itโs something we will all confront in time, something we have in common. I liked the idea of the Mari bearing witness to that. Then Blackberries is a moment of solace. I wanted to end the book on a note that was a little less strident, a little less desperate than Horse Skull Crown, and which took its inspiration from nature too, as if to say, look, good things still happen, small moments of kindness and sweetness and hope. Itโs important to me to recognise that these things still exist, still matter.
Who is Goliat FOR? Do you have an โideal readerโ that you knew while writing this would really connect with the collection?
To be honest I donโt think in those terms at all. I donโt write for a reader; I write to be read, yes, but I donโt really think about who my work will find a connection with, because I think โ I hope โ it will find that connection with a much wider range of people than I can come up with. I prefer to let people decide for themselves if they want to become a reader, I suppose. I think thereโs a lot of pressure on writers these days to โniche downโ so itโs easier to market their work, and Iโm pretty stubborn about resisting that pressure, at least at the writing stage. For me writing is less about creating something that will be perfect for a hypothetical reader, and more about perfecting the piece on the page.
More generally, how did your relationship with poetry start? Has it been a constant throughout your life or an on/off love affair?
I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who were creative and encouraging, although for most of my childhood and teenage years I was more interested in science and maths. I rediscovered my love of poetry doing GCSE English, and there were two poems that really entranced me. One was Letter from a Far Country by Gillian Clarke, and the other was Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Both poems have very striking images of the natural world in them, which I suppose is no surprise, given my own work.
Why do you think so many people find poetry so intimidating? Where would you start for someone that wants to read poetry but is worried they just wonโt โget itโ?
I would urge prospective poetry readers to read contemporary poetry. Very often when someone has โbounced offโ poetry, itโs because theyโve been contending with Shakespeare or the Romantics, so thereโs a gulf of language to be crossed as well. I think there can be a misconception that poetry is all flowery language and even a few thees and thous, which couldnโt be further from the truth. Contemporary poetry uses contemporary language โ of course it will be easier to understand.
Someone like Mary Oliver is great to start with, because her work is deceptively simple โ you canโt fail to get what sheโs talking about, because she tells you, but itโs also very poised and delicate in places too. But I also think poetry isnโt something you should expect to โgetโ in its entirety on the first reading. For me the joy of reading a poem isnโt decoding it all immediately like rubix cube, itโs in getting enough on that first reading to want to return. A good poem will always give you something on the first reading, but thereโll be more there for you to discover on subsequent readings too โ a poem isnโt a simple object, but that is part of its beauty.
Do you have any tips for people wanting to write poetry?
The absolute best approach to improving your writing is to read as widely as possible and see what poetry can do, what it can be. Occasionally I come across the attitude that someone doesnโt want to read other poetsโ work, because it might taint their original voice, and I think thatโs a massive mistake. Reading widely also helps you to move past that phase (and we all have it!) of being strongly influenced by one particular writer.
Go looking for poetry in more than one place. Donโt just read poetry on Instagram, but go out and buy or borrow a book. And donโt just read books of poetry, but go to spoken word events and hear performance poetry too. These are all very different formats that produce very different work.
Another great place to start is with a workshop or course, online or in person. Often youโll be able to find one catering specifically to beginners, and they donโt always necessitate sharing your work with others. For instance, the online courses I run, Wild Words, have no element of sharing (unless you want to), but concentrate instead on helping you to build up an intuitive creative practice grounded in nature.
Equally, how about for poets who are writing but arenโt sure how to go about getting their poems read or published?
There are a few ways you can go about doing this, depending on what youโre comfortable with. You might want to start by sharing your work with a local writing group, or an open mic night. You can submit it to magazines; there are hundreds of poetry magazines, some of which are online, and some in print; a good place to start is with ones that are local to you, then do some research as to which ones would make a good home for your work. Keep in mind that your poetry wonโt be a good fit for every magazine, and thatโs okay. Thereโs very little point sending a manuscript for a whole book to a publisher if you havenโt published in magazines and got your name out there first.
Then you can enter competitions. Again, with this itโs best to start with smaller ones perhaps more local to you, and take a look at who the judges are. Iโm in two minds about competitions, because as a beginner, itโs possible to spend a lot of money on entry fees and come away with nothing to show for it, so keep this in mind and choose your entries carefully.
Seren Books have kindly offered a 25% discount to our Tandem Community. This is redeemable on all orders on www.serenbooks.com including Rhiannonโs fantastic Goliat until 14/07/2023. Just enter code goliat23.