Hey! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. It is finally starting to get nice in Kansas which means it’s half good, half omg-will-there-be-a-tornado in my eyes. Summer in Kansas, the worst. Anyway, let’s get down to the real reason you’re here, hopefully. Today for Poetic Justice, I have the lovely Morgan Nikola-Wren here with an interview!
Poetic Justice is a month long event, beginning April 1st to April 30th in honor of National Poetry Month. Throughout April there will be interviews, guest posts, excerpts and other poetic posts. I hope you will follow along. To read the introductory post, read about my poetic background as well as the schedule for the month, you can find out more here.
How do you go about creating a poetry collection?
I go through the poems I have written over the list few years, and pick the best ones/ones that are speaking to me. ThenI try to see what kind of story they are telling. That gives me a sense of what the collection will be about and guidelines for the future poems to write as I add to it.
Do you ever deal with writer’s block and if so, how do you deal with it?
Absolutely. Writer’s Block is an occupational hazard, I’m afraid. The key is to never stop writing. I find that often, writer’s block is really just me being afraid to write a subject that is scaring me, or worried that my thoughts are not good enough. Usually, when this happens, I give myself only ten minutes to write, and see what I come up with. When you tell yourself you’re only allowed to write for a tiny bit, you’ll be surprised how much you realize you actually want to say, and what you choose to say with your allotted time.
Do you have any advice for someone struggling to write poetry?
Read everything you can get your hands on. Look at the writers you admire, and then read the writers THEY admire. Also, write daily. Even when you think you have nothing to write–especially when you think you have nothing to write. I’ve often found that some of my favorite, most relatable pieces I’ve written are the thoughts I found tucked into small day-to-day things that I would have dismissed as insignificant.
What has been your proudest writing related moment yet?
It actually just happened a couple weeks ago! Barnes and Noble named my debut collection, Magic with Skin On one of the 25 must-reads for National Poetry Month. I was in shock the whole day. Then, I went to a coffee shop to go edit my upcoming book. Now, this was a coffee house in which I have written for years. No joke. The staff not only knows me, the tell their new hires that I’m a writer, and a regular, and what drink I always order. Anyways, I sat down, got situated, and then I saw the table I sat at when I first put together my author website. I remembered that night so vividly. How I felt like a was crazy for trying this, how I wondered if I was good enough to even consider being a writer, or how on earth I was going to convince people to read anything I had written. And then it hit me how much had happened between then and now and I just started crying. I want to go over and hug that ghost of me from a few years ago and tell her just keep going and trust the stories inside of her that wanted to get out.
What poets would you recommend?
As far as classics/dead poets go, Anne Sexton, Maya Angelou, Poe and Rilke are hard to top. My all-time favorite living poet is Alysia Harris. I have followed her obsessively for almost ten years. Look her up on Youtube. I’m not even going to tell you which poem to start with because they’re seriously all phenomenal.
What works are you currently writing? How did you come up with them?
I’m currently finishing up my collection, Communion Wine in a Shot Glass. About half the poems that I write are either prayers, or reflections on my faith (Christianity), and it just seemed so strange not to give them their own book. In many ways, this collection is as deep as I go. It’s honest confessions about wrestling with this faith. I talk about the beautiful experiences I have with God, but I also talk a lot about hard issues that really shake me, like racism within the church, my salvation complex that comes from being exposed to a lot of guilt and shame through the years, and a lot of ways I get this faith wrong from day to day. And it’s been harrowing. I’m happy to be writing it and it feels like a massive weight off my chest, but I’m ready for it to be done. It’s definitely made me cry way more than my previous two. And it’s been the book that’s taken the most time. I started working on it before I even began my second book, My Dearest Hurricane, which has now been out for eight months. I can only assume this is what a mom feels like when she gives birth to two kids without much trouble and the third one is five days straight of miserable labor.
If you were to describe poetry in one word, what would it be?
Transcendence. It never ceases to astound me how poetry can stretch so easily across lands, races, generations–all of it. You can read something written hundreds of years ago by someone who lived on the other side of the world, and feel so connected to the person who wrote it, knowing they felt exactly how you do now. It’s a kind of miracle we get to experience regularly.
In her much-anticipated debut poetry collection, Morgan Nikola-Wren has woven her signature romantic grit through a stunning, modern-day fairy tale. Chronicling the relationship between a lonely artist and her absent–albeit abusive–muse, Magic with Skin On will gently break you, then put you back together again.
Morgan Nikola-Wren began writing poetry for various literary periodicals in 2013. She is a winner of the Pangaea Worldwide Poetry Slam, 2016, and has published two books of poetry. Her debut book, Magic with Skin On, received a Goodreads Choice nomination for Best Poetry Book of 2017, and was recently listed by Barnes and Noble in 25 Must-Reads for National Poetry Month.
Morgan is perpetually searching for new favorite words, more black clothing, and the perfect design for her next tattoo.
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