Viva Brighton Issue #56 October 2017

SPOKEN WORD
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Hollie McNish
‘I didn’t know poetry could be a job’
Few modern poets are as critically acclaimed as
Hollie McNish. We talk to the Ted Hughes Award
winner about her latest poetry collection Plum,
finding inspiration in the words of a child and why
it’s best to never hand her a mic.
‘Plum’ was written in chronological order; with
poems from the age of eight to now. I’ve got loads
of diaries, and I’ve been writing since I was little.
When I was 33, I wrote a poem about picking fruit
– you know, nature, lying on grass, picking plums
with my daughter. A friend asked if she could see
these old diaries because she thought it’d be funny
after a few glasses of wine. In one was a poem I’d
written when I was eight, and it was almost identical
to this new poem; same number of lines, same
syllables, same topic. It’s funny to think that maybe
my writing hasn’t changed much. There’s another
from about age ten, about the first midnight mass I
went to; the vicar told me I was going to go to hell
if I didn’t eat the bread and drink the wine. So I
wrote about what it felt like, looking back. People
often seem embarrassed by what they’ve written
when they’re younger, but I actually think I could
learn as much from my ten-year-old self as I could
from myself at 32.
I didn’t know poetry could be a job; I studied
languages and have a Master’s in Economics – I
thought I’d be working somewhere in immigration.
When I was 25, my then-partner said to me:
‘You should go read out your poems’. I’d never
heard of spoken word before, never lived in a city,
so it’s not like there were poetry clubs everywhere.
After my first reading, I got asked to do another
one, then another. I liked the readings, but the
performance side scared me – even walking across
the stage is hard! If someone asks if I want a
handheld mic, it makes me want to vomit in my
hand with nerves. The idea of taking the mic off
the stand – there’s no chance.
There’s so many different platforms for expressing
yourself. I used to draw, and still write in
prose, but I find poetry a good way to summarise
things. Or maybe I’m just lazy, as they’re shorter
than stories. When I was young, I used to really
like Hole, with Courtney Love – I thought her
lyrics were very deep. I’d write terrible poems with
the same rhyme scheme so I could read them over
the top of the beat – it’s the only thing I remember
consciously copying!
I’m more likely to share my poems now. Last
night I was worrying about putting my daughter to
bed. While she was falling asleep I scribbled down
a poem and thought ‘I’ll put that online - I’m
quite lonely – there might be other mums doing
bedtime as well,’ but it’s quite nice sharing things
like that knowing that someone might be going
through the same. Amy Holtz
Hollie McNish reads from Plum with support from
Rosie Carrick at The Old Market, 8th October,
7.30pm
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