Interview _ Becky Swain

Becky Swain is Director of Manchester Poetry Library, the North West’s first public poetry library, opening in 2021. She has experience leading arts, literature and learning programmes at organisations including Arvon, Creative Partnerships, and Creativity Culture and Education, and is an experienced youth worker, English and Drama teacher, coach and arts learning facilitator. A Clore Fellow (2009), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, she is a member of the Advisory Group and Young Poets’ Stories, a poetry writing development research.

In this interview, Becky Swain talks about poetry, the Manchester Poetry Library and why poetry matters.

How would you describe the Manchester Poetry Library?

Manchester Poetry Library based at Manchester Metropolitan University, is the North West’s first public Poetry Library, and the only public poetry library in the country to be based within a university. The Manchester Poetry Library will open on Oxford Road in Manchester early in 2021.

It will host a public programme where language is celebrated in all its diversity. It aims to imagine, make and grow a leading collection of contemporary poetry with our members and partners and to be a place where the next generation of readers and writers are made.

Open to everyone, visitors will be able to enjoy a collection of contemporary poetry in the widest sense of the word; including anthologies, spoken word in recording, films, and poetry in translation.

The public will be able to borrow from and mould the collections and events programme to reflect their interests. We aim to work with people across and beyond the region to ensure that poetry from over 200 of Manchester’s community languages are represented within the collection. The collection will begin in 1889 – the year of the world’s first audio collection.

Tell us more about the library's focus on poetry in recording.

Manchester Poetry Library will also have a special focus on poetry in recording from film to audio. The library will be seeking funding to trace the history of poetry in audio recording from the first wax cylinder recordings to podcasting.

If you know of recordings that need to be preserved or made more widely available, please let us know. We’ve also had quite a request to collect vinyl and we have run our first Poetry Record Club online.

How did the idea of the library come about?

The idea for a public poetry library came from conversations some years ago between the amazing group of poets based at Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University – these include the recent poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Malika Booker, Jean Sprackland, Michael Symmons Roberts, Andrew McMillan, Helen Mort and Adam O’Riordan.

Manchester Metropolitan University has a thriving undergraduate and postgraduate creative writing community, and the North West has a huge array of poetry talent and a love of poetry. The idea of a dedicated poetry library captured the imagination of the university and it became part of the new Arts and Humanities Building on Oxford Road.

The idea has gathered momentum across the city, and amongst our partners as Manchester is a UNESCO City of Literature. Celebrating the many languages of the city will be key to the mission, and working with communities to co-curate the collections. There is excitement about the opportunity to work in partnership with poets, literature, arts and community groups across the city as we start to develop the collection and public programme.

What can poetry libraries add to literature and life?

I think that just the act of creating a poetry library in Manchester shows the sheer love for poetry in this city and will add to the vibrancy of the scene that already exists.

Connecting poetry with the civic role of libraries has the potential to be a powerful combination, especially during times when public libraries have had to fight for their very existence - and where our curriculum in schools often lack any real commitment to, or understanding of, poetry and how it can engage young minds.

Creating Manchester Poetry Library enables us to develop a space dedicated to poetry in all its forms. We aim to create a poetry place of opportunity and creativity. The Poetry Library will be for everyone interested in, curious about, or simply inspired by poetry. A place to read, hear, perform, write and talk about poetry. We will work in partnership with literature, arts and community organisations across and beyond the city which already has a thriving literary heritage and scene.

How is the Manchester Poetry Library different from other libraries that are out there?

The focus on poetry makes it different – and poetry not just in books, but recordings and on film, with a programme of reading, writing and performance in partnership with poets. We will work closely with poets to develop programmes that meet the needs of residents and members of the library. Specialisms will include poetry and community languages, poetry and recording, poetry for children and poetry in collaboration.

Why does poetry matter?

For writers and readers I think the best of poetry can explore what it means to be human and help us make sense of ourselves and the world around us.

Poetry matters to people in so many different ways.

It’s always good to ask a poet too. When asked whether she felt poetry could change the world, poet and Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Malika Booker replied, “Poets interrogate the world to arrive at truth and honesty and that can inspire people.”

Poetry can often articulate what cannot be said and give it clarity.

As an educator, I have seen that poetry can change a person’s life in the way that they find comfort in other’s words, and through writing poetry themselves, which can help us see a sense of possibility in their future. I have seen students re-engage with themselves and learning and take a new kind of pride in their own voice – to understand that they do have something to say that is of value to others.

And people turn to poetry in challenging times. Carol Ann Duffy initiated the WRITE Where We Are NOW poetry project at Manchester Metropolitan online in March and we have seen over 50,000 people engage with the poems about people’s experiences of living in the time of a global pandemic. The Manchester Poetry Library will be collecting public submissions to curate an archive for future generations.

Manchester Poetry will be the first dedicated public poetry library in the North West of England, a place where poets are plentiful and held in high esteem. Not just at Manchester Metropolitan, but also Lemn Sissay and Jackie Kay, who hold Chancellor roles at University of Manchester and Salford University respectively.

Manchester alone is home to award winning independent presses such as Comma, Carcanet, Saraband, Confingo, Flapjack, Manchester University Press and the Manchester Review. We also have Commonword/Cultureword and fantastic festivals – including the Manchester Literature Festival, and Manchester Children’s Book Festival.

Is there anything you would like to add or emphasise?

You can sign up for the Manchester Poetry Library monthly newsletter for the latest on news, opportunities, writing workshops and events, and blogs.

We are always interested in what you'd love to see in the library and any ideas for working in partnership - email poetrylibrary@mmu.ac.uk

Interview _ Sarra Culleno

Sarra Culleno is a London-born, Manchester-based UK poet, a mother of two and an English teacher.

