Interview: Nina Mingya Powles talks about In the Hollow of the Wave

Nina Mingya Powles is a poet and writer from Aotearoa New Zealand, currently based in London. Her debut poetry collection, Magnolia 木蘭, was published in New Zealand, the UK and the US, and was a finalist in the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Powles won the inaugural Women Poets’ Prize in 2018 and the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize for under-represented nature writers in 2019.

Her resulting book of essays Small Bodies of Water was published in 2021 by Canongate. She has also published a short food memoir, Tiny Photo credit: Sophie Davidson Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai. Nina talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about In the Hollow of the Wave.

In the Hollow of the Wave is a book of poems exploring art and the environment, particularly through the lens of orientalism and colonisation. What does it mean to make art during a time of ecological collapse? I also wanted to get creative with collage and visual poetry in this book, which is new ground for me. 

What inspired you to write this collection of poetry?

The title itself comes from the novel To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, an image capturing the passage of time, which felt to me like it also applied to our contemporary moment. I'm also always drawn to the sea and coastal landscapes -- especially Wellington harbour. So part of the book is very much rooted in physical places and bodies of water that are a part of me. The other key inspiration for me was visual art, especially Etel Adnan's paintings and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's performance art. 

What research was involved?

Poets are lucky in that we can be creative in what we call 'research'! The first sequence in this book, 'Slipstitch', was an experimental process in working out how to write about thread, cloth and memory. My grandfather was a quilter. In what could be called research, I cut up photographs I'd taken of the sky above my grandparents garden as well as the sky above Wellington harbour. I made tiny paper collages out of these pieces of sky, almost miniature paper quilts -- these ended up becoming part of the book, along with a cyanotype poem printed I made in my garden. I also spent a lot of time writing about visual art, trying out different ekphrastic techniques, and researching other poets who have worked with collage, like Victoria Chang.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

I'm not too good at sticking to any kind of routine when it comes to poetry. With other kinds of writing projects I need structure, but with poetry, I can be uncharacteristically scatter-brained. Many of these poems were written slowly across three years. When I started to see them coming together in the form of a collection, that's when I'm good at sitting down and working on the structure, which took me months to figure out. I wrote the final poems -- and came up with the final structure -- on a week-long writing retreat, a much needed escape from routine that I'm very lucky to have had. It also helps to have access to a printer in those final months, when I printed out every poem and laid them out on the floor, Jo-March style. 

If you had to choose your favourite poem, what would it be, and why?

It changes all the time but one poem I'm obsessed with -- and which is referenced in In the Hollow of the Wave -- is "Dream of a Dog" by Emily Berry. 

From this book, it might be "Patterning" just because of how hard it was to write. I was interested in the question: if a quilt were a poem, what would it look like? The poem can be read in two ways: across from left to right, or in individual three-line stanzas. So it's made up of lots of small pieces that fit together as a whole, much like a quilt.

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

"True Blue" by Boygenius and "my tears ricochet" by Taylor Swift. I actually made a whole playlist!

What did you enjoy the most about writing this collection?

I loved playing around with paper, glue, thread and fabric. I was keen to let go of traditional ideas of what a poetry book can contain. I'm quite a crafty person, and combining this with my creative practice as a writer was very fun.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

I don't know if it's actually felt finished until just last month, when I checked over the manuscript for it to be sent to print! We made tiny tweaks to poems and formatting right up until then. I'm really grateful to my editors in the UK and in Aotearoa for the care and attention they've given the book. I'm looking forward to celebrating the launch with friends and whānau in Wellington and London in the next few months. I'm going to bake blue and lilac coloured cupcakes. 

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

Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall was some of the best creative nonfiction I've read in ages -- it's completely gripping and Marshall's sentences are stunning. I also loved Good Dress by Brittany Rogers, a talented American poet, whose experiments in erasure and 'template poems' (using official documents like library overdue notices and letters) were inspiring. As a librarian, I love the idea of a poem constructed out of an overdue notice. 

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I'm taking some time away from my library job to do research for my next project, a book about fabric. I'm also working on a quilt for a friend's new baby -- a quilt, like a book, can be a long-term commitment. 

Auckland University Press