Channeling the creative: Interview with Wendy Falla - by Kaycee Hill
Wendy Falla is a natural born storyteller and kick-started her writing career at the University of Winchester. Best known for her stellar poetry collection The Venus Pool, Wendy creates a ‘kind of spiritual geography’ of the Channel Islands and its distinct culture within her pieces. As Vortex alumni, Wendy sat down with me to discuss all things poetry, the craft, and Vortex.
How did you become involved with Vortex?
I think it was Glenn that reached out to us all and said they were looking for submissions for Vortex. It could have been prose or poetry, but as I was doing a poetry module, I chose poetry.
Debuting in 2005, Vortex has thrived with submissions from students nationwide, can you remember how it felt seeing your piece in the journal?
It felt fantastic. It was my first what I call 'proper' piece of writing. I had done very amateurish pieces up until that point in magazines, photographs with captions, or just a couple of lines here and there. But to actually see a full poem in print was absolutely wonderful. It’s really something to be proud of.
What I find most enjoyable about the magazine is its aesthetic. Were you happy with how they framed your work on the page?
Yes, very much so. It looked lovely, an image on one side, a poem on the other. I’ve been published in Vortex twice, once when I was doing the BA and again when I was doing the MA. But it really doesn’t lose the impact the second time, especially when there’s so many talented writers at the University.
What prompted you to begin writing poetry?
Probably not the traditional route. As a mature BA student with children, I had to work around school pick-ups and part-time jobs. I had an hour and a half each way commute to university and it just so happened that the poetry module fell on the day I was in for another module. At this point, I was in my forties and had never written poetry, so I got into writing poetry as a complete beginner at middle age! But once I started, it was almost like an outpour and a form of catharsis.
Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process?
I found what works for me and I think that it’s the same for everybody: you have to find something that works into your daily routine. For many years I had written as a hobby and I always preferred to write late at night. I’d take my dogs for a walk and be thinking about what I was going to write when I got back. When I’d get home, my boys would be in bed and I’d have a couple of hours to write without distractions. That has always worked for me and I find even now, I can always write better in the evening than the day.
When you’re creating new work, do you have a particular audience in mind?
Coming from the Channel Islands, I write a lot about the island, its people and its history. So, I suppose I’m writing with islanders in mind, but any small communities really. Being that much older and having parents who grew up during the war, I think it’s quite nice to describe things like ‘make do and mend’ and how they coped, because the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans in the war. This is something that followed my parents through to their adulthood, but I think it’s a way of life where no one borrowed money, people just made do with what they had. I try to bring that through into my fiction.
Do you see the role of humour as important in poetry?
Yes. For me, poetry has to have some form of humour in it. It comes quite naturally to me, sometimes unintentionally. I’ll often read back my poems and notice a slight humour there, which I’ll then go on to emphasise. I think it’s a correlation between my personal voice and my voice as a writer.
In terms of your own writing style, do you have a particular influence?
I have so many influences because I read a lot. Over the years my reading material has changed. From borrowing my mothers’ books of romances by Rosamunde Pilcher to the enforced reading you have to do at university, where I found having to read quite difficult to begin with. But I don’t regret any of the set texts because it introduces you to lots of styles, even if some of them are quite difficult. I don’t think anything is ever wasted.
As creative writers, we’re constantly seeking inspiration and using it in our pieces. Where do you find inspiration for your poems?
Definitely family. My mother has dementia and I think that’s where humour plays a role, as many strange situations can arise, which has inspired my poems. Also, island life and the going backwards and forwards between places. I think I needed to leave the Channel Islands to be able to write about it. It wasn’t until I left that I realised how unique it is to be from there. I’m also inspired by opera; I like the collaboration aspect between the singers, the costumes, the makeup, the sets, etc.
Where is your favourite place to write?
I have got a study at home and I’m very lucky to be surrounded by books, but I tend to write a lot in the kitchen because that’s where the dogs are and I can keep an eye on them. A very good place for me to write is to and from the Channel Islands. I go on the cross-channel ferry about once a month to visit my mum, and you have five and a half hours of uninterrupted writing time.
It’s interesting what you said about your study. I think there’s this idea of writers being locked away from the world and you’re challenging that.
Yes, I think one of the important things for writers is to have lots of other influences, keeping involved with community and family. I have known people to give up their jobs to focus solely on writing, but shutting themselves away in a room without any other interaction meant, unfortunately, their writing dried up as well.
Artists are often considered to have some hidden, otherworldly ability. Do you feel you were given a gift? Or is it all the product of hard work?
Bit of both, really. I’ve always been an ‘arty’ creative as well as a musical one, and the problem at school was I couldn’t do both. But you don’t have to choose one or the other, or go down a fixed line.
Do you feel like your musical flair meant that poetry came more naturally to you?
I think so, because going back to my late teens/early twenties, I had been in bands and written lyrics. And of course, lyrics are very close to poetry, which I did, in fact, pick back up for one of the BA modules.
Your poetry is beautifully concrete. I’m reminded of the Williams Carlos Williams quote ‘no ideas but in things’, are you aware of keeping things grounded in objects, when you write?
In 2012, I had to clear my aunt’s house. She didn’t have any children and I was her godchild. When you’re dismantling someone’s house and finding objects, it's a strange juxtaposition between knowing the person, but also not really knowing them at all. I remember when I was going through her cupboards, I cracked a huge mason jar she was using to make sloe gin and it flowed across the tile floor like blood. It’s in moments like that, during those sensory experiences, when the writer comes out.
What are your thoughts on the idea of ‘making it’ as a writer?
Just getting into print is enough. You can get work out there other than writing a novel, I’ve sent off articles, photographs with captions, entered countless competitions and read at open mic nights. The latter is how I actually came to be published by Dempsey and Windle. You have to pursue lots of avenues and eventually one of them will come to fruition.
Since your Vortex publication, what has your role been in the writing community?
As a mature student with kids in education, I would scroll through the free competitions and it’s a really good way to get your name out there. Even if you don’t win you’re often included in an anthology, so it’s another good way of getting into print. My current work in process is a collection of short stories that began as my MA dissertation.
Vortex as a publication is an incredible platform for student writers. What’s the most important thing you took away from the experience?
I would say confidence and perseverance. As well as actually applying for something: if you don’t put yourself forward, you can’t be included. It’s a brilliant thing to put down on your CV, as Vortex is such a big platform a recognisable name.
If a student is wanting to submit to Vortex but is apprehensive, what advice would you give them?
Draft, draft and draft again until it’s your very best work, then go for it!
View past editions of Vortex, including Wendy Falla’s poem, here.
On Monday 8th April at 7:30pm, the 2019 edition will be launched at Winchester Theatre Royal with 'Out of the Vortex': a special showcase of verse, story, music and song, as the very best of Vortex is brought to life on stage. #OUTOFTHEVORTEX.
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