Sarra Culleno is a British BAME poet, mother and English teacher who performs her writing at events across the UK. She writes about children’s rights, motherhood, identity, gender, age, technology, the environment, politics, modern monogamy and education. Sarra is widely published. She has written fiction and poetry for publication, performance, print, audiodramas, podcasts and radio. Sarra was longlisted for the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Prize, for Nightingale and Sparrow’s Full Collections 2020, and nominated for Best of the Net 2020 by iambapoet. Sarra co-hosts Write Out Loud at Waterside Arts, and performs as guest and featured poet at numerous literary festivals.

1) Your short story collection is speculative fiction. Why did you choose this medium to explore the parent-child bond? 
​
Chimamanda Nogozi Adichie gave a moving Ted Talk recently, entitled “The Danger of a Single Story”, where she outlines that while, as an African, she had consumed multiple narratives about America, Americans had only consumed one or two about Africa. Afrofuturism is important for the same reason Sci-Fi is important - how can we exist in the future if we have not imagined it first? Toni Morrison is one of many writers to say “write the story you want to read”.  I would go further to say that we actively narrate the future into being. These are my motivations for exploring my themes; to give the universal human premise of parent-child bonds the due representation they deserve, across genres and styles. 

Many narratives about motherhood are absent. The feminist narrative is lacking, the non-binary narrative is deficient, examples of men ditching toxic masculinity is absent, the rights of the child are missing, and portrayals of disfigurements always leave me reeling. I wanted to write narratives challenging the stories which already exist. I wanted to continue from genres I had enjoyed, but did not speak for me. I wanted to unpack Attachment Theory as a theme reconnoitred through Speculative Fiction, where mothers and mothering, as a dyad, are not invisible.

I am a proud sci-fi fangirl, and teaching Media Studies A Level has only fuelled this. My influences for Machina Ex Deus, range from Orwell, Huxley, The Dune Trilogies, The Social Dilemma, Asimov’s Law (I, Robot), Oblivion, Star Wars, and of course, Ex Machina. Sci-fi, or Speculative Fiction robots are often a metaphor for the marginalised, frequently in the form of fetishised and ‘otherised’ fembots, from Metropolis in 1927, to The Stepford Wives, right up to Scarlett Johansen’s Her in 2013. While my robot may descend from this tradition, I wanted to expand beyond it, to explore the biological drivers of mothers, without gender expectations or hyper sexualisation. I also wanted to acknowledge the child in the dyad, the Pinocchio character from AI in 2001 being my primary inspiration. 

2) Which story did you find the most challenging to write and why? 
​
The story I found most challenging was The Fledgling Heart. Writing in a conversational, chatty style, was a new experience. I overcame this by using a journal format so that my protagonist, Becky, is not really addressing a reader, but more herself in the form of personal memoir. I also found it difficult to kill off a character in The Legend of Baguley Brook. My sorrow for the hero of that tale is real!

3) How did you find the time to complete your novella, having children yourself? 

We are so busy usually. No one is home before 6.30pm most evenings with the piano, football, ballet, karate - pack lunches eaten for dinner in the car while the other sibling does their thing! So lockdown was truly a gift to my family. We all used the time to crack on with the things we love. Our nature walks, and even feeling homesick for London, brought some inspiration for The Hares and Baguley Brook. I especially loved being able to hug them at any time of the day! I never thought I would ever find the time to write a book, but lockdown allowed me that. My current work-in-progress is a full novel, and it is not moving along so smoothly!

4) Do you think being a parent has changed your writing in any way?

I read somewhere once that each writer has a single story which they can't help retelling with every new piece. I have always felt that as a parent, part of my role is to be a voice for my children. They are society's vulnerable; physically, emotionally, and politically. They are dependent in every way. If I don't speak for them, they can't speak up for themselves. This seems to seep out in everything I write.

5) Could you tell us about your book in a few lines?

Bonds: Four stories. Four explorations of universal ties, cords, and attachments, examining what it means to be bonded, adult to child. 

In the year 2130 in a post-apocalyptic Abu Dhabi, Sirona’s Igo robot appears to malfunction, propelling her into a corrupt under world, and a mission to reunite the citadel’s children to their lost guardians, in an action-adventure Cli-Fi. 

In old Cheshire of 500 years past, a local cunning woman and grandmother learns that over-protective instincts ensure the survival of children, in this mythological folk-horror. 

It’s 21st century, Home Counties suburbia, and one morning, Becky’s heart bursts right out of her chest, in this Kafka-esque tragi-comedy. How will she navigate the surrealist struggle to live with her soul separated from her, on the outside? 

On the first day of Spring, 2020, Ealine finds solace and wisdom from the ancient hares hidden in plain view, connecting her to natural order, and to generations past and future, in a magical realism tale based on the Legend of Horsa Don. 

