What I loved most about Iris, among so many other things, was the vividness of your portrayal of ‘Nan’. What drew you to writing about this character?
Iris originally started as longer non-fiction piece for uni that began with an image of my nan shaving her face and using the same aftershave her late husband used to use. I wanted to understand this woman, who has always been such an enigma to me, and someone who always felt far away both physically and emotionally. So much of my nan, her house, her habits, are wrapped up in her grief.
I always found the beginning of that non-fiction piece had so much imagery, so I spent most of last year ripping the piece apart and trying to find the poem hiding within it. I’m still not sure that I’ve found the perfect poem that captures her grief, but I feel like I’ve managed to get a snapshot of her.
“She doesn’t speak / while she holds / her teeth and I wonder / if she sounds different” are the final few lines, ones that remained with me long after first reading this poem. What does the voice of a character mean to you?
All I write about are different characters. People I know, people I’ve met. Some for only an hour or so. I think my goal with all of my writing is to capture the essence of a person, whether through vernacular, the way they embody a space, the things they observe, but mostly I suppose, the way they interact with me. I think voice is incredibly important, and I hope that with each piece I write I get a little better at capturing it.
What upcoming projects are you working on next and where can our readers find more of your beautiful work?
I’m working on writing and editing more poetry, and I’m hoping to experiment a little more with different forms in the next few months. I’m particularly interested in plays at the moment, so we’ll see where that leads.
You can find some more of my more recent work in Westerly 65.1, Blue Bottle Journal, Issue 9 of Glass Magazine.
Interviewed by Munira Tabassum Ahmed
Hyades Magazine 