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An Interview with Jo Shapcott

Do you have any advice for writers entering the Cardiff International Poetry Competition?

The main piece of advice I can give is not to try to please the judge, but to write the best poem you can, one that satisfies you.  There is no subject or image that poetry cannot touch, which is at least half the joy and excitement of it.  Poetry can explore anything at all and it still outreachs the newer media because of this.  Don’t be scared though – anyone who is interested should enter.

Will you be accepting bribes?

No! 

As a creative writing tutor what other advice would you give to new poets,?

Read lots of poetry, including contemporary poetry, so that you develop an ear and eye for it.  Then read some more.

What’s the most memorable bad poetry you have read?

The great thing about truly bad poetry is that it’s not memorable.

When and where do you write?

Whenever and wherever I have the time and inclination.  The shed at the end of the garden is often a good spot.

Lots of your work uses scientific terminology, adopting things such as degenerative diseases and quantum physics. Yet you’re also seen as a very surrealist writer. Why do these two disparate elements fit so well together?

I’m curious about the world and this curiosity gets into the poems so that they may include almost anything as ostensible subject matter.  I read widely, not just poetry but science and philosophy and all sorts.  The more you absorb of what’s around you the more you have to write about.  At the end of a poem, I can only hope all the disparate elements fit together

Do you approach your writing as a science? Constructed and developed from theories, patterns,…?

It’s an art.  But there are patterns: musical patterns, image patterns, dramatic patterns, patterns of ideas and emotions.

You had a collection of lectures out in 2007. Do you draw a distinction between you as an academic and you as a writer?

I am primarily a writer.  But most poets think and write about poetry as well.  I love teaching and am very lucky to work with talented students on the MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Now that you are the new president of the Poetry Society, approaching its centenary, do you have a specific agenda for your role?

It’s a great honour to be the President of the Poetry Society, particularly now that it’s coming up to its hundredth year.  My role is not about making policy – the inventive and able Director and Chair of the Society do that brilliantly and they have some exciting plans for celebrating 100 years (watch this space).  My job is to support them in their work to promote poetry and help poets, all of which is a sheer pleasure to do.

Multi award-winning poet Jo Shapcott is judging the 2008 Cardiff International Poetry Competition alongside U A Fanthorpe. She is also the newly appointed president of the Poetry Society and teaches the MA in Creative Writing at the Royal Holloway University of London. 

The competition closing date is Friday 1 February 2008.

Click here to download the entry form or for further information and to receive a hard copy of the entry form contact Academi on
029 2047 2266 or email post@academi.org  

A section of this interview by Ross Sutherland appeared in the Metro Newspaper