These diverse short stories span genres, proving that the parent-child bond is a universal theme worthy of representation across all story narratives. 

6) Where can we find your book?

Bonds is out now! It is available on Amazon and directly from the publisher website: https://www.caabpublishing.co.uk/store/ . 

Find out more about Sarra here:

Youtube.com/user/sarra1978 – YouTube
@sarracullenopoetry – Instagram
@sarra1978 – Twitter
Sarra1978@hotmail.com – Email
facebook.com/sarracullenopoetry – FaceBook

Biography

Rachel Bower is an award-winning writer from Bradford. Her poems and stories have been widely published, including in Anthropocene, The London Magazine, Magma, New Welsh Reader and Stand. She is the author of Moon Milk (Valley Press, 2018) and a book on literary letters (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). Rachel won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019/20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020. She has had work commissioned by BBC Radio, the British Library and Poet in the City, and she is currently editing an anthology with Simon Armitage (Faber & Faber). She is also a beekeeper, a wild swimming enthusiast and the founder of Wild Writes workshops.

Where did you get your inspiration for writing your collection? I noticed a lot of seemingly astrological, mythological and some modern day references throughout. I'd love to hear more.
 
The collection grew out of my first poetry book, Moon Milk, published by Valley Press in 2017. Moon Milk explored experiences of pregnancy, loss, and early motherhood. The final poem in that book opens out: it is about making connections between experiences in Sheffield (UK) and Aleppo (Syria). The poem seeks to explore the ways in which, if we push towards encounters in which people understand each other as more fully human – even if they are in radically different situations – we might then be able to envisage different kinds of society: less unequal structures in which people are treated with dignity, respect and fairness. The new collection, These Mothers of Gods, attempts this kind of work – I see it as a project which takes inspiration from people like Edward Said (on critical humanism), Martha Nussbaum (on the power of empathy in literature) and Priyamvada Gopal (on agency and resistance). It is about approaching some of the experiences that have been erased from official histories; about trying to expose the connections between different people and places, and to bring neglected stories to the fore.
 
You have said that “the book seeks to recover the lived experiences of women who have often appeared only fleetingly in official histories, and also pushes towards a more expansive understanding of ‘motherhood’, inclusive of broader urgent issues about gender and our collective responsibilities for lives, environments and natural worlds.” Can you tell me why you wanted to focus on these areas/issues as a writer?
 
Yes, thank you. There is a welcome and growing body of poetry on motherhood and related issues. This marks a shift (a fact that is still surprising) –I wrote a review article about this which explains more about this a couple of years ago for Wild Court: (https://wildcourt.co.uk/features/1869/)
 
However, this body of work is still very partial, and I wanted to write about those figures and experiences that are often pushed to the margins – or who only appear in historical traces. In a way, my work remains very influenced by Amitav Ghosh’s project of painstaking imaginative recovery in In An Antique Land: attempting to creatively recover the lived realities of those people who did not have the power to inscribe themselves physically on time.
 
At the same time, I wanted to write a book that connected this project up with our wider collective responsibilities for each other and our environments: an intersectional poetics that connects issues of race, gender, class and sexuality. There is a very conservative impulse which often rears its head when we think about the notion of ‘our’ children – and the collection tries to make a case for rejecting this individualised concept of protecting the privileges of one’s offspring. The collection also rejects rigid biological notions of the ‘mother’, and instead hopes to think more broadly about the many different kinds of labour that contribute towards collective ‘mothering’ in our communities – inclusive of the work of teachers, cleaners, neighbours and librarians, for example. I hope that this might help us to dislodge these rigid notions of the mother, and open all of this up for discussion and critique.
 
While reading, there was a sense of claustrophobia or being trapped in places. Was this something you wanted to portray?

This is interesting. I am not sure. I think there is an intense claustrophobia that comes both with young children and the rigid expectations of how mothering should take place, whether this manifests in being stuck in particular physical spaces, or in something more like one’s own head. The poems seek to explore this, and to think about how it might be cracked, or forced open somehow.
 
One other theme I noticed reoccurring in the collection was loss. Can you tell me more about this?

I think it is important to talk about those experiences which have been historically shrouded in shame or secrecy, and loss is one of these. On an individual scale, it seems that hiding issues like miscarriage and baby loss, which are more commonly experienced than most people realise, only serves prejudice and taboo. I hope that contributing to an open conversation around these issues might allow more people to connect - and that we will be stronger for that.
 
There is also the less obvious kinds of loss that we all experience in relation to those we give our care to – and some of the poems relate to this.
 
