CULTURE CLUB
Known for her candour, humour and honest critique of modern-day womanhood, the prolific poet Hollie McNish discusses her writing life ahead of the release of her new collection, Lobster A Cambridge WRITER’S DIARY
I started writing when I was very little, mostly for fun. When I became a teenager, I wrote all my diaries in poems and I have no idea why! I suppose I’ve always found poetry much more freeing than writing down full sentences. I still have the poetry books that my mum used to read to me, and I just adored them – one of which was Sky in the Pie by Roger McGough. Because I loved that kind of childish, rhyming poetry, I still find it hard to write a poem that doesn’t rhyme in some way. When I was a student at King’s College, Cambridge, I didn’t write much at all and what I did write wasn’t hugely positive. During that time, I would often go to Lammas Land just to be surrounded by families and other people who weren’t students, which is where I wrote one poem about wanting to escape! Today, I find myself sharing my time between just outside Cambridge and Glasgow, where most of my family are. I write on an as-and-when basis with no real routine. Annoyingly, most good ideas pop into my head while I’m driving around on tour, so I often pull over to record bits on my phone. I’m a mum, so working at home can be difficult and this tends to be my main solitary time. I know many poets who swear by pen and paper, but I love writing on my phone or laptop and being able to cut and paste what I like. This is a bad habit to admit, but the only time I write by hand is when I scribble my own work on top of other people’s poetry books! For instance, Caroline Bird’s poetry books are covered in my writing, since she just inspires me so much.
had so much material, I wanted to split it into two books. While Slug focused on what I’ve been made to feel ashamed of, Lobster is a more loving version, with poems and prose from various areas of research. Some topics I cover can be quite upsetting, like women’s health, so occasionally you want to break free to learn about something entirely different, which is why there’s a lot of material about outer space in there. remember seeing them for the first time in a restaurant, where being served lobster was this posh, sophisticated thing, whereas I found picking these poor creatures out of a tank, tearing them apart and eating them as some kind of aphrodisiac just so weird! I was trying to think about what I found disgusting about them and the more I learnt, the more I loved them. Lobsters don’t age, they just keep growing until they die from the exhaustion of it – or we eat them! We’re obsessed by the idea of not ageing, and lobsters do exactly that and we just chuck them in a pot! I chose the title because I have always been quite disgusted by lobsters! I I’ll be heading out on tour next year, and it includes some of the largest venues I’ve ever done, like Hackney Empire. It always takes the encouragement of family and friends but I’m getting braver now and pushing myself to take on bigger venues. Lobster: And Other Things I’m Learning to Love by Hollie McNish is published by Fleet in March 2024, priced £18.99. Her Sunday Times bestseller Slug: And Other Things I’ve Been Told to Hate is out now (Fleet, £12.99)
Currently, a lot of my writing is inspired by friendship, memories and shame. A big part of that is because now I’m getting older, I look back on all the rubbish we were told as teenagers and in our twenties. So many things have changed for the next generations, but others seem to be worse, and it just makes me think, really? Are we still protesting this?! Lobster: And Other Things I’m Learning to Love is the continuation of Slug: And Other Things I’ve Been Told to Hate , since I OUT OF HER SHELL Hollie McNish’s upcoming work explores the author’s love for the world and questions why we are taught to hate
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK NOVEMBER 2023 29
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