Spotlight: Kate Millar, Bethany Wren & Parel Joy
One of the greatest privileges of publishing Gutter, is being able to connect with writers familiar and new. Each issue, we’ll shine a spotlight on some of our contributors, to discover more about what inspires them, and where they hope their writing takes them next. Today, it’s our pleasure to speak to Issue 28 contributors, Kate Millar, Bethany Wren & Parel Joy.
KATE MILLAR
What was the inspiration behind ‘repletion’?
I wrote my piece as an exercise in prose poetry for the workshop I was in. I had never written a prose poem before and was struck by how the form allowed multiple voices within my head to flow out in a really energetic way, almost like a dam had been broken within me and water was rushing out. I had been really drawn the the colon as a piece of punctuation--the way it acts as a stitch/glue for coexisting/dialoguing thoughts, whilst also representing an implicit “therefore” connection between each phrase. I also loved the rhythm the colons created. The subject matter of the poem came, perhaps embarrassingly, straight out of my prayer journal. It was an expression of a moment where my mind was replete with all of these different voices, where I was simultaneously craving expression and silence, to know more of myself and to stop thinking of myself altogether, to write and to give up writing, to be seen as wise and to be a holy fool. It turned into quite a playful and cathartic way to honour the paradoxes I was experiencing, while also poking fun at the self-critical voices in my head. Both prayer and satire.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
It’s really hard to pick just one. My favourite poetry book at the moment would have to be Frank Bidart’s The Sacrifice. It is a book of five long monologue poems, all exploring the theme of guilt from different personas. Bidart is so gifted at inhabiting minds in extremis, whilst retaining a strong sense of these characters’ humanness, frailty, absurdity, and tenderness. In this way, it is impossible not to be moved by his words, which energetically project across the page, shifting between uppercase and lowercase for emphasis. I see my own humanness reflected in the confessions of his characters. I aspire to this level of emotional lucidity in my own poetry.
Who would you most like to write to, or for, and what would you say to them?
I love this question. I think about this a lot as I write my poetry: who is my poetry addressed to? I have been told before that poets should write for themselves, but writing solely for myself feels like half-realised potential. It’s not very helpful for me to have a broad population of readers in mind—writing to “society” only makes me stumble, writing poems that try to pose as more profound than they are, saying nothing much of emotional substance—but I have found that my most authentic and resonant poems are ones that have been written to close friends or family, or addressed directly to God. I am really drawn to the New York School of poets like James Schuyler, John Ashbery, and Frank O’Hara, who all write to their friends about their daily lives and moments of profound emotion in their life. I feel this kind of address allows for a new level of vulnerability and expression of emotional truth. The intimacy of addressing a close friend transforms a poem that might have simply been intellectually/philosophically interesting, into one that has emotional poignancy, rooting the poems in concrete details and real lived-in moments. No ideas but in things, as WCW says.
Who is an undersung author or poet you think more people should know about?
Denise Levertov! Her imagery, and thematic and formal range never fail to astound me. She has an attention to detail and way of handling language that make me feel like I am waking up to a reality I have always known, every time I read one of her poems. Her explorations of grief, nature, faith, and what it means to be human, are beautiful. She never rushes to immediate quick-fix revelations, and is comfortable with holding tensions and mysteries in her poems.
BETHANY WREN
Twitter: @beth_wren
Website: foreveronalilo.com
What was the inspiration behind ‘My Best Friend Chloe’?
My Best Friend Chloe is about Instagram, jealousy and female friendship. The first version of the story came to me when I was undertaking my Creative Writing Master’s in 2019 and I heard about the Instagrammer and internet personality Caroline Calloway. If you don’t know Caroline Calloway, she’s in equal measures iconic and chaotic. Her best friend wrote an article about how she’d actually been the one to write all of her famously long and creative Instagram captions, and the drama spiralled from there.
I wanted to write something that captured the idea of what would happen if an insecure person’s best friend became famous on Instagram. And, of course, it taps into so many of the questionable behaviours we all perform online – and the way we know social media is bad for us, but do it anyway.
My Best Friend Chloe has been redrafted several times over the years and I gradually made it darker than it was originally, as well as making the narrator even more unhinged.
