Hollie McNish has carved out a name for herself as an honest and eloquent poet, connecting to younger generations of readers. “We need to get over ourselves and open up to young people,” she tells Josh Rees.
How important is live performance to poetry?
The live experience is just different – more communal. I like hearing a poet’s voice and intonation. I like experiencing a performance with other people, the same way I love listening to live music.
Nobody Told Me dealt brilliantly with pregnancy and the early years of your relationship with your daughter. How has motherhood influenced your poetry?
It’s given me an insight into a different sort of love I couldn’t have fathomed before, as well as a different sort of rage at how dismissed motherhood is in general; how badly mother’s bodies are treated culturally and politically. On a practical level, it’s bloody impossible to do any of those lovely writing residencies which can be so helpful for authors. Time to write has become minimal. Perhaps it’s made my poems a bit shorter for that reason too!
You teach a lot of poetry classes and workshops, especially in schools. Do you get the sense that pupils are hungry for more creative outlets, especially poetry, on the syllabus?
Young people engage more quickly with poetry when they hear someone read it live. But mainly, it’s the writing – getting their own descriptions, feelings, questions down into words – being given space to put their own thoughts across.
I read a lot of poems about sex in schools – about periods, masturbation, about media’s depiction of sex. I get so many genuine concerned questions from young people desperate for truth and practical advice around these issues. We owe it to them, in the internet age, to be more open about these things. The last gig I did in front of 300 15-18-year-olds, I made a small comment about masturbating in one of the poems and had a girl in tears afterwards because she’d just been called a slut for admitting she masturbated – during a conversation where all the boys in her class were talking openly about the fact they did. I think we need to get over ourselves and open up to young people.
Do you think there should be a more contemporary spread of poets taught in schools?
I don’t know the curriculum well, but I think it was recently changed for the worst – with more BAME writers taken off. I don’t like the “poetry isn’t just old, dead white men anymore” titles of many articles on the recent re-rise of poetry, as if those men must be dismissed now. They were, for the most part, superb writers. But I think the curriculum needs to diversify in voice. So yes, I guess I do!
Poetry seems to be in the middle of a resurgence in popularity. Do you think this is a reaction to our current political climate?
No, not really. I think it’s due to social media. People watch and read poetry online, for free, and share it with others. I think sometimes we underestimate how intimidated many people are by arts venues, by poetry, by theatres. I avoided entering the Poetry Café in London for about a year simply because I was too scared to go in. I walked past it, even tried the doorknob a couple times and fled. When I did make it in and they told me the poetry readings were downstairs, I left again. Just because I couldn’t see downstairs and was worried about it. I’ve also paid for my own gig before – a gig I was headlining – because I felt awkward telling the doorperson I was doing poetry.
That poetry is so much easier to access now is great. I have lots of people coming to gigs after starting to follow poetry accounts on Instagram or seeing a reading on YouTube. Those people then start to buy poetry too.
What advice would you give to aspiring poets?
Read lots of poetry. Read lots of literature in general. That’s it. Read as much as you can. And don’t throw your poems away, even the ones you think are shite. Keep them, they’ll be good to look back on.
Hollie McNish (with support from Clare Potter), Ffresh, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Wed 15 May. Tickets: £15 (sold out – check box office for returns). Info: 029 2063 6464 / www.wmc.org.uk