An Interview with Tim Upperton


Tim Upperton’s poetry and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Bravado, Dreamcatcher, Landfall, New Zealand Books, New Zealand Listener, North & South, Reconfigurations, Sport, Takahe, Turbine and Best New Zealand Poems 2008.

Tim has won first prizes in the New Zealand Listener National Poetry Day Competition, Takahe magazine’s poetry competition, and the Northland and Manawatu short story competitions. He is a former poetry editor for Bravado, and tutors creative writing, travel writing and New Zealand literature at Massey University.

Tim, your first collection, A House on Fire, was launched on Montana Poetry Day, Friday 24 July, in Palmerston North. What are the key things that you would like prospective readers to know about this collection?

It’s a various collection, ranging across different forms and engaging with familiar aspects of domestic life as well as with things that interest me but which are remote from my daily concerns. So one poem is about making lunches each day for my four children, and another is about history as successive erasure, one forgetting piled on top of another. The first poem I ever published is in the collection, and that was ten years ago. And the most recently published poem, “History”, is also there, and appeared in New Zealand Books in June. So the collection is a record, I guess, of my published writing over a decade.



Is the collection representative of your poetry as a whole, or does it focus on one or more particular aspects of your poetry?

It’s representative in that most of my poems have found their way into it! Though there are exceptions: a few poems that have been previously published in magazines didn’t seem to belong, and have been omitted.

How did you become involved in writing poetry? Which, if any, poets have been most influential on your writing?

I studied literature – mostly English – at university, and had some ambition to be a writer, without actually writing very much. I wanted to write fiction, but the first piece of writing I submitted was a poem, and I was lucky to have it published in Sport. So of course I submitted a further batch of poems to Sport, which were duly rejected. And that was the start, for me – I kept writing, kept submitting, and the rejections and the acceptances came in. Fail better, as Beckett says. It took me a long time to realise that you don’t have to be very smart to write poems. I don’t think I have any particular wisdom to offer, and I’m bored generally by poets who do. Language is smart, so I don’t have to be – I try to listen to language, alert to the wisdom that’s inherent in it. And I arrange it on paper, a bit like shaking a kaleidoscope and looking to see what patterns emerge.

I often look to overseas models – British and American – when writing my own poems, and often not-so-recent poets with a formalist bent – Elizabeth Bishop, Weldon Kees, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Theodore Roethke. But lately in my capacity as poetry reviewer for Bravado I’ve been reading and enjoying a lot more contemporary New Zealand poetry. And I’ve been teaching New Zealand literature at Massey University this year, so I’ve been reacquainting myself with Curnow, Bethell, Baxter and so on. I admire the sense of place in contemporary New Zealand writing – there’s an ease and confidence there that I would wish to emulate.

I very much enjoyed my introduction to the Palmerston North poetry scene in June, when I visited to read as part of the Stand Up Poetry series. Do you regard yourself as an active member of that scene, or do you prefer to work away on your own for the most part?

Well, I’m active in that I attend most poetry gatherings, and there is a lot going on – tonight, for example, I’m reading with half a dozen other poets at Te Manawa, the Palmerston North museum, and that will be the third poetry event I’ve attended this week. Such events are fun, and they draw surprisingly large audiences, but they’re in stark contrast with the actual business of writing, which is generally solitary and difficult.

On July 20th, you and many of the other poets whose work is included in Best New Zealand Poems 2008 read together in Wellington. What did it mean to you to have a poem chosen for this collection, and did you enjoy the reading?

I was very pleased to have a poem included in Best New Zealand Poems. It is of course one person’s – in this case, James Brown’s – take on what is best; the selection process is hopelessly subjective. But I found myself in good company, and I caught up with a few friends on the day, including you! It’s a pleasure – and this is true also of the local events I mentioned previously – to be among people who take poetry’s importance and centrality as a given.

You teach creative writing at Massey University. Does working as a creative writing teacher have a good (or even a bad) influence on your own practice as a poet?

It must be a good influence, as I’m writing more these days than I did when I worked as a manager in local government. Writing is a series of delicate decisions, and as I review the decisions my students have made, I can’t help but reflect on my own.

You have been a poetry editor, and judged poetry competitions. I’ve enjoyed the editing I’ve done, but found that I don’t write much poetry while I’m looking at lots of other people’s poetry submissions. Has this been a problem for you?

