CityLife

Question for Linda Chase

Linda Chase is an American poet living in Manchester. Her two published collections are The Wedding Spy and Extended Family. She is the co-ordinator of the Poetry School Manchester and artistic director of Poets And Players.

Birth date: 11/07/1941.

Hometown: Long Island, New York.

How would you describe your work? Poetry.

Who are your influences? Mostly American poets of the Fifties and Sixties – William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, E E Cummings, Allen Ginsberg.

What's the first book you remember reading? I was never much of a reader, due to being dyslexic and finding reading to be a kind of torture, which, from time to time, I might choose if the rewards were great enough. I did spend one whole summer reading Anna Karenina in my teens and felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Who is your favourite literary character? I think I will answer this question in terms of poets who become characters in their own poems. The two which come to mind as riveting subjects of their own work are Selima Hill in the UK and Sharon Olds in the US. They are both fearless, imaginative and profound.

If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing? I have been a proper writer only since I was 50, so it is easy to imagine other things. For instance, I have already been a stage costume designer and maker for 20 years and a tai chi teacher for more than 20 years. But my constant fantasy aspiration was (and is) to be an architect. I love buildings, spaces, environments and the placement of objects. I spend a lot of my time involved with these things as an amateur designer and as a homemaker. At a crude level this might be just arranging furniture in a room and at a slightly higher level, it would be renovating a house.

Which of your work are you most proud of? I always seem to be most interested in my most recent work. Perhaps that is just due to my active involvement in it and the fact that when I read it, I still have a sense of it being alive and meaningful to me. The work I have just finished for the Manchester Muse represented a challenge for me in that I did not write from my own experience.

The only times I used the first-person-singular were to write in the voices of others. So, I feel quite good about having been able to do that. On the other hand, the work before that of which I felt most pleased was a series of love poems called ‘younger men have birthdays too’ which were extremely personal and intimate.

What is a typical writing day? I don’t have a set routine. As a poet, this seems to work okay for me. I do a tremendous amount of little bits of admin - for the poetry school, for The Dear List, which I send out from time to time about live poetry events in Manchester, and for Poets And Players, a poetry and music series (on the internet). 

I also have quite a busy household with guests, lodgers and grandchildren. Also I have the village hall to manage, and a big garden to deal with. So, I almost never have a day which is just for writing. I might make notes for something I want to write later and not get around to doing it till late at night. I have always been a night person - not going to bed till well after 1am. My favourite time to write is between midnight and 3am. But then I get up around 7.30am for meditation and tai chi, so time gets a bit tight and sleep gets stunted. I was pleased to read in an article about Bob Dylan (my number one hero) that he only records at night. I share this love of the night – the quiet and the sensation of timelessness.

It was a great treat while working on the Muse poems, to spend a lot of time in the art gallery just looking at the pictures and then also doing research about the artists and historical contexts. But the poems were worked on mostly at night.

Can you give us three top tips for aspiring writers?   First, I think of a little saying by Samuel Johnson - ‘to a poet nothing can be useless’.  I often think of this. It is simply a matter of paying attention to every detail or unusual circumstance, not matter how insignificant it may seem. To write well, it is good to keep one’s eyes open - ideas and images can come from the least likely zones.

Second, I think it is good keep a light hold on the material you are writing, while you are writing it. Let it come naturally and spontaneously. Don’t edit before you are in your stride. Let weird things happen. Welcome a few surprises.

Third, after the initial outpouring, attack with a hatchet first and then finally with a feather. Get rid of what you don’t need and then hone the rest for sound, shape, rhythm and intent. Unless, of course, you just hit it on the first shot. Yes, it could happen! Ah - and how sweet it is!