Interview: Elizabeth Smither talks about The Interview Rose

Elizabeth Smither has written six novels, six collections of short stories and nineteen poetry collections. She has twice won the major award for New Zealand poetry and was the 2001–2003 Te Mata Poet Laureate. In 2004, she was awarded an honorary LittD from the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, for her contribution to literature and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. She received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2008. Her book, Night Horse (Auckland University Press), won the 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry. Elizabeth talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about ‘The Interview Rose

It is just a continuation of a poetry writing life. That sounds pompous but I am always aware of Simon Armitage’s warning that writing poetry ‘is being forever apprenticed to an unachievable goal’.

What inspired you to write this collection of poetry?

No single inspiration. Just enough poems in a fold hopefully labelled ‘Next Collection’.

What was your routine or process while writing this collection?

I try to have a poetry writing session once a week, surrounded by poetry books, listening to the Concert programme. It is impossible to write in a void. I read and write, read and write some more; the hours pass until I fill a dozen pages in a blank exercise book. Not all of them will survive. I love the pen (fine black ink) moving across the paper, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, in time with my thoughts.

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

Le vie en rose sung by Edith Piaf and Chrstopher Lowrey singing Ombra mai fu which conjures up the miniature plane tree outside my window.

What did you most enjoy about writing this collection?

The writing sessions, which sometimes end in frustration but occasionally break into new territory. The chase.

If you had to choose a favourite poem what would you choose and why?

‘The Cat and the Wittgenstein Quotes’. I had copied some of Wittgenstein’s quotes and found the cat sitting on the pages and wondered how he might respond to: ‘Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness but come down to the green valleys of silliness’ or ‘I don’t know why we are here, but I am pretty sure it is not the enjoy ourselves’.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

Drank some wine. I went for pink. Brown Brothers Rose Prosecco.

What is the favourite book you have read this year and why?

‘One Day I’ll Remember This: Collected Diaries’ by Helen Garner. Inimitable and brave. Love the passage where she cuts up a rival’s hat.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I’m using some favourite quotations as the starting point to write some informal meandering essays or reminiscences. Quotes like: ‘What I mean by a shifty eye,’ continued Miss Marple, ‘is the kind that looks very straight at you and never blinks’. (Agatha Christie) or ‘Prayer is the contemplation of things as they are from a very great height’. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

Auckland University Press