She writes about issues that include children’s rights, motherhood, identity, technology and politics. Her work has been published in magazines and anthologies that include Les Femmes Folles (‘Lost in my DMs’, ‘Song of the Young Mother’ and ‘Phone Phantom Pantoum’), Three Drops (‘PMT Virelai’), Hidden Voices (‘Hansel and Gretel, the Woodcutter’s Children’) and in Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2019).

In 2019, Sarra was longlisted for the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Prize and appeared as a featured poet at HerStories Festival, Celebrate Whalley Range, and That’s What She Said (For Books Sake).

Readings can be found on her YouTube channel and through her Instagram and Twitter profiles.

In this interview, Sarra talks about her writing:

When did you start writing?

I've always written, but only started sending pieces to publishers this year.

I'm an English teacher, so I have taught the nuts and bolts of poetry for sixteen years. My two children are now old enough for me to have a hobby which led me to performance poetry and spoken word events.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

It's a mixture of formal and blank verse, on themes of dual heritage identity, motherhood, monogamy, the education system, gender, and politics.

The motherhood poems are autobiographical, as are the dual heritage identity poems. I'm of Iranian-Irish descent which did not seem particularly interesting or unique to me until I left London in my twenties.

My poems on the education system are rooted in my experiences as a classroom teacher and mother of primary school age children.

I hadn't realised the impact Sylvia Plath had on my writing till recently. I can see the influence of her cadences and extended metaphor. Hafsa Aneela Bashir, more recently; her bravery is raw and visceral which made me braver when writing about painful personal experiences such as post-natal depression.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concern is producing a finished poem, but I can't stop tinkering with syllable counts, metre and so on even after I've sent them off! I'm very badly organised, so I do not keep track of what I've submitted where... Sooner or later a publisher is going to get very cross with my simultaneous submissions!

What are the biggest challenges that you face? And, how do you deal with these challenges?

Rejections are hard to take, but it's an unavoidable part of writing. It's also a chance to ask myself what I can improve.

Do you write everyday?

I can't write everyday. I have a demanding full-time career and two small children. I get my ideas while driving home. Before I get out of the car I scribble them into a notebook. Once the children are asleep, I'll do my research and choose a suitable form which I hope will enhance the meaning or topic. Finally, I'll sew it together and then review it in a day or two. Then the tinkering starts... And never stops!

I'm writing my poetry collection at the moment. I started it in February and I'm still working on it now. I have about forty poems I'm happy with and many more I've cut. When I have about eighty, I'll submit it for publishing as a book rather than a chapbook. An early draft of it was longlisted for the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Prize this year. I hope I've improved on it since then.

When I've finished, I'll submit it to small presses based in the North West and London as it will be easier for me to be involved in launch events. The types of publishers which I think would be a good fit, would be women-focused and known for releasing titles exploring gender.

Which aspects of the work you are putting into the poems do you find most difficult? Why do you think this was so?

I ended up scrapping all my spoken word poetry from publishing submissions, and I will not usually read my more formal poetry at performance events. I love both for different reasons, but only a few of my poems cross over. I've tried to include a number of accessible poems in my collection, which are not in the least oblique or literary, hoping this will broaden appeal. I've recorded readings for some of these on my YouTube channel.

I most enjoy writing poetry when an idea emerges of its own accord, and writes itself. It's depressing when there's a "drought", though.

I'm looking forward to the school holidays to start the writing flow off again.

One of your poems, ‘Terza Rima's Woke Blog’ is featured in Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction. How did the poem come about?

I wrote ‘Terza Rima's Woke Blog’, for my pupils and younger colleagues. Neither can build any stability into their futures, and yet they are the hardest working and most conscientious people that I know. I feel their generation is forsaken.

Advertising agencies were employed to peddle Brexit and manufacture consent. Marketing companies know that facts will not sell products, but that emotions sell a brand. There needs to be awareness raised for both sides, that referendums are opinion polls, not unbreakable contracts. Perhaps this is where poets could help.

Why is it important for poets to speak up on social, political and related matters?

It's important for everyone to speak up. But if you have an unusual way of saying it, it's to your advantage.

My worry is that Brexit is what Chomsky might call "a Roman Game of Circus" designed to incite a very narrow but impassioned debate involving both left and right, to distract us all from what is really going on: the stripping of human rights to bring our workforce in line with China and India, and to colonise our publicly owned assets in the TTIP deal. Chomsky, in his explanation of how we are kept passive, puts it better than me, when he says in The Common Good, "Limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum..."

In your view, what do anthologies like Bollocks to Brexit add to poetry and public discourse? Why does this matter?

As a reader, I prefer anthologies as you get a broader perspective on a theme, and experience multiple forms and styles.

Politically, art resonates better than facts, figures and debates. And if Brexit proved anything, it's that people follow their hearts. Not their minds.

The TTIP deal was debated a lot on social media before the referendum - it has vanished entirely since. The debates on public services, spending, living standards, and many other pressing issues are silenced now too. Brexit is the greatest political distraction ever contrived. It was never a possibility or even a yes/no question. It's important for anyone who realises this, on the left AND the right to reach people still arguing about a non-starter distraction. We still have to protect our hard won rights from the greedy, who will happily turn us into an impoverished, enslaved, poisoned and hateful nation.

Brexit is “a non-starter distraction” because it was invented as a Roman Game of Circus, purely to divert debate from other issues. It is an impossibility, but while we all argue about it, our civil rights and public assets are being stripped under our noses. It is useful for the government to prolong their inevitable admission that it was never going to happen, as this cultivates a climate of fear and apathy, which controls everyone (those of us already impoverished, and also anyone left who realises however little we have can be taken away). I believe they will push the deadline forward each time it arrives until they eventually admit they had no intention or means to take the eggs out of a cake which is already baked. So to speak.