Back in June 2017 I had a villanelle (the poem form, not the Killing Eve character) published in The Interpreter's House #65. I loved The Interpreter's House. Back then they published these beautiful little journals with gorgeous graphics, lovely formatting, and great poems, so I was really interested in 2018 when all changed in the House. The people, the website, the logo, even that beautiful format.
The Interpreter's House is now edited by Georgi Gill, assisted by Andrew Wells and it comes out three times a year as a freely accessible online magazine. You'll find it here. It is still beautiful, it still boasts gorgeous graphics, lovely formatting, and great poems, and now it's easier to access.
As well as editing The Interpreter's House, Georgi Gill is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, exploring poetry in dialogues about multiple sclerosis. Her chief areas of interest, according to her website are "the work of Ciaran Carson* and the im/possibility of language to construct and communicate identity."
Georgi's poems have been published in well respected publications. She is also a member of 12 - a group of poets based in Scotland, which I really wanted to know more about.
I got to meet up with Georgi on a wet day in Glasgow and we chatted for way longer than we'd realised. Below is some of the stuff we talked about (with my questions italicised).
You took over at The Interpreter's House when it was already well established. What was that experience like?
It was a phased takeover, to start off with I'd been published in a previous issue and had been asked to guest edit issue #63 with another poet, Carole Bromley. I then worked on the last couple of issues with Martin Malone and Charles Lauder, alongside Andrew. The magazine had a well established audience, but it also needed new readers. Shifting to being online brought many of the established readers as well as a new readership, more interested in experimental poetry (which accounts for many submissions we get). It's definitely strengthened the readership for more experimental work.
Martin and Charles did great work in running The Interpreter's House, and I am building on that great foundation, and maintaining the quality, but obviously things change, different editors have different tastes. Martin brought Andrew and I together to work on the magazine, and I enjoys working with Andrew, he brings a different perspective. Perhaps because we didn't initially know each other it was easy to be upfront about our tastes. Now we're coming up to our fourth issue together and have developed a friendship.
I'm also pleased that the editorial team is still evolving. Annie Rutherford, who works as programme coordinator for the StAnza poetry festival, as well as writing and translating (most recently the German poet, Nora Gomringer), and who previously edited Far Off Places, has recently joined the team as fiction editor. It's good to make changes to the team and bring in fresh ideas. Ultimately magazines shouldn't be about the editor, they should be about poets and poems.
Did people like the changes you made?
Most people have been very positive. Lots of people tell us they like the look and accessibility of the website, and it being free, and they give good feedback about the poems. Some people have of course mourned the beautiful print journal (which was produced by Shearsman), but we try to have a nurturing attitude, which submitters seem to appreciate, even if they're rejected. We try to create a supportive online community for contributors.
What do you enjoy about editing the magazine?
I love finding poems I wish I'd written! Really outstanding poems, poems that stay with you. It's exciting, and a real privilege.
And what sucks?
I knew this question was coming! I've settled on three points:
What makes an Interpreter's House poem?
We don't get many submissions of poems using traditional rhyme forms, mostly it's free verse and experimental. Issue 72 (due out in October) will include a hybrid poem using words and images, there are also prose poems and things that lie between poetry and prose. I'm looking for something fresh that surprises me, that stops me in my tracks, maybe doing something that hasn't been done before.
What does putting the magazine together look like? Does having it published online with the poems standing alone affect the order? I love Adrienne Wilkinson's poem 'as I look on the vastness of it' as the last poem in issue 71.
The Interpreter's House sometimes gets 1,000 poems submitted for an edition. Andrew and I split these up to read and we both draw up shortlists, which then get read by both of us and discussed via Skype to decide what's in.
As to order, Interpreter's House has always been alphabetical, so although Adrienne Wilkinson's poem in issue 71 was perfect for the end, that was just a happy accident!
