Elizabeth M Castillo : part five

What other poetry books have you been reading lately? 

I’ve been re-reading Manuel Iris’ The Parting Present / Lo Que Se Irá and finding a few more layers to it. Mary Ford Neal’s debut Dawning makes for delicious reading. I’ve also been tucking into the poetry and prose on offer in a number of anthologies- “Puentes” published by Revista Purgante, “Overcome” by Fevers of the Mind poetry blog. Robin McNamara’s debut Under a Mind’s Staircase out with Hedgehog Poetry is also brilliant, as is Nikki Dudley’s I’d better let you go, out with Beir Bua Press. And I always come back to Warsan Shire, Clifton, Neruda and Ada Limon. 

Elizabeth M Castillo : part four

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

Warsan Shire definitely- I suspect her poetry is quite autobiographical and I felt like reading her work about motherhood and woman gave me permission to write the feelings that I carry on the same topic- sentiments which aren’t always very welcome, or very easy to read (or write). 

I love the simplicity of Lucille Clifton- her words are never contrived, her poems never overdone. The are understated, because what she says is so important, and her economy makes her work so much more meaningful.

And Roque Dalton- I how his poems volley between playfulness and flirtation, to burning intensity and desire, to powerful political and social advocacy. I love that he wasn’t afraid to let his poetry showcase all the different facets of his personality.

And I love what multilingual poets like Tanya Huntington, Manuel Iris and Andrés Piña are doing with language! Reading their work was eye-opening to me, and my collection “Cajoncito” wouldn’t have been written without it!

Elizabeth M Castillo : part three

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

I believe poetry is one of the most accessible forms of writing, in spite of the reputation it’s gained in the last century, or maybe longer. A poem is a collection of words that make you feel something, like a song whose melody will sound different to each person that reads it. Poems are shorter, often more abstract, so can take whatever meaning the reader needs at the point of reading. 

I’m not sure what happened with poetry, that it’s come to be considered as so unattainable to the average person. I think paid poetry competitions, the obsession with literary qualifications like MFAs, and our continued veneration of the same small circle of literary publications and platforms are not helpful in handing poetry back to the people. I’m a firm believer that good poetry is poetry that speaks to you, whoever you are and whatever you’re going through. 

Elizabeth M Castillo : part one

Elizabeth M Castillo is a British-Mauritian poet, writer, indie-press promoter. She lives in Paris with her family and two cats, where she writes a variety of different things under a variety of pen names. In her writing Elizabeth explores themes of race & ethnicity, motherhood, womanhood, language, love, loss and grief, and a touch of magical realism. She has words in, or upcoming in Selcouth Station Press, Pollux Journal, Revista Purgante, Lanke Review, Streetcake Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Press, Melbourne Culture Corner, Epoch Press, among others. Her bilingual, debut collection Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras is available for preorder/sale on amazon and through her website www.elizabethmcastillo.com. You can connect with her on Twitter or Instagram as @EMCWritesPoetry

What are you working on?

At the moment of writing this interview, I'm putting the final touches on my first full poetry collection Cajoncito: Poems on Love, Loss, y Otras Locuras. It's mostly formatting and marketing at this stage, as I'm self-publishing. It's a bilingual English/Spanish collection that came together almost entirely by itself, and is very close to my heart. Each poem in the collection is the expression of a feeling or an experience that needs to be felt, but in time will also need to be put away in a drawer or box (or Cajoncito, incidentally) in order to move on with life. I think we all carry a few of those...

Although I initially wrote most of these poems as my own personal form a therapy, soon I had enough for a chapbook, then a full collection, and people started to respond to the pieces that were picked up for publication here and there. At that point I had also begun writing in Spanish, which isn't my mother tongue, and three clear themes of love, loss and madness started to take shape. In the end it's been incredibly satisfying, cathartic even to have people tell me they find something of themselves in these extremely personal poems, and to see that there are in fact so many ways to love, so many ways to lose, and so many forms of madness that make up the in between.