Aoife Lyall is the author of Mother, Nature (Bloodaxe Books, 2021). Her poems have been published in many prestigious literary magazines and journals, receiving national and international recognition through the Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards and an Emerging Scottish Writer residency award at Cove Park. In 2020 she was awarded National Lottery funding through Creative Scotland to write her second poetry collection. She has been a guest curator for the Scottish Poetry Library and a guest editor for Butcher’s Dog. Her reviews have appeared in Poetry London and PN Review. Her work focuses on tender and tragic experiences of pregnancy and motherhood.
 
Who and what inspires you? 

I started writing in 2012 but it was in 2015, when I became pregnant for the first time, that my writing gained its real focus. I am driven to write by the fascination I feel watching my children grow, but also by the frustration of realising how little of motherhood is actually represented in history books or contemporary media. 

It took a long time for me to overcome a hesitancy, not so much about my writing, but its subject matter. Growing up, I knew Eavan Boland as a mother-poet. I gained so much of my confidence from her poems and essays, but I worried my work would still be considered niche. Not anymore. I have become part of a community of mother-poets who, like Boland, are unapologetically bringing their experiences to the fore. Being part of it is both invigorating and challenging, in the best way.

It is an organic community: we make each other stronger by supporting each other, not trying to outdo each other. Being a mother-poet now means navigating motherhood, the literary landscape of the 21st century, Brexit and a pandemic. Never has so much been asked of mothers: never have we been so cut off from each other; and never have we done so much to bring ourselves back together. Poets like Hollie McNish who agreed to read a manuscript from an unknown mother-poet: me. Poets like Victoria Kennefick and Jessica Traynor who have embraced the chance for us to work together even though we have yet to meet in person.

Then you have poets like Jo Clement, who strives to increase representation and visibility of the GRT community, and who invited me to guest-edit Butcher's Dog in 2020. Poets like Jane Clarke, Rachael Allen, Natalie Diaz, Leeanne Quinn and so many others: all doing magnificent things. These are the women inspiring me every day with their talent and compassion and generosity. 
 
How do you find time to write as a parent?

I definitely have had to look for it. Most of Mother, Nature was written during maternity leave, during any ‘spare’ time in the evenings, and during the first lockdown. At first, I wrote only when everything and everyone else was taken care of: it took a long time for me to take time out to write, to say 'I need to work on this now'. This year, after handing in the manuscript for Mother, Nature, which tied in with the end of my second maternity leave, I went back to work part-time. This has given me a day in the week to write in. Securing National Lottery funding through Creative Scotland means I am able to take a career break next year and work on my second collection full-time.

I think we're so often raised to look after everyone else first and get praised for selflessness to the point of self-destruction. So, I’ll say it now: you exist in your right. You don't need anyone else's permission to write. You don’t need to convince anyone of your worth, of the value of your writing. It takes a long time to feel that though: to not feel guilt or that you're letting someone down by paying attention to yourself.
  
Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?
 
Writing reviews. I started reviewing during my first maternity leave as a way to focus my attention: I was reading a fair bit but not really taking anything in. I dedicated a year to posting a review once a month on my own website and more recently have been writing them for different literary journals. I think writing reviews helps me on multiple levels: I have to really think about what the other poet has done with their work; I can then take that analytic eye back to my own work; from there I might make changes to existing poems or be inspired to write new ones.
 
That said, I think it's important to say that you can't always write, and you can't always write well. I've had two extended periods of not being able to write poetry: the first after my pregnancy loss, the second this past year. In those times I made notes but couldn't do successive drafts of poems. I'm certainly a writer of seasons- I think most of us are- and just because I'm not writing poems doesn't mean I'm not doing something to cultivate them. That said, I do have to remind myself, often, to just pay attention: that the poems I write are usually the ones I'm looking at, not the ones I’m looking for.
 
Social media link: @PoetLyall
Signed copies of Mother, Nature: aoifelyall.com 
Bloodaxe link (Free UK P&P, extracts and video): https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/mother-nature-1252

​Steph is a thirty three year old mum of one and currently pregnant with her second child. She has been writing since her teens but officially started blogging whilst pregnant with her daughter in 2015. She often writes honest accounts of her life living with several chronic health conditions whilst parenting, and is currently penning her first novel. Steph also regularly writes poetry and submissions for indie magazines and charities. She has won awards two years running with House21 bloggers and co-hosts their monthly book club podcast.

Who and what inspires you?