You're a member of 12, a collection of women writers who, according to the StAnza website, write monthly poems in response to each other's writing. The collective includes some shiny stars of contemporary Scottish poetry like Marjorie Lofti Gill and JL Williams. Please tell me more about this because it sounds amazing!
A few years ago Sophia Yadong Hao, a curator at Dundee's Cooper Gallery put together an ambitious and exciting feminist art exhibition. [There's a great article about it here.] As part of this she approached JL Williams to ask her to curate a poetic response. JL Williams brought together twelve women to do this: The 12 collective. The initial sequence of poems the 12 collective wrote is included in a book on the exhibition - Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? Edited by Sophia Yadong Hao, and available to buy from the Cooper Gallery as well as bookshops.
The 12 collective is Tessa Berring, Anne Laure Coxam, Lynn Davidson [2019 book - Islander - available from Shearsman], Georgi Gill, Marjorie Lotfi Gill, Jane Goldman, , Jane McKie, Lila Matsumoto [2018 book - Urn and Drum - available from Shearsman], Theresa Muñoz, Em Strang [2019 book - Horse-Man - available from Shearsman], Alice Tarbuck, and JL Williams. Former members who've now left Scotland and so have been replaced are Rachel McCrum [2018 book - The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate - available from Stewed Rhubarb] and Karen Veitch.
Working as a collective was a great experience, really freeing, so after the exhibition we kept on going. Now each month someone takes a turn to write a first poem which everyone else takes inspiration from, riffing off each other's work. We work online, and have never all met at once (yet), but we do nurture each other, and everybody's work is interesting, fascinating, and inspiring.
Having 12 people in the collective means that we can participate in more events, even though everyone's busy, with small numbers representing the group and providing support for each other's work, which is a big deal.
Audre Lorde described poetry as laying "the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before" I love this because it seems to me that poetry might provide moments when we can pause and examine, getting ready to go forward. Tiny question - what do you think poetry might be for? [BTW this is a terribly huge question, which Georgi quite rightly laughed at, but she did give me a great answer].
I see poetry as a place where we can float possibilities. A poem doesn't have to have all the answers. It has space for ambiguity, for questioning, for feeling your way. Because poetry is a concentrated form, what you're saying is refined, with literal space around the words. This interplay of ambiguity, space, and concentration gives us space to reflect and respond, and so build bridges.
You're studying for a PhD at the moment, how's that going?
I have just started the second year of my PhD. I'm going through an NHS ethics review to explain why I'm doing poetry with people with MS, then I'm hoping to start recruitment of people like me, diagnosed with MS. I'll run workshops and write poems exploring experience, to be shared with the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Centre. I'm interested in how writing poems and sharing these with medics can alter communication, alter the language used, in an attempt to shift away from the biomedical model
Have you got any publications coming that we should look out for?
I'm terrible at sending stuff out! I just can't get organised and find the time. As part of 12 I've contributed to Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? I've also recently had two poems published in the Voice issue of The Arsonist Magazine from Burning House Press. Plus I'm currently writing an article for The Honest Ulsterman. And lastly, not a publication, but an audio-visual piece: I've recently collaborated with the composer, Isabel Benito-Gutierrez, and the visual artist, Elia Navarro on an experimental work, Dans les Noirceurs.
And who else would you recommend for us to read?
So many people! Everybody in 12. Also, I'm obsessed with Ciaran Carson's book 'For all we know'. He uses the tight traditional form of sonnets but pushes boundaries to tell a story in poem sequences.
Most of what I'm currently reading is what comes to The Interpreter's House, and we're publishing some really exciting poetry. Petra Kamula had a great poem in issue 69 - one of the poems I wish I'd written! Similarly, Mariah Whelan is in issue 71. Miriam is doing a PhD around literature and trauma and just started her own journal - Bath Magg - which should be interesting. And we've got some great stuff coming up in issue 72...
And would you please share one of your poems with us?
The Interpreter's House is now edited by Georgi Gill, assisted by Andrew Wells and it comes out three times a year as a freely accessible online magazine. You'll find it here. It is still beautiful, it still boasts gorgeous graphics, lovely formatting, and great poems, and now it's easier to access.
