Interview: Adrienne Jansen talks about Potluck, poems about food

Adrienne Jansen is a writer, editor, ESOL teacher and creative writing tutor. Founder of the Porirua Language Project and the Whitireia Creative Writing Programme, she has also written and published extensively, often working alongside migrants to tell their stories. For ten years she has led Landing Press, a not-for-profit publisher with a social justice edge.

Tell us a little about your new book?

Potluck is an anthology of poems about food. They’re poems that everyone can enjoy, from well-known poets to first-time poets.  The poems cover everything from enjoyment of food, food in celebrations, food difficulties, food shortages and starvation, and a whole lot more.

What inspired you to write this book?

Landing Press describes itself as a not-for-profit publisher with a social justice edge. We’ve published other  anthologies on housing, cleaning, migrants and refugees, generations, so when the suggestion of food came up, we saw it as perfect for us – that mix of pleasure, justice, cultural diversity, politics, difficulties – everything we’re interested in.

What research was involved?

We always work with a range of organisations when compiling these anthologies, and in this case we worked with Wellington City Mission, Rimutaka Prison, EKTA and Kaibosh (food distribution organisations), schools, and many individuals. It’s not exactly research, but it’s fundamental to our work.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

We sent out a call for submissions nationwide, and received nearly 400 poems. Then we worked with others to create the poems that we knew we would never get through our call for submissions. We’re a team of eight, and everyone is involved in the selection process, the editing process, discussion of the cover and more. We call ourselves a learning press, so these are all learning opportunities for everyone.

If a soundtrack were made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

Maybe some favourite food songs – ‘Strawberry Fields’ (The Beatles), ‘Food glorious food’ – songs that lots of people know.

What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?

The biggest satisfaction is seeing people, who never see themselves as writers, and whose voices we never normally hear, being published in a mainstream book. It can be absolutely transforming. But as a team we enjoy getting together, eating chocolate and cake, and reading lots of great poems.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

We had a big launch. We’re generally big on launches, and for this launch we had a refreshment table full of the  food that was mentioned in the book, and we labelled each plate of food with the name of the poem that focused on this particular food.  Potluck was launched by a local chef, Sushil Ravikumar, who was the perfect choice because as well as running a restaurant he has such a very strong commitment to the community.