I am inspired to write everyday, in the mundane of parenting and painkiller popping, living with poor health often opens you up to many feelings and though they aren’t always positive they provide fodder for my thoughts. I often get inspired by the subtle changes in my daughter, her resilience as well as my own and of course the tens of books I get through every month and their talented authors. I find other women inspirational too, other mothers wading through the quagmire of daily life, all of us connected somehow, in different boats but under the same storm that is motherhood.
 
How do you find time to write as a parent?

Finding time to write can be challenging but isn’t always. However creativity can strike me at the most inconvenient of times and I am compelled to pen my thoughts, whether it be on the back of an envelope discarded in my bag or straight into the word app on my phone. I’m a huge believer in the creative process and though structure can be good for motivation, I’m a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl. I want to write when the need hits me full force in the face, whether that’s during a loo break at four am or whilst waiting in the doctors surgery. If I was to give any advice on finding time to write it would be, to just do it, at every opportunity, don’t let thoughts pop into your head and leave without noting them somewhere. I have tons of drafts on my blog, some of them make it to fruition and some don’t, but each remind me of my inspiration when I find it lacking.

Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?
 
If I’m struggling to complete a particular article or piece of work, I usually ditch it, just for that moment and try something else. Whether that be a different blog, a latter chapter in my novel or just a poem of thoughts expelled from my head. Each serve a purpose in churning up the creative juices. Sometimes I’ll challenge myself to write about a particular event, or maybe I’ll write about something completely bland like the weather, and kickstart creativity through the mundane. I often find just a few lines of poetry can be enough to refocus and get me back to my intended project.
 
Link to website: http://www.divamumsteph.com/​
Instagram: @divamumsteph 

Elizabeth M Castillo is a British-Mauritian poet, writer and language teacher. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats. When not writing poetry, she can be found working on her podcast or web-comic, pottering about her garden, or writing a variety of different things under a variety of pen names. In her writing Elizabeth explores themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, language, love, loss and grief, and a touch of magical realism. She has words in, or upcoming in Selcouth Station Press, Pollux Journal, Revista Purgante, Lanke Review, Authylem Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Press, Melbourne Culture Corner, Epoch Press, among others. Her first bilingual collection “Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras” is out in 2021. 

Who and what inspires you?

Everything inspires me! That’s the funny thing about poetry- literally anything can become a poem. Fried egg for breakfast? Wrap it in some guilt and silence and put it in a poem. Period pain? Paint it scarlet and wailing, and *bam*, it’s good to go. Kids, marriage, violence, loss, grief, mountains, trauma, oceans… there’s no end to subjects to mine in poetry. And as with any art, we are just reformulating everything that has been done before, so there is also great inspiration to be found in other poet’s and artists work. I’m a big fan of Warsan Shire, Lucille Clifton, Gabriela Mistral, Ada Limón, Roque Dalton...

I also write fiction, novel-length and short stories, and dabble a little in micro and flash. At the moment I reckon my Muse is sitting in Chile, because a lot of my creative thoughts and writing tends to pull me back there. The mountains, the desert, the flora, the protests, the city streets, the people I love and am separated from due to the pandemic and circumstance. A lot of these feature in the stories and poems I’m currently working on. I’ve also started digging into some more painful things, such as the reality of living with depression, so in that sense I draw my inspiration from my own experience, and the people, particularly women, I’ve known who have suffered the same.

My kid lit projects are inspired by many things, but mostly my daughters, or at least the literature I would like for them to read. Everything from moral stories, stories to encourage literacy, to ridiculous just-for-laugh stories, and series based on history, faith and STEM. My plays and screenplay are all based on social topics like the ageing population in France, the struggle to protect the environment in my home country of Mauritius, race relations in the Indian ocean, etc.

Music is also a great source of inspiration. I wrote a longer poem about a vengeful storm off the pacific coast of Latin America, based on Ludovico Einaudi’s “Storm Tower”. I’m also working on a picture book based about a friendship between a gardener and the moon, and the idea was originally inspired by Argentine folk group Aínda’s song “Canción de Bañar la Luna”. My proudest poem, that has yet to be published, is called “The Other Woman” and is set to the theme of Einaudi’s “Eros”.

Interestingly enough although I write a lot about motherhood and domestic life, my writing always tends to veer towards either the absurdity of parenting, or the struggles I face as a mother. I’m never able to respond to calls for submissions on the subject of parenting because so often publishers are looking for work that celebrates Mothers and Motherhood, and most of my work tends to either weep or rage over how hard it all is. But I do think that grittier subjects like PPD, post-natal recovery, body image, miscarriage, grief and loss of identity do need to be written about. They are part and parcel of the whole experience.