Georgi's poems have been published in well respected publications. She is also a member of 12 - a group of poets based in Scotland, which I really wanted to know more about.
I got to meet up with Georgi on a wet day in Glasgow and we chatted for way longer than we'd realised. Below is some of the stuff we talked about (with my questions italicised).
You took over at The Interpreter's House when it was already well established. What was that experience like?
It was a phased takeover, to start off with I'd been published in a previous issue and had been asked to guest edit issue #63 with another poet, Carole Bromley. I then worked on the last couple of issues with Martin Malone and Charles Lauder, alongside Andrew. The magazine had a well established audience, but it also needed new readers. Shifting to being online brought many of the established readers as well as a new readership, more interested in experimental poetry (which accounts for many submissions we get). It's definitely strengthened the readership for more experimental work.
Martin and Charles did great work in running The Interpreter's House, and I am building on that great foundation, and maintaining the quality, but obviously things change, different editors have different tastes. Martin brought Andrew and I together to work on the magazine, and I enjoys working with Andrew, he brings a different perspective. Perhaps because we didn't initially know each other it was easy to be upfront about our tastes. Now we're coming up to our fourth issue together and have developed a friendship.
I'm also pleased that the editorial team is still evolving. Annie Rutherford, who works as programme coordinator for the StAnza poetry festival, as well as writing and translating (most recently the German poet, Nora Gomringer), and who previously edited Far Off Places, has recently joined the team as fiction editor. It's good to make changes to the team and bring in fresh ideas. Ultimately magazines shouldn't be about the editor, they should be about poets and poems.
Did people like the changes you made?
Most people have been very positive. Lots of people tell us they like the look and accessibility of the website, and it being free, and they give good feedback about the poems. Some people have of course mourned the beautiful print journal (which was produced by Shearsman), but we try to have a nurturing attitude, which submitters seem to appreciate, even if they're rejected. We try to create a supportive online community for contributors.
What do you enjoy about editing the magazine?
I love finding poems I wish I'd written! Really outstanding poems, poems that stay with you. It's exciting, and a real privilege.
And what sucks?
I knew this question was coming! I've settled on three points:
- First, there's not enough time. Nobody can do everything, everybody has things that get in the way.
- Second, having to reject poems is hard, sometimes I have to reject excellent poems that just don't fit with the tone of the magazine, or that particular issue.
- Thirdly, and with reluctance, I've been surprised by a certain gender bias, which I'm sure is unwitting, and which comes from women as well as men assuming that the editor must be a man. It's a little frustrating to still get occasional emails addressed to Mr Gill a year into the role.
What makes an Interpreter's House poem? We don't get many submissions of poems using traditional rhyme forms, mostly it's free verse and experimental. Issue 72 (due out in October) will include a hybrid poem using words and images, there are also prose poems and things that lie between poetry and prose. I'm looking for something fresh that surprises me, that stops me in my tracks, maybe doing something that hasn't been done before.
What does putting the magazine together look like? Does having it published online with the poems standing alone affect the order? I love Adrienne Wilkinson's poem 'as I look on the vastness of it' as the last poem in issue 71.
The Interpreter's House sometimes gets 1,000 poems submitted for an edition. Andrew and I split these up to read and we both draw up shortlists, which then get read by both of us and discussed via Skype to decide what's in.
As to order, Interpreter's House has always been alphabetical, so although Adrienne Wilkinson's poem in issue 71 was perfect for the end, that was just a happy accident!
You're a member of 12, a collection of women writers who, according to the StAnza website, write monthly poems in response to each other's writing. The collective includes some shiny stars of contemporary Scottish poetry like Marjorie Lofti Gill and JL Williams. Please tell me more about this because it sounds amazing!
