An interview with Erin Bedford

Erin Bedford's work is published in William Patterson University's Map Literary, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Temz Review, and Train: a poetry journal. She attended and won a Certificate of Distinction for her novel Fathom Lines from the Humber School for Writers. Currently, she is acting as shill for her newly-completed second novel, Illumining, and a manuscript of poetry.

Follow her to find out more @ErinLBedford

How did you begin writing, and what keeps you going?

I began writing because of an idea that wouldn’t settle down in my head. During my fourth year university historiography seminar, we were talking about memory and truth, bias and perception, and what this all meant for what we can actually know, about the past of course, but also about what’s happening right in front of our eyes, and about the people we love, whom we think we understand so well.

I think most of the other people in class just packed up their books that day and went to their next class. I walked around mulling that idea over for a year and then began writing my first novel, Fathom Lines, because for me there was so much to explore, so much under the surface.

Ideas like that are what keep me writing, of course, and curiosity.

Your author biography mentions that you are in the midst of a second novel. Are you able to work on poetry at all during the composition of a novel? How are you able to keep the two separate?

I don’t know the answer to this question yet. The second novel is done and I am looking for a publisher. About two months after I finished the novel, I began to write poetry with more intention than ever before. I was able to edit the novel and write enough poetry to put together a full manuscript, but I am not sure if I would be able to do the focused daily writing work that a novel requires and also be able to access the same intense emotion that I draw on for my poems. When I write a novel, it’s all about the routines. The window of time I have is regulated, and the coffee and meal breaks are scheduled interruptions. When I write poetry, it’s very different. I feel a bit like a mad scientist. Everything but the page becomes a terribly unwanted distraction. I often won’t get up to eat or drink, I will stay up late into the night or decline social activities because I don’t want to leave that place of emotion I’m writing from.

What poets have influenced the ways in which you write?

There are certain collections of poetry or even single poems that continue to influence how and what I write about, not necessarily because of any specific style, or beloved artistic kindred, but more because I was ready for a particular work at that moment in my life. Alastair Reid’s translation of Neruda’s Al pie desde su niño (To the foot from it’s child) is a polestar poem for me, and Oliver’s The Forest.

So many by Heaney.  I read Atwood’s You fit into me when I was about fourteen and realized poetry didn’t have to be endlessly symbolic, contrary to what I was learning in high school. It could just crack like a whip. I think that’s what I want my poetry to be—a combination as life is, a kiss that turns into a bite, or vice versa.

How important has mentorship been to your work? Is there anyone who specifically assisted your development as a writer?

It is incredibly important to me. I am fairly private about my work until I feel it’s ready. I have never had desire to work with a writing group for this reason. But to have one person who spends dedicated time on my work and cares about it, but who is more detached from it, and from me, that’s when the big leaps in my writing skill have happened.

Most recently, I worked with Betsy Warland on my manuscript of poetry. She was so direct and insightful. Every consultation felt like a master class. I always left with new ideas and concrete ways to improve my work.

What are you currently working on?

I have two complete manuscripts— one fiction, one poetry—that need to find the right publisher. I have a terrible habit of orphaning my finished work and so I am being very careful about choosing my next projects. But there is a short story about a housebroken raccoon, a sort of meditation on the end of wildness, and a personal essay about receiving a massage from my ex-husband’s girlfriend. Of course, there are always new poems to write. I have an idea for a novel, the kind of idea that won’t settle down, so I imagine I’ll begin that once my other works are adopted.

Can you name a poet you think should be receiving more attention?

Rachel Rose. Marry & Burn is such a poignant and powerful elegy; a perfect encapsulation of the emotional tumult that one undergoes as a relationship dies. Poems of slow brooding on resentment and grief, uplifted with such tender imagery.