12 or 20 (second series) questions with Allie Duff
Allie Duff is a multidisciplinary artist from St.John’s, NL whose writing has been published in various Canadian literarymagazines. Allie also performs stand-up comedy and was featured on 2023’s JustFor Laughs album Stand-Up Atlantic: The Icicle Bicycle. Her first bookof poetry — I Dreamed I Was an Afterthought — appeared May 1, 2024 withGuernica Editions.
1 - How did your first book change yourlife? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feeldifferent?
Publishing a book was a goal that I had from a veryyoung age. Now that I’ve accomplished that goal, I have no idea what to donext! The logical thing would be to publish another book, I suppose…
2 - How did you come to poetry first, asopposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
My friend told me a story about how, when they were akid, their sisters would always read their diary. In an attempt to concealsecrets they started writing their diary entries in ‘code.’ Their theory wasthat this led to writing poetry. This rang true to me as well – I also wrote ina secret ‘code’ in my early diary entries.
Also my dad is a musician so I was always surroundedby lyrics and cadence.
3 - How long does it take to start anyparticular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is ita slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, ordoes your work come out of copious notes?
It’s so slow. I do a lot of research and take a lotof notes. I walk around the city a lot, probably talking to myself withoutrealizing it. I also have countless unfinished projects, thanks to my ADHD.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin foryou? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a largerproject, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
Usually it’s a mix of both. There are plenty of poemsthat come to me as single pieces and they don’t belong to a larger work. Forprojects with a particular theme, though, I’ll end up writing a bunch of poemsthat are part of a whole (and sometimes short pieces end up melding into longpoems.)
5 - Are public readings part of orcounter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doingreadings?
I think public readings are great. There’s nothingquite like reading a poem aloud to figure out what is and isn’t working in thepiece. Being on stage is also fun for me.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concernsbehind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with yourwork? What do you even think the current questions are?
Apparently my writing is very millennial, which Ifeel is unavoidable because that’s my generation. I’m always trying to fightthe despair of living a dystopic late-capitalist life.
7 – What do you see the current role ofthe writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you thinkthe role of the writer should be?
I think right now writers play a role in keepingpeople’s empathy alive. We’re all so overwhelmed with info from social media –there’s so much content that it’s easy to burn out and tune out.
A poem that went viral on social media recently,called “there’s laundry to do and a genocide to stop” by Vinay Krishnan, is evidence, Ithink, that poets are still influential. Maybe we’ve got to go viral to beheard, but poetry certainly isn’t dead, and it has some of the greatest abilityto move people and spread awareness.
8 - Do you find the process of workingwith an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Before I sent my manuscript to publishers, I asked myeditor friend David Pitt to look over the poems for me. It was incrediblyhelpful! Then with Guernica I got to work with their First Poet’s Serieseditor, Elana Wolff; I can’t thank her enough for her careful eye and generalpoetic wisdom.
9 - What is the best piece of adviceyou've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Get used to rejection. I started sending poems toliterary magazines right after high school, and I had no idea back then howmany times (countless times, even) that I’d be rejected before I’d startgetting accepted more regularly. I’m not a very prolific writer, so I onlysubmit maybe 5 or 6 times a year. Essentially that means I might go a wholeyear without publishing anything. So yeah, don’t let rejection bother you.
This advice is also applicable to people over 30 ondating apps…
10 - How easy has it been for you to movebetween genres (poetry to music to stand-up)? What do you see as the appeal?
The biggest difficulty is trying to dedicate enoughtime to each craft (there’s never enough time). I find it hard to set onediscipline aside so that I can focus on the others. If I do, I end up feelingguilty. Music has fallen to the side lately, but stand-up comedy is thankfullymore of a hobby so I perform whenever it feels like it’ll be fun.
And being multidisciplinary gives so much space forexperimentation. Sometimes I sneak jokes from my comedy set into my poems (andvice versa). A lot of my songs started as poems.
11 - What kind of writing routine do youtend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I have no routines! I’ve tried every possibletechnique to build some kind of habit around writing, but thanks to my ADHDnothing ever sticks. So I gave up on routine and decided to write whenever Ifeel like it. That might mean once a week, multiple times a day, or even aslittle as once a month. It’s sort of terrifying to accept that I’m unable tokeep a level of productivity that is seen as acceptable – I’ve spent yearsdealing with deep anxiety that I’m not productive or disciplined enough(thanks, capitalism).
After getting my diagnosis I spent a lot of timeresearching how to be productive with ADHD, but then I realized that all ofthose methods were counterintuitive to my natural creative style. I could keepexpending copious amounts of energy trying to be (neurotypically) productiveand STILL not develop ‘healthy’ habits. Instead, I decided to surrender to thechaos and see what happens.
12 - When your writing gets stalled,where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Getting out into the world is the best inspirationfor me. I close the laptop, close the books, and go to a music show, hang outwith friends, or go for a walk. I have a poet friend who operates the same wayand we have a theory that there are ‘reader’ poets and there are ‘experience’poets. In other words there are people who gain more inspiration from sittingand researching and imagining, and there are those of us who have to go out andexperience things and get inspired to copy down (or exaggerate) what weperceive. I’m sure most writers are a mix of the two types, but I tend toreally need to get out of my own head regularly.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Cigarette smoke, lol.
14 - David W. McFadden once said thatbooks come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work,whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Music influences my work quite a bit. Or, at least,listening to music can really help get the writing going. I tend to visualisescenes while listening to music. When I was a kid I always made up music videosto my favourite songs. That turned into imagining stories, poems, etc.
Science is also a pretty neat way to get inspired.One of the first songs I ever wrote was about the law of falling bodies.
15 - What other writers or writings areimportant for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Anne Carson is one of my favourites. I return to herwork quite a bit.
Any and all writing is important to me, though.Sometimes I read a news article and end up writing a poem about it. Or I mightobsess over a comic book as a way to chill out after too much intellectualwork.
16 - What would you like to do that youhaven't yet done?
In writing? I wanna write a novel and a full-lengthscreenplay.
17 - If you could pick any otheroccupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think youwould have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Recently I’ve been working on my career in the filmindustry. I think this is a common story for writers: we supplement our incomethrough various other jobs. Vocationally, writing always calls me back, though.It’s also nice that music and comedy scratch my ‘writing itch’ when I’m notactively working on poetry.
And I think the next occupation I’ll attempt will besomething in the social work or psychology realm.
18 - What made you write, as opposed todoing something else?
In school, people always told me I was good atwriting, and teachers encouraged me. Ironically, people also loved to tell menot to pursue writing as a career since “you can’t make money doing that!” Evencab drivers, upon hearing that I was studying English in university, would say,“So you’re going to be an English teacher?” and when I would answer, “No, awriter,” they would laugh at me.
This friction between what I was good at and what Iwas ‘expected’ to do for money was frustrating but also made me very stubbornabout accomplishing my writing goals.
19 - What was the last great book youread? What was the last great film?
I read No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz and itwas kinda life-changing.
And I’ve watched a lot of great films recently soit’s hard to choose. I think Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells) is amasterpiece, though; I was messed up for a whole week after watching it.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I’m writing a manuscript of poems aboutchildfree women. It’s sort of transforming into a book about nonconformity andcognitive dissonance. I’m letting the poems take me where they wanna go…
