This interview with Claire Crowther, author of Stretch of
Closures, was first published in August 2007.
Where were you born and raised?
In the Midlands of England, near
the Arden Forest where Shakespeare grew up.
What was it that first got you into writing and when did
you start writing?
I had been a journalist for
several years when an old school friend said she hoped I had carried on writing
since she still remembered some of my early poems. I sat down the next evening
and started to write down poetry I must have been storing up for many adult
years.
Which writers have influenced you the most?
Many American writers such as
Lorine Niedecker and Cole Swensen have made a big impact on me and their work
has shown me techniques I've tried to use. My muse is Edward Thomas a British
writer who died in the First World War - his work is a form of quiet modernism
that detonates somehow in my poetics, over and over again.
What kind of things do you write?
Lyric poems, which are more or
less traditional in form and also some more experimental work. One of my
current favourite forms is to include prose within a traditionally formed poem.
My poems are almost all under thirty lines long.
What are you working on now?
My second collection which is
due out in November 2008 from Shearsman Press. Shearsman published my first
collection Stretch of
Closures in February 2007.
What is your writing day like?
Patchy and erratic - I grab
passing opportunities of word or observation and note them down and try to make
at least two hours every day at the computer redrafting poems. I am working on
about one hundred poems at any one time and each poem will take about eighteen
months to complete.
What's the most exciting thing about writing for you?
The opportunity to contract the
vast world of experience into tiny words.
What's the most frustrating thing about writing for you?
Lack of time to write all the
poems I want.
What's the best piece of
feedback that you've had from your audience?
I've had four reviews of Stretch
of Closures which are very positive and mean a great deal to me, as a new
poet. One reviewer said that reading my poems was like coming into sunshine
after being in a dark room (The North Summer 2007) - another that my
books was one to keep for life (Magma, summer 2007) and a third that my
poems deserve to be recognised (Poetry Review summer 2007). I can't
choose between the four - their feedback has been so encouraging.
Do you write for a particular
audience, or is your first priority to satisfy your own creativity?
I write to satisfy my need to
make art and am deeply grateful to anyone who would consider becoming part of
my audience.
Do you have a homepage? Do you have any short stories or
poems published online? (If so, please provide the URLs):
You can see my work at www.poetrypf.co.uk
