Hana Shafi : part five

How important is music to your poetry?

Very important. It helps me a lot to write to instrumental music, it just gets my brain in the write space. But beyond that, I often tend to reference certain bands and lyrics in my work as well. I'm not sure why, maybe because it feels familiar and nostalgic to me?

Hana Shafi : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Sedley by Chelsea Coupal, Artificial Cherry by Billeh Nickerson, Holy Wild by Gwen Benaway have been my current reads. I often find myself going back to Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya.

Hana Shafi : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

It's easy to get carried away in an abstract thought in poetry. Sometimes you get so deep into writing a poem, you don't even realize it's going completely off the rails. Something this is great; you can create something that's so out there, but that's such a gorgeous piece of writing. Sometimes, once you've left the high of writing it and you read it again, you realize you just wrote a page of gibberish.

Hana Shafi : part two

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

There's something really special about poetry as an art form. There's something fluid about it; I really feel like poetry almost has no rules, it's kind of a wild art form, where things can get as abstract or as literal as you want. I don't think other forms of writing are as free—you can't get away with odd or warped structures with essay writing or fiction writing, etc. Poetry is inherently experimental, in my opinion.

Hana Shafi : part one

Hana Shafi is a writer and artist who illustrates under the name Frizz Kid. Both her visual art and writing frequently explore themes such as feminism, body politics, racism, and pop culture with an affinity to horror. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Journalism Program, she has published articles in publications such as The Walrus, Hazlitt, This Magazine, Torontoist, Huffington Post, and has been featured on Buzzfeed India, Buzzfeed Canada, CBC, Flare Magazine, Mashable, and Shameless, Known on Instagram for her weekly affirmation series, she is also the recipient of the Women Who Inspire Award, from the Canadian Council for Muslim Women. Born in Dubai, Shafi’s family immigrated to Mississauga, Ontario in 1996, and she currently lives and works in Toronto. It Begins with The Body is her first book.

Photo credit: Dylan van den Berge

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

Usually it's shyly sending it to a friend with about fifty disclaimers that it might really really suck. I'll generally send it to friends who are also writers or artists, and see how they feel about it. It's always very nerve-wracking, and I obsessively reiterate that it's OK if they don't like it for fear that they might only say nice things to spare my feelings.