Yes, my experience has been similar. I enjoyed editing, and also judging the Bravado poetry competition last year. But the work seemed to use up the writing part of my brain, and I didn’t produce many poems of my own at that time.

Turning away from poetry for a moment, I was intrigued by some comments you made, when we talked in Palmerston North, about your dislike of narrative in short fiction. Would you care to elaborate?

It’s of course a very general comment, and I can immediately think of exceptions. I’ve just reviewed Charlotte Grimshaw’s volume of linked short stories, Singularity, for example, and I admired it very much. But as a general comment, it’s true – narrative doesn’t particularly interest me. All that cause-and-effect, establishing motive, character development, the workings of plot – it’s like some rusted, obsolete machine cranking away. I love the economy of poetry – a short lyric poem can convey an effect that it may take a whole novel to produce. I can see that this is a personal prejudice. The contemporary fiction that interests me most is the kind that upsets our expectations of narrative – W.G. Sebald’s work, for example.

Finally, what literary project or projects are you now working on?

I’ve started writing poems again, which is a relief after some months of grooming my already-written poems for book publication. I sincerely hope my next collection won’t take as long to write as my first one.

Kindness
by Tim Upperton

Evening light, olive oil
poured from a high jug: streaming
over the burnished back of the cricket
riding its bowing grass stem; glossing
the spade with its broken handle
leaning on the strainer-post that is itself
leaning, its crumbly lichen glowing,
the wire tired and slack; pooling
on the surface of the leylandii stump,
with its surround of buttery chips
from inexpert swipes of the axe.

Light is light, it is not kindness,
but if kindness had a colour, perhaps
it would be this – yes, you turn away
impatiently, yet it’s you who cannot
bear to crush a snail; who once, in heavy
traffic, abandoned the car, and in tears
strode to a maimed pukeko that fluttered
beside the wide road; you who killed
that bird with a swing and a crack –

stay with me, as the light goes
from gold, to grey, to black.

Book availability

A House on Fire, by Tim Upperton, Steele Roberts, 61pp, $19.99, ISBN 987-1-877448-68-3
Available from:

  • The publisher (www.steeleroberts.co.nz)
  • Bruce McKenzie’s, Palmerston North
  • The author (t.l.upperton (at) massey.ac.nz)
  • Or by ordering through your local bookshop

The Stars Their Destination: Wellington, Palmerston North, The Edge of the Universe

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and so it’s fitting that there’s an astronomical theme to several forthcoming writing events. (If you know of more astropoetry events, please tell us about them in the comments.)

If the combination of poetry and astronomy interests you, then I recommend Emily Gaskin’s Astropoetica, not only a fine online magazine of astronomical poetry, but a paying poetry market!

Wellington

Montana Poetry Day events in Wellington on 24 July include an all-day open mike poetry event in Cuba Mall, by the Bucket Fountain. But I’m especially interested in the lunchtime event:

There will also be an Astropoetry Lunch Hour celebrating the International Year of Astronomy during which poets can read any ‘astronomy’ themed poems.

Open to all; free entry. Contact Graham Wolf on graham.w.wolf (at) gmail.com

Palmerston North

Helen Lehndorf and the other organisers of the Stand Up Poetry series in Palmerston North are also involved in this exciting event:

Eyes in the Skies: Poetry and art for Matariki

“Eyes in the Skies” is both an exhibition and an event. The exhibition runs from 3 July (launch at 7.30pm) to 4 August at the Square Edge Gallery, 47 The Square, Palmerston North. It features poetry by Helen Lehndorf, Margi Mitcalfe, Karlo Mila, Johanna Aitchison, Felicity Yates, Philippa Elphick and Elizabeth Coleman, and art by printmaker Virginia Jamieson and sculptor Warren Warbrick.

The Poetry Day event is from 5.30 pm onwards, Friday 24th July 2009 at Square Edge:

Using nga taongapuoro and voice, HAUnt Wind Stories presents an evening of music showcasing new poems by seven Manawatu poets including Karlo Mila and Johanna Aitchison. The poems will be made into prints by Virginia Jamieson and unveiled during this event. The poems and prints will also be sold in book form at the event.

Open to all. Email HAUnt (at) inspire.net.nz for further information.

