Katrina Naomi - Poet
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What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Becoming a writer, and receiving awards for my poetry from national arts bodies, despite being expelled from school and being told I wasn’t going to achieve a thing in my life.
What motivates you to do what you do?
I began writing because I felt I had things I wanted to say, things perhaps that I didn’t see other people saying. I’ve come to love poetry, I have a real passion for it. I’m as surprised as the next person. I didn’t read a poem until I was 30. And now, If I don’t write, I don’t feel that I’m doing what I want to be doing with my life.
What do you owe your mother?
A great deal. She brought me and my sister up pretty much on her own. She taught me resilience and perseverance. She taught me to always be honest – this doesn’t make for a comfortable life but a good one, I think. And on a practical level, she was really good at budgeting, at living on very little money. This has stood me in good stead, as poets don’t exactly rake it in!
Which women inspire you and why?
Any woman who is following what she really wants to do inspires me – not what anyone else thinks she should be doing, or what’s fashionable or profitable – but following what’s in her heart and head.
What are you reading?
I usually read lots of books at once. I’m reading two poetry collections, Julia Copus’s Girlhood and Nancy Gaffield’s Meridian, plus Audrey Lorde’s essays on poetry and politics, Your Silence Will Not Protect You. I’m also reading Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, and a biography Gerturde & Alice by Diana Souhami. I’m reading through my Cornish/Kernewek language homework (I find it really hard but I keep going with it) and also a really helpful book Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives by David M. Levy.
What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?
Quite a few. And things start when you’re young. One of the first things I remember was not being allowed to play cricket at school, even though several of the boys stuck up for me and said I should be in the school team. Because I was a girl, I had to play netball, which I thought was really boring. I was sexually harassed in a café job as a teenager and have experienced a lot worse since – including violence. My last poetry collection, The Way the Crocodile Taught Me, (Seren, 2016), covers some of these issues. Things are generally a lot easier now, although I recently had two male poets speak over me on a panel discussion, and I had to shout to get them to listen to me. I just want to be able to speak at a normal volume and be respected. The worst of it was that I don’t think the two male poets even realised that they were excluding me.
How can the world be made a better place for women?
There’s so much that needs changing. Getting rid of poverty would be a major starting point, so that women and girls have real choices in their lives, whether they live in Camborne or Karachi. But I can’t see that happening any time soon. I’d love to see girls at school being encouraged from a very young age to really believe that they have the power to do what they want. I’d like examples of gender discrimination to be taught in school, as this also impacts on boys, as well as young people who are questioning their sexuality. I think it’s really important for young boys and young men at school to be brought into the conversation on sexism. I love to hear boys calling other boys out on their sexism – I heard just that the other day. And I think schools could do a lot more on talking about the dire effects of pornography.
Describe your perfect day?
It would involve walking, swimming and dancing, preferably with my partner and friends. It would end end up with a picnic, a fire and some cocktails on the beach.
We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you see remembered?
All of those who work for, and volunteer for, Women’s Aid and other domestic violence charities in Cornwall.
Give us a tip?
I love this quote: ‘Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.’ It’s attributed to Goethe. I have it pinned above my desk. It gives me confidence and reminds me of my mum telling me to ‘just get on with it’.
About Katrina Katrina Naomi's fourth poetry pamphlet – Typhoon Etiquette – was published in April 2019 by Verve Poetry Press. It was inspired by her trip to Japan on an Arts Council-funded project. She was awarded an Authors’ Foundation grant by the UK’s Society of Authors for work on her third poetry collection, which is due from Seren in 2020. In 2018 she received a BBC commission for National Poetry Day. Her poetry has appeared in The TLS, Poetry London, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She was shortlisted for the 2017 Forward Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared on BBC TV and Radio 4’s Front Row and Poetry Please. Her latest collection, The Way the Crocodile Taught Me (Seren, 2016) was chosen by Foyles’ Bookshop as one of its #FoylesFive for poetry. Katrina was the first writer-in-residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in W Yorks, since then she has been poet-in-residence at the Arnolfini, Gladstone’s Library and the Leach Pottery. She has a PhD in creative writing (Goldsmiths) and tutors for Arvon, Ty Newydd and the Poetry School.