Thank you! I couldn’t really believe it. There’s so few opportunities for pamphlets to be recognised that it feels like a huge achievement. I had actually written being recognised by the Michael Marks Award down in a spreadsheet of things I want to achieve one day, though it felt like a really aspirational goal. It’s surreal to be able to say I’ve been shortlisted!
Prickle is about itching, discomfort and being a generally dry person. It’s a lot of narrative-based poems which use humour to make light of the everyday. It’s uncomfortable and icky but a lot of fun.
I started the project in March 2020 (yikes!), when I was on an Arvon course with Apples and Snakes. We were tutored by Catherine Smith and Yomi Sode, and at the end of the week, after sharing some new work, we were asked to reflect and speak about what our plans were for our writing in the future.
I knew I wanted to focus on a bigger project, that I needed a theme to keep my writing structured. My work has always been quietly funny and a bit sad, so I wanted to keep this tone. I had just written a poem about bedbugs, and decided that I wanted to use my dry style of writing to explore itching, eczema, and a lifelong battle with feeling awkward in my skin. I shared this with the group and they all seemed really interested, and that gave me the confidence to stick with it.
I met my publisher through my editor, Jacob Sam-La Rose. He runs Barbican Young Poets, a scheme for emerging young writers at the Barbican Centre. As part of the programme, he offered ‘office hours’ where we could come to him to chat about something that we wanted guidance with. I booked in and, a bit cheekily, sent him the whole pamphlet. I had been working on it for a couple of years and had been submitting it to a lot of publishers and prizes. It’d got to the final round of shortlisting a few times but had never been successful.
I hadn’t ever thought flipped eye might publish it. I remember beginning the call by saying ‘I know there’s probably not one big thing, but what’s wrong with it?’. We had a really candid conversation about my intentions for the pamphlet, where I wanted to take it and what I felt were its weaknesses as it was. I was very honest, because I was talking to a mentor, not someone who I thought would actually be interested in editing it. At the end of the call, Jacob really casually said he’d love to edit it and have them publish it, the ball was in my court. I was so surprised that I went really cold and said ‘yeah sure I’ll have a think’. I then sent a way more enthusiastic email once I’d had a small scream in the office!
The process definitely took longer than I anticipated, for a number of reasons, but neither myself, Jacob or anyone at flipped eye ever pushed for things to speed up. This was such a blessing. I wanted it to be the best debut it could be, and it meant I spent so long writing, editing and sitting with the work that there’s honestly nothing I would change about it now. The oldest poem in it was written in 2019, six years before the pamphlet came out, and all of the pieces in there are ones that I’ve lived with for a long time. I wholeheartedly recommend taking your time as much as possible before releasing a first pamphlet or collection. It meant that Prickle doesn’t feel like a snapshot, it spans a whole period of my life.
Always Emily Berry, although I don’t think my work is anything like hers really. I love Luke Kennard, CA Conrad, Anne Carson, Will Harris and Danez Smith. All of these poets have a lightness and absurdity to their work, even though the subjects are wildly different. They also pay attention to the particularities of modern life, to the strangeness of human beings.
I also reread a lot of my favourite pamphlets while I was writing Prickle - I wanted to know what it was possible to accomplish in such a short number of pages, how to curate a cohesive piece of work while keeping the content fresh. Some of my favourites are Daddy Poem (Helen Charman), Portrait of Colossus (Samatar Elmi), I AM THE MOTHER CAT (Ella Frears), Trust Fall (William Gee), surrender dorothy (Shanay Neusum-James) and While I Yet Live (Gboyega Odubanjo).
I think for a long time I worried about how people received my work - I started off in poetry by going to a lot of open mics and readings, and it felt like a lot of the poems people were sharing were very deep, political, or about love. I felt silly when I would then read something which seemed trivial by comparison, and I had many failed attempts at getting an audience on my side, a lot of nervous laughs and uncertain reactions. I think that being a bit offbeat and unexpected has helped me stay authentic and also work harder to get an audience to meet me where I am, to get the laugh in the right place.
I think my last piece of advice is actually to pick up another form of writing alongside poetry. I now write plays, and spend a lot of time at the theatre. This has informed my understanding of poetry, and I love that when I have an idea I have the option to explore it as a play or poem. It also makes me a better reader of my work: I know how to tell a story onstage, how to build tension and create comedy.
It also means that when I’ve fallen out of love with the form I can switch it up and try something new. I know I’ll always return to poetry, it’s my first love, but sometimes we fall out, take a break and come back together stronger than ever.
