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

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).