Tim Upperton’s Book Launch

I don’t know of an astronomy connection to Tim Upperton’sbook, although there may well be one – but Tim’s a fine poet (and a gracious host), and his first collection of poetry, A House On Fire, is being launched, also on Poetry Day in Palmerston North: it’s happening at 7pm on Friday 24 July at the Palmerston North City Library, also in The Square. A House On Fire will be introduced by Roger Steele of Steele Roberts, who are publishing the book.

Another commitment will prevent me from going to this launch, but if you can make it, you should!

The Edge of the Universe

The Royal Society’s Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing is awarded each year in two categories, fiction and nonfiction. Here is this year’s announcement:

“I live at the edge of the universe, like everybody else.”
–Bill Manhire

This year we are celebrating the International Year of Astronomy. Ever since Galileo first aimed his telescope at Jupiter’s moons, technology has been enlarging our knowledge of the universe.

We now know our own insignificance and isolation and yet we have immense power to communicate as never before. The race of humans is isolated in space and time and yet where, as individuals, do we go to be alone?

A cash prize of $2500 will be awarded to the winner of each category. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 22 September 2009.

The Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing is organised by the Royal Society of New Zealand in association with the New Zealand Listener magazine and the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.

For more information, terms and conditions and entry forms visit http://www.royalsociety.org.nz or contact: Danae Staples-Moon, ph 04 470 5770 or email danae (at) royalsociety.org.nz

Go You Good Things: Several Congratulations and a Writing Workshop

Congratulations

Congratulations are in order: plenty of them. If I’ve forgotten someone who deserves congratulations, please let us all know in the comments!

So, congratulations to:

A Workshop

In association with ConScription, the 2009 New Zealand Science Fiction Workshop, comes …

The Writers’ Workshop of Unusual Length

featuring Julie E. Czerneda with Nalini Singh

Auckland, New Zealand, 27 to 29 May 2009, 8.30am to 5.00pm every day

This three-day workshop is about writing in general, not just SF&F — the lessons contained therein apply to all genres. There are a limited number of seats, so get in fast.

“My approach to working with other writers is simple: how can I help them with the creative process? I don’t critique what they’ve done. I don’t feel it’s useful to the writer once I’m gone, unless I happen to be that writer’s editor. What is useful is encouraging self confidence and providing tools to create more and better work. The activities I run make them write in ways most will never have imagined: out loud, with strangers, and quickly. I guarantee they’ll have fun. So will I. They’ll come away with new ideas and knowledge. They’ll realize they can make changes and choices, and know how to talk about their work with others. I want writers to leave my workshops invigorated, enthused, and ready to succeed no matter what they want to write or what they’d like to accomplish with their writing. The creative process should be a joy (as well as work) and those with the courage to attempt it nourished as much as possible.” —Julie Czerneda

“This workshop is structured and designed to take the participant from idea generation right through to sale of story. I have the outline in my hot little hand and am convinced that the three days will be well worth the investment for anyone who takes their writing seriously.” —Kevin G. Maclean

Bring pen and paper, or a laptop.

The Tutors

Julie E. Czerneda is the author of more than ten science fiction novels, and is the editor of several young adult science fiction anthologies. She has run many writers’ workshops for adult and teenage writers, and is currently a consultant for the Canadian Government on Science Fiction in Education. For more information about Julie and her works, go to www.czerneda.com.

Nalini Singh is the author of over ten romance and paranormal novels, and several novellas and short stories. She has given many talks on the process of writing, and has appeared at many romance writers’ conferences. For more information about Nalini and her works, go to www.nalinisingh.com.

The Essential Details

When: 3 days, Wednesday – Friday, 27 – 29 May, 8.30 am–5.00 pm

Where: Hotel Grand Chancellor, Corner Kirkbride & Ascot Roads, Mangere

Cost: $150.00 pp for the course (parking onsite $5 per day, payable to the hotel). Lunch not included

Bring: pen & paper or laptop

Places: Limited to 24 participants

Go to: www.conscription.co.nz/ConScription/registration.htm for the registration form .

Registration

There’s only a limited number of seats, so if you’re interested in attending, please register as soon as possible. If the workshop is overbooked, you’ll be placed on a waiting list in order of registration, and contacted if a seat opens up. You can register for the workshop by the same form as for the convention: for either alone, or for both together. For details, please see the registration page. Payment is expected along with the registration. It will be returned in full if you cancel by 30 April.