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| Interview with Kathleen Jamie by Debbie Taylor THERE'S a phrase Kathleen Jamie says quite often when you ask about her life and work: ‘I just made it up’. She says it with a shrug, and a throwaway gesture of her head. But the phrase encompasses, with poetic concision, a whole attitude to life. ‘I made it up’, as in: ‘I decided for myself’; ‘I didn’t worry about what other people were doing’; ‘I didn’t let facts interfere with the story I wanted to tell’; ‘I didn’t find out what the rules were’; ‘I didn’t think of asking permission’. This is how she came to recognition as a poet so early, with a first collection (Black Spiders, Salamander Press) and prestigious Gregory Award before she was 20. ‘Nobody told me I couldn’t do it,’ she says simply. But perhaps her mother’s perennial observation comes nearer to the truth: ‘You always go your own sweet way.’ As far back as she can remember, Kathleen Jamie vowed she would never get ‘a proper job’: ‘It seemed then and it seems now, like no way to live. No time for art, for fun, for going out on the hills – no time to do anything until you’re 60.’ The decision drove her out of school early, had her ‘bumming around for a bit’, writing poetry avidly (‘All teenagers do. I was no different.’), and gravitating to Edinburgh where she fell in with ‘artists and bohemians’ – and the poets Peter Porter, Andrew Greig, Brian McCabe. ‘I was fortunate to meet writers who encouraged me, so I managed to skip about five years of what people normally do.’ She’s referring to the floundering and self-doubt of the fledgling poet; the long scramble up through the small magazines. Being in Scotland helped too. ‘The border was very wide in those days… For the whole interview, read Issue 9 » Subscribe! Go to » Kathleen Jamie's Method |
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For more on KATHLEEN JAMIE, go to www.contemporarywriters.com |
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