A few years ago Sophia Yadong Hao, a curator at Dundee's Cooper Gallery put together an ambitious and exciting feminist art exhibition. [There's a great article about it here.] As part of this she approached JL Williams to ask her to curate a poetic response. JL Williams brought together twelve women to do this: The 12 collective. The initial sequence of poems the 12 collective wrote is included in a book on the exhibition - Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? Edited by Sophia Yadong Hao, and available to buy from the Cooper Gallery as well as bookshops.
The 12 collective is Tessa Berring, Anne Laure Coxam, Lynn Davidson [2019 book - Islander - available from Shearsman], Georgi Gill, Marjorie Lotfi Gill, Jane Goldman, , Jane McKie, Lila Matsumoto [2018 book - Urn and Drum - available from Shearsman], Theresa Muñoz, Em Strang [2019 book - Horse-Man - available from Shearsman], Alice Tarbuck, and JL Williams. Former members who've now left Scotland and so have been replaced are Rachel McCrum [2018 book - The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate - available from Stewed Rhubarb] and Karen Veitch.
Working as a collective was a great experience, really freeing, so after the exhibition we kept on going. Now each month someone takes a turn to write a first poem which everyone else takes inspiration from, riffing off each other's work. We work online, and have never all met at once (yet), but we do nurture each other, and everybody's work is interesting, fascinating, and inspiring.
Having 12 people in the collective means that we can participate in more events, even though everyone's busy, with small numbers representing the group and providing support for each other's work, which is a big deal.
Audre Lorde described poetry as laying "the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before" I love this because it seems to me that poetry might provide moments when we can pause and examine, getting ready to go forward. Tiny question - what do you think poetry might be for? [BTW this is a terribly huge question, which Georgi quite rightly laughed at, but she did give me a great answer].
I see poetry as a place where we can float possibilities. A poem doesn't have to have all the answers. It has space for ambiguity, for questioning, for feeling your way. Because poetry is a concentrated form, what you're saying is refined, with literal space around the words. This interplay of ambiguity, space, and concentration gives us space to reflect and respond, and so build bridges.
You're studying for a PhD at the moment, how's that going?
I have just started the second year of my PhD. I'm going through an NHS ethics review to explain why I'm doing poetry with people with MS, then I'm hoping to start recruitment of people like me, diagnosed with MS. I'll run workshops and write poems exploring experience, to be shared with the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Centre. I'm interested in how writing poems and sharing these with medics can alter communication, alter the language used, in an attempt to shift away from the biomedical model
Have you got any publications coming that we should look out for?
I'm terrible at sending stuff out! I just can't get organised and find the time. As part of 12 I've contributed to Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? I've also recently had two poems published in the Voice issue of The Arsonist Magazine from Burning House Press. Plus I'm currently writing an article for The Honest Ulsterman. And lastly, not a publication, but an audio-visual piece: I've recently collaborated with the composer, Isabel Benito-Gutierrez, and the visual artist, Elia Navarro on an experimental work, Dans les Noirceurs.
And who else would you recommend for us to read?
So many people! Everybody in 12. Also, I'm obsessed with Ciaran Carson's book 'For all we know'. He uses the tight traditional form of sonnets but pushes boundaries to tell a story in poem sequences.
Most of what I'm currently reading is what comes to The Interpreter's House, and we're publishing some really exciting poetry. Petra Kamula had a great poem in issue 69 - one of the poems I wish I'd written! Similarly, Mariah Whelan is in issue 71. Miriam is doing a PhD around literature and trauma and just started her own journal - Bath Magg - which should be interesting. And we've got some great stuff coming up in issue 72...
And would you please share one of your poems with us?
Thank you so much to Georgi Gill for the insight she's given into editing The Interpreter's House and all the other stuff she's got going on. I want a 12 collective of my own, it sounds fantastic! It was lovely to meet Georgi, and I have sympathy for going through the NHS ethics procedure - in my former life I was a researcher and I know it can get interesting!
*Ciaran Carson sadly passed away on the day this post came out - 6th October 2019, as reported in the Belfast Telegraph.
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