It’s always been one of my favourite stories that I think speaks to anyone who uses social media on a daily basis (which is basically all of us at this point). I’m so glad that it got picked up by Gutter and shared with the world.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
I’ve recommended Bunny by Mona Awad to so many of my friends who either loved or hated it. It’s completely my cup of tea – hilarious, dark and twisted, with an ending that makes you want to go back and read it again.
What attracts you to writing, what itch does it scratch?
It sounds a bit cliché, but I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without writing. I really think it makes me who I am, and lets me be the happiest, most fulfilled version of myself. Writing both novels and short stories allows me to scratch all kind of itches – whether big or small. One of my favourite things to do with a short story is to take a small moment or feeling, and let it expand out from there. Sometimes I write to process things that have happened in my life, and other times I write to try and imagine something completely outside of myself. In that way writing can be both cathartic and imaginative.
What would be your ideal set-up for writing - do you swear by any writing rituals or routines?
I work full time but compress my hours to get Monday afternoons off, so I have to be quite disciplined with my writing. I like to set myself targets of how many hours I’m going to write a week, and stick to that – even if I feel like what I’m writing is rubbish. I’m trying this technique at the moment with a new novel I’m working on. I just have to keep telling myself that this is the first draft and I’ll get to come back and fix it later on…
In terms of an ideal writing set-up, I think it’d be more time than I have now, regular breaks, good coffee and some kind of background noise or music. I really like working for concentrated bursts in coffee shops.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
As mentioned, I recently started work on a new novel which is very exciting and scary. I’m currently billing it as an ‘eco horror’ which feels somehow both in and out of my comfort zone! I’m really bad at plotting in advance but have tried hard this time round to work out the major plot points before diving in. But, things keep changing and ideas come as you write, so it’s definitely evolving as I progress. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this project takes me.
Is there anything else you want our readers to know about you and your writing?
As someone who tried to get published for many years – both for my novel and short stories – I’ve recently come to realise that sometimes taking a step back is the best way forward. When I first finished my Master’s, I was so desperate to get published and fired out hundreds of submissions to publications and competitions. This year I’ve been more strategic with my short story submissions and also tried to make sure I’m enjoying the writing process itself, rather than worrying only about external success. It’s made me happier, put less pressure on myself and be more mindful about my writing.
PAREL JOY
What was the inspiration behind ‘Winter lovin’’?
I spent a long time thinking about the four wonderful years I spent living in Aberdeen, and the women I've loved since I arrived there. I reconnected with an ex-lover shortly before writing this poem, and went from my festival job in Edinburgh to a festival job in Aberdeen a few weeks after that. Everything came together on a walk along the beach, where I remembered some post-lockdown mid-distance dates I went on with a Dundonian, who had appreciated my love for Aberdeen and said that whenever they go there, they feel like they've reached the end of the world. Recently, my writing has turned to explorations of stone - both its geological and lesbian-subcultural meanings - in particular in my artists' book 'cretaceons'. I suppose in some ways the lingering geologies of Aberdeen and Shire are what brings this poem together in a way, a groundedness in granite alpha radiation.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
In March, I read The Queens of Sarmiento Park by Camila Sosa Villada, which has become one of my favourite books of all time. It's an Argentinian novel telling the stories of the lives of several travestis, most of whom are sex workers. Many form a family together, also by living together. The book explores the dynamics of queer found family and does so using the most beautiful language - credit is due here, also, to Villada's translator Kit Maude, whose name should be on the cover of the book but for some reason isn't. The novel is filled with magical realism and, though the story is at times tragic, it leaves a sense of magical queerness.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
Since my pamphlet The Queen of Cups and Other Poems came out last year, I've been working on a second pamphlet / collection. It's had what feels like a million different versions and shapes right now, and it's been exciting to watch it grow and shapeshift in that way. It almost feels like I'm working with a living, breathing organism.
I'm also currently editing the DYKE RAGE zine, the final zine in a series of anthology zines, after the zines DYKE LOVE and DYKE MAGIC. I’ve loved reading all these lesbian poetic expressions of anger. I think sometimes it's good for us to be more angry, and I think it's a good note to end on.