And there is also, of course, the incredibly traumatic experiences of loss that are the result of the systematic oppression of particular groups or communities, as with colonialism. The collection tries to approach and address these legacies of colonialism, without appropriation. I am obviously aware of my own privileged position as a white cis woman, and the ways in which I, like so many women, continue to benefit from this. We can’t have gender equality without racial equality; we can’t have racial equality without economic equality; we can’t have economic equality without gender equality. I am not sure if I always get it right in the collection, and I still have a vast amount of work to do, but I hope that by careful research, thought and reading, I can continue to improve my efficacy as an ally.
 
On a practical note, how do you find time to write as a parent? 

I squeeze it in the gaps! It is definitely difficult, and I don’t always manage it, but I write when I can – any words are better than no words!
 
I know you teach Creative Writing. Do you have any tips for parents who want to fit writing into their busy routine? 

I find that planning ahead (i.e. looking at when a 30 minute gap might arise) and planning what I might write in that can work. There is also what some people call ‘snack’ writing – writing whenever and wherever you can. Take a notebook with you/ record ideas on your phone/ write it on receipts – any writing is better than no writing!
 
Free writing (writing without stopping without censoring yourself) can be great for freeing up ideas, and producing words in a non-pressurised way. I also think that the advice about leaving your writing on a ‘downhill slope’ is great – so that you mark exactly what you will do next time you come back to it. Try not to beat yourself up about it – write ten words a day and eventually they’ll add up!

Find out more about Rachel and her writing:
Order These Mothers of Gods
Twitter: @rachelebower
Instagram: @rachel_e_bower
Website: http://rachelbower.net/

Sarah is a 28 year old mother of 2 who started writing poems in January 2021. Sarah set up a Facebook page to start taking requests from people who would like a poem, in memory, for a birthday, for a friend etc and Sarah would ask for personal information and then produce a poem for them. Sarah then set up her Instagram page to connect with other writers and to share her poetry. Sarah not only writes for other people upon request, but also for herself about events during the year; Easter, Valentine's Day, International Women's Day etc and also topics that are important to her, including poems about mental health and motherhood. Sarah suffered with Hyperemesis Gravidarum during both of her pregnancies and wrote a poem about her experience.

Who and what inspires you?
​
In terms of what or who inspires me to write. I'd say it's my mental health and my children. That's how my poetry started really. I was struggling with my mental health and hit a very low point. I have two beautiful girls to live for and use poetry as a distraction from negative thinking. I also find other mum writers very inspiring, I love reading other mum's work and also those that share about their own mental heath experiences. 

The poem I wrote about Hyperemesis Gravidarum will be featured in a book that I am writing, alongside another mum writer, to raise awareness of HG and to allow other ladies to share their stories. The book is called 'How I survived Hyperemesis Gravidarum - a collection of HG stories' and this is being released on the 15th of May. I am also hoping to publish a poetry book in the near future. I often writes poems about my two daughters and I love being a mum.

How do you find time to write as a parent?

I tend to write very early in the morning or very late at night to fit around when my girls are asleep. They are 5 years old and 5 months old, so when they are awake, I do not get a chance!

Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?
​
I don't tend to struggle too much when writing as I take requests and a lot of personal information is given to me for what to include in the poems. If I'm writing about something that isn't a request, I tend to read other poems for inspiration.

You can find her online at: https://www.facebook.com/SarahTwrites/ 
or: @sarahTwrites

Read about her book on Amazon

Claire Taylor is a writer in Baltimore, Maryland where she lives with her husband and young son. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications and has received nominations for Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. Her debut chapbook, Mother Nature, a hybrid of poetry and short prose on the topic of motherhood is currently seeking publication. In addition to writing for adults, Claire is the creator of Little Thoughts, a monthly print and digital newsletter of stories and poetry for children. Claire serves as an In House Agent for Versification Publishing and a volunteer reader with Capsule Stories. 

Who and what inspires you?

These days I tend to draw inspiration from small observations. The way the birds flock to the feeder in the morning; my child racing his toy cars across the floor; a fleeting feeling of desperation that washes over me late in the afternoon when I have to come up with a plan for dinner. I try not to discard any moment or feeling as being too brief or inconsequential to build on. I write a lot about motherhood and mental illness and am always inspired by people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles. More generally in my writing, I continue to be inspired by my father's emphasis on always having a project in the works, something you are working on just for the pleasure of creating it. I started my newsletter Little Thoughts because I wanted a project that would bring a sense of joy and direction to my days during the pandemic. At times it has been hard to access the feelings of lightness and fun that are needed when writing for small children, but having to continually make space in my mind for that project and that style of writing has been immensely helpful in keeping me moving forward over the past year. 

How do you find time to write as a parent?