How do you find time to write as a parent?

I really have no idea to be honest. Time is the one thing I never have enough of! I teach, home-school my kids full-time and run a small, language-services business, so that’s a lot to be juggling really, and I must admit it does get to be a bit much sometimes. I am constantly learning how to streamline my life, so I can pursue the things I really want to.

When I decided I would pursue my writing seriously, I discussed our options with my husband in regards to our lifestyle and schedules, and we came up with a fairly consistent plan. I have Tuesday afternoons and all day Wednesday to myself as my girls are either with a babysitter or at playgroup. But it is up to me to protect my writing time, and I think that’s one of the biggest challenges. There’s always something else to be done, other work, household tasks or errands to run. But so far I’ve managed to say ’no’ to doing anything except writing within those two windows, and for now it’s working out quite well as I know each week I can bank on those two chunks of time to get some serious writing work done. 

I also get a lot of my more abstract writing done at odd segments during the day. I write a lot on my phone in the bath at night, once everyone has gone to bed. Don’t know why that is, maybe it’s the one time I have the headspace for it. I put on some music, light some candles and write in my google docs. I reckon a third of my poems must have been written or edited in the bath, although I am nervous that one day I will drop my phone right in! I also jot things down in my notes while cooking, or pottering around the house with the girls. And I do get some social media and promotional work done during their TV time in the afternoons. I wish I could do those 5 a.m. writer’s club things but I think I might actually end up unwittingly committing some heinous crime if I had to get up that early every day. 

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

​Depends what I’m struggling with. If it’s the writing itself I tend to spit everything out on the page. Either things will come out fully-formed, or they’ll need to sit for a while, after which they may or may not become something of consequence. Or they might get added to something else to form something new.

I never struggle with inspiration, but I do struggle with time, and I don’t cope very well if I don’t have time to be creative. It’s a need like any other- food, companionship, exercise… I need to be creating. But obviously life happens, and my children and marriage do come first, so sometimes you just have to pull up your big girl pants and tell your projects to be patient until you’ve dealt with whatever is in front of you. But I am also extremely blessed to have a husband who is incredibly supportive of my work- he encourages me to write everything and anything I feel the need to. He isn’t literary at all, but he's always willing to help in any practical way he can- setting up equipment, helping me record video readings, occupying the girls when I need to focus on a project, putting up with me reciting my poetry at him at random intervals during the day. 

If I’m feeling burnt out I find that having some writing-adjacent activities can be very refreshing and don’t feel too removed from the act of writing itself. I beta-read for a lot of my fellow writers, so if I can’t get my head into my own writing I dip in to reviewing whatever work has been sent me. I also run some promotional projects for other indie writers and small-press creatives which is very enjoyable to set up. I also have a “Writing Inspiration” gallery up on my website and I always find it so relaxing to update that section for some reason. And it’s all part of the wider project which is my plan for world domination through writing, so it’s all good in the end!

Follow her on Twitter or Instagram for more news and updates @EMCWritesPoetry.
Link to website: https://shopega.wixsite.com/emcwritespoetry

Spotify links:
Ludovico Einaudi’s “Storm Tower.”
(https://open.spotify.com/track/6iV8XroJ5vLJk6Unoj1zFA?si=fQB4_cldTAyc72BOwBpyzg).

Aínda’s song “Canción de Bañar la Luna.” (https://open.spotify.com/track/518wotaL3vqUUBCyGV2WSbsi=SWPdNT3HS0mLn2gJAlbDXQ).

Einaudi’s “Eros” (https://open.spotify.com/track/1rfNCTQKR0bzCscB39B1Au?si=CWlWMtgxQKCpEzUu4CuUmw). 

Naomi Marklew is originally from Bristol but is now based in Durham in the North East of England. She lives with her husband and two boys, aged 4 and 6. Before having children she taught English Literature to undergraduates at Durham University where she did her MA and PhD in Poetry Studies, but these days she is working on her own poetry and prose for publication. She is also enthusiastic about forming communities with fellow creative people. Her work has recently featured in Amethyst Review, -algia, streetcake, Selcouth Station, Second Chance Lit, The Aesthetic Directory and is forthcoming in other journals.

