Anna Forsyth is first and foremost a publisher of some of the most relevant poetry out there today. Occhi dug a little deeper and learned that Anna is also a poet in her own right as well as an artist, and, under another alias altogether, a musician whose work you will want to hear!
Please tell Occhi readers about Girls on Key.
Girls on Key is a feminist poetry organization I established in 2014, focused on creating opportunities for women and gender diverse poets to publish and perform their work and to contribute to wider conversations around inclusion while amplifying women’s voices.
You have been hailed by poets you’ve published as being a magician when it comes to editing their work. Given that poetry can have layers of meaning, how difficult is the editing process?
I approach editing poetry as a first reader, working to ensure that the work echoes the intentions of the poet. I view poetry as an art form and as such, I try to work with the framework that the poet has chosen. We polish as we go, looking at things like line breaks and how they can lend themselves to ambiguity and those lovely enjambment double meanings where desired. The difficult part is building a strong rapport with the poet, where I have their trust in order to ask questions of the work to get to the bottom of their intentions. I always approach it as a two-way conversation. The only time I edit from the top down is when I’m applying house styles that I want to look a certain way to fit in with our publication brand. For example, the Girls on Key house style eliminates and at the beginning of a line and punctuation at the end of the line.
In these times when authors are expected to promote their own titles, you’ve gained a reputation as someone who goes all in to promote her authors. What do you look for in the poets you publish? How do you go about promoting their work?
I look for poets who are wanting to enhance the audience they have already built up by doing readings and promoting their work online. We use every online tool at our disposal, and something unique that we do is to create a video book trailer for each book and also sell their work through our dedicated online bookstore, the Poetry Portal Bookshop. It can be a bit confusing but the Poetry Portal (see the link below) is an event series centered around showing poetry films and it is also the name of our online bookshop.
Many readers turn to poets for answers, or at least for alternative ways to think about the questions. Do you believe today’s poetry is prepared to answer this call? Can you name some of the poets we should be reading?
The definition of poetry has expanded in recent times and I truly believe now offers something for every palate. Whether you like work that is focused on performance, such as slam poetry, or more traditional forms, there is a plethora of styles out there. As with any art form, there are popular styles emerging, such as the confessional deadpan style, and there are still many artists who are stretching the form through experimentation and abstraction, such as ReVerse Butcher, who uses erasure and visual art in her work, creating an artist book called On The Rod, a feminist reworking of On The Road by Jack Kerouac.
Personally, I get excited about the Pasifika voices coming out of New Zealand. Some noteworthy poets include Courtney Sina Meredith, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Maori Mermaid, Tusiata Avia, Serie Barford, and Tayi Tibble, to name a few.
In terms of the poet responding to society turning to poets for answers in challenging times, I think there are many contemporary expressions of poetry around now that approach issues through a multitude of lenses. This could be the proliferation of trans poets, who we support through our initiatives, exploring gender and sexuality, to people like Anne Elvey of Plumwood Mountain focusing on ecological issues. The beauty of the scene currently is that you see how different cultures approach these issues, and we have moved away from the white male academic as the fount of all poetic knowledge. What you have now is a more diverse and accessible cannon emerging, offering a wider range of viewpoints on issues of modern life.
Because of the coronavirus, you’ve been forced to hold back on the poetry books you intended to publish this Spring. Can you tell us a bit about these books and their authors so we can keep an eye out for them when they launch?
We have seven books out this year. Three poets had their launches postponed because of the coronavirus: Witted and Whispered, by Page Maitland’s: “A beguiling first collection, in which the poet’s witty decoys contain the hint of a more confessional whisper.” Intermittent Angels, by Jan Dean: “…witty, poignant, gloriously visual and daringly original. Even if the angels are only ‘intermittent,’ this is a wondrous account of an intensely experienced earth-bound life.” The Second Person, by Jocelyn Deane: “Whether schlocking apples under a duvet or naming dinosaur bones, these poems approach each body – of the poet, of strangers, animals, and objects, and of language – with simultaneous care, curiosity, and reckless abandon…”
Please tell us about your association with refugee organizations.
We link in with refugee charities, namely Writing Through Fences, for our event series. We always host a charity raffle as part of our events with proceeds going to them, along with one-off donations from time to time.
In addition to the work you do on behalf of the poets you publish, you are yourself a poet and a writer of stories. Have considerations of time and energy forced you to cut back on your own writing projects in order to be able to publish others? Or does your work with others in some sense stimulate your own work?
To be honest, I prefer producing for others to writing myself. Being an editor by trade, I just love the stimulation of discussing art and writing with like-minded people. I’m currently looking at different ways to build discipline into my own writing practice, with a view to creating my third book of poetry, The Unknown Great, through Flying Islands Books in 2021 hopefully! That said, I am exposed to many different writers and different approaches through people sending me work, so I’m able to build a memory bank of what I like and dislike. On the flip side, it can make one a bit jaded at times going to lots of readings, and having breaks to work on different side projects like music, art, and photography helps me to remain enthusiastic.
Tell us about your musical journey and the art that you do.
I had a band in NZ several years ago called Anna Kaye and the Engineers and we made an EP called Little Bonfire. It’s an indie-folk style record with a stop motion animation music video. I used to play a lot on the open mic circuit in NZ and I still dabble from time to time, but music has taken a back seat. I have an album, Life and Limbo, hiding in the background for a future time and I’d love to collaborate with classical and jazz musicians in the future. I now go by the name of Grace Pageant. In my spare time, I also like to dabble in drawing and taking photos, to take a break from the written word. I have a series of sketches of musicians and conductors I’m working on, just for fun. Here are a few music links.
Link to Little Bonfire: https://gracepageantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases
Girl with No Bones:
Where can readers learn more Girls on Key?
https://www.girlsonkey.com/poetryportalshop
All the books mentioned are available via the Poetry Portal Bookshop:
https://www.girlsonkey.com/poetryportalshop/Girls-on-Key-Press-c33125011
or @girlsonkey on all major social media platforms.
We have a youtube channel with a wide range of resources and readings
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFodB49WWzaDHW-MQT_1sqw
Featured images: Publications Witted and Whispered ( by Page Maitland) Intermittent Angels ( by Jan Dean) & The Second Person ( by Jocelyn Deane)
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