I write during my son's nap and right after he's gone down for bed. I write in the mornings if I have the time and energy, and I rely heavily on audiobooks and the podcast Kids Short Stories to keep him company while I fit in little bits of writing throughout the day. And to be completely honest, I often make him wait for my attention longer than I probably should, repeatedly telling him, "one more second," or "just a moment," while I jot down a story idea or a few lines for a poem. There are days where I am not as present when I'm with him as I probably should be because on those days I am more present for myself and for my writing and it's simply not feasible to be both. I try to give myself the grace to be a lesser version of the mom I'd like to be at least some of the time when my desire to write feels especially urgent. 

Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?
​
If I am really in a block I'll set up a new Word doc as a journal and write down little observations, feelings and experiences from my days. Later I go back in and see if anything I've written can be mined for a longer piece or as the catalyst for a poem. I try to write down every line or scene that pops into my head no matter how raw or ridiculous it might seem in the moment. I figure if it's pushing through all the noise of the day to get my attention, it's worth getting it down on paper and seeing what might come from it at a later point. I also will take pictures on my phone throughout the day during periods where I have less time for writing or am just feeling very blocked. Then I'll go back and see if any of the photos spark new ideas. 

You can find her online at clairemtaylor.com and Twitter @ClaireM_Taylor. 

Louise Mather is a poet from Northern England. You can find her on Twitter @lm2020uk and her work is published or forthcoming in magazines such as Fly on the Wall Press, streetcake magazine, The Cabinet of Heed, Hecate Magazine, Crow & Cross Keys, Dust Poetry Magazine, Idle Ink, Not Deer Magazine, Nymphs, Odd Magazine, Blue Moon Poetry and Lanke Review. Her artwork has appeared in Versification alongside her poem “Menstruous” and she was recently longlisted for the Norman Nicholson Lockdown Poetry Competition, published in the anthology The Unpredicted Spring. She writes about ancestry, rituals, endometriosis, fatigue and mental health, and is editor of the cat-themed anthology Feline Utopia.
 
 
Who and what inspires you?

There are many places I find inspiration - in nature and elements, heirlooms, dreams, music, and I'm always reading. I'm very interested in rituals and love mythology, fairy tales, philosophy, astrophysics and psychology. I read a lot of novels alongside poetry and have a massive appreciation for reading different types and styles, whether it be traditional or experimental and there are so many great journals online.
 
I also find inspiration comes from delving into the past, through ancestry and on a personal level. My writing is definitely rooted in emotion, for me it's primarily a way to channel my thoughts, often when they feel overwhelming, and there seems a sense of alchemy to this process. I write a lot about my experiences of illness, pain, fatigue and mental health, about loneliness, depression, grief, fear and trauma. So, my poems are often quite dark and that's what I tend to be drawn to in other people's work; that's where I feel a connection.

My son is a huge inspiration to me, everything he does, says, his sense of wonder. He loves books and the moon already. I'm currently putting together a pamphlet of poems about him and my experiences of birth and motherhood.

How do you find time to write as a parent?

Finding time to write as a mum has been challenging, and I really became aware of this through lockdown with a toddler. Sometimes it feels as if I'm trying to do about five things at once and since I was young, I've struggled with my physical and mental health, so I have to work around that too. My partner has worked from home during the pandemic, and he's able to take our son out for walks sometimes to give me a bit of time. That’s when I try to cram in housework, writing, reading and a rest - sometimes it's more productive than others.
 
Nowadays, I often write notes on my phone, whether it's lines for a poem, ideas for a short story, or additions to a novel. I find poetry a lot easier to write, and more in the moment, I feel like that's what I always go back to and find solace in. Any notes I'll write up later if I'm not too tired, or if my son's watching television, I'll sneak a look or have a quick read. We do a lot of artwork together, and I've recently got back into mandalas and asemic writing. I'm lucky my mum is a massive support and often the first person I'll show my poems to.

Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?

I don't often suffer from writer's block, maybe that's because I'm always reading and I'm an over-thinker, but I can find it hard to concentrate at times. Sometimes it's just getting that break and time, being able to process thoughts, focus, and go through notes. I have a lot of lists for the week: subs, competitions, any other ideas and projects, so planning really helps, taking one thing at a time, pacing myself. I know if there's a bad day or busy week I'll get back to it sooner or later, but it often doesn't feel like it at the time and sometimes I just need a rest which can feel frustrating, then I’ll probably end up writing another period poem…

It's been great for me to find like-minded people and the support of the Twitter writing community. There are so many lovely, talented writers, which I find really inspiring and motivating, and I can't say how nice it's been over the last few months to get sent cat poems and artwork for the Feline Utopia Anthology, everyone has been incredibly supportive. I've got some more ideas in the pipeline for later in the year, so keep an eye on my website and Twitter page.
 
You can find links to my work and download the Feline Utopia Anthology to read for free from my website:
www.louisematheruk.wixsite.com/louisemather/felineutopia