Who and what inspires you?
​
I often find myself writing about people. Not always people I know well – I just had a poem published about our old window cleaner – but most of my early attempts at poetry were written for family birthdays, weddings or anniversaries. Since becoming a mum, my existence has mostly been centred around home and the kids and my own mental health, so these themes have come up a lot over recent years, but as my kids get older I’m starting to write about other things too. My PhD was on elegy, so I’m quite drawn to writing about grief in its various forms. Anne Lamott talks about writing every bit of inspiration down on index cards and I similarly try to keep notes on my phone. Last week I was coming out of the little supermarket near our house and noticed that the pet foodbank bin was overflowing with donations while the foodbank bin for humans was nearly empty. I’m not sure what point I want to make about that yet, but it seemed like something to make a note of for later. I also write down all my 6 year old’s ideas for stories, they’re much better than my own!

How do you find time to write as a parent?

I didn’t really write for the first few years of parenting. I started making notes on my phone when my youngest was about one, mainly to try to claw back a bit of sanity and selfhood. When he started nursery, I tried to use that time to write, but often sat in front of a blank screen crying with frustration. I was completely disconnected from other writers and didn’t know where to start. When lockdown started in 2020, my youngest had been doing half a week at nursery for about 2 months, I’d just had my first few pieces accepted for publication, and suddenly that precious writing time seemed like it was lost again… but a miraculous thing to come out of lockdown was that an online writing community seemed to spring up almost straight away. I applied for MumWrite which had a massive impact for me. I started to see myself as a writer and a mum, rather than just a mum attempting to be a writer. The sense of community helped my confidence and the practical techniques learned in the workshops have vastly improved my writing. I have a much better idea of how and where I should submit work, and I feel more familiar with the contemporary poetry community. Having said that, it’s still been really hard to find time to write, especially during the recent lockdowns. I basically write when the kids are at school/nursery, and I’m trying not to count down until they’re both at school full time! One essential thing has been online writing sessions with friends. Booking a time to write with other people has given me permission to take time away from the family that I normally wouldn’t give myself.

Which writing activities kickstart your writing when you're struggling?
​
I now have notebooks full of prompts and exercises from the workshops I’ve attended online over the last year. I especially like tools like Stick Bucket, Google Translate, using found texts and Oulipo-style dictionary work. I also love Kate Clanchy’s book ‘How To Grow Your Own Poem’, and always find it helpful to try one of her exercises if I’m struggling. Currently though, after the recent lockdown, I have a backlog of ideas, I just need the discipline to sit and work on them.

Social Media:
Twitter: @NaomiMarklew
Website: https://naomimarklew.wixsite.com/website

JP Seabright writes, reads and listens to a lot of records. Their work can be found in Babel Tower Notice Board, Fugitives & Futurists, Full House, Untitled Voices and elsewhere, as well as published in three anthologies. Allegedly, JP is still trying to complete novel-length fiction and non-fiction that has been work in progress for longer than most marriages. In 2018 they set themselves the task of listening to every LP in their record collection and writing a blog about it. Three years later, they’re not even halfway, but refuse to give it up. This tells you as much about JP’s stubbornness, as it does their love of music. https://randomrecordreview.wordpress.com

​Who and what inspires you?

I’m inspired by everything and anything. Other writing – nonfiction as much as fiction, a great deal by music, visual art, people I pass in the street, things I overhear, my own life and experiences. It tends to strike at random and frequently inconvenient moments, and often in the middle of the night when I’m trying to get to sleep.

How do you find time to write as a parent?

With difficulty, some guilt (though I’m working on that), and a certain amount of sacrifice or at least brutal prioritisation. I am the ‘other mother’, my partner is the birth mother so she’s done all the really hard work, though we share all other parenting duties. She could only get 6 months maternity leave, unpaid, so I was the breadwinner for most of last year, despite only working part-time due to health constraints. So there was really no time or energy to write during that first year. Our daughter is now 16 months and in nursery, so I have a few hours each week to write when I’m not working. But it is an ongoing struggle to carve out time, and it’s never enough!

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

​I’m not suffering from writer’s block currently – quite the opposite. Perhaps due to not being able to write for a while, there’s now a backlog of ideas and projects to work on so I often feel mentally deluged. This can be just as much of a blocker: what to spend your creative time on when you have so little of it? As a result, I’ve gone back to poetry and flash fiction and reworking a lot of older pieces with a fresh perspective. I keep lists and have endless ideas and phrases in Notes on my phone. If I’m not able to pick up a longer writing project, I might work on something shorter, often more experimental. Being able to actually finish something, in the short bursts of time available, is very satisfying creatively.

Find JP on twitter: https://twitter.com/errormessage
Or read more on their site:
https://jpseabright.wordpress.com/