12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jennifer May Newhook
Jennifer May Newhook’s firstpublished short story was longlisted for the Writer’s Trust Journey Prize, andmost recently her first novel, The Gulch, was longlisted for the NLCUFresh Fish Award for Best Unpublished First Manuscript. Jennifer published herfirst poem at seventeen and in the years since has received recognition for herwork in this genre by the Atlantic Writing Competition, the Newfoundland andLabrador Arts and Letters Awards, the Gregory J. Power Poetry Award, and theRiddle Fence Poetry Prize. Her poetry and short stories have been anthologizedand published nationally and internationally in literary journals and magazinesincluding Riddle Fence, The Newfoundland Quarterly, and The PottersfieldPortfolio. She took an extended hiatus from writing to raise small children andhas now risen blinking from the rubble, eager to embrace her status as a debutauthor. Jennifer’s first full-length poetry collection, Last Hours, was published by Riddle Fence in Spring 2024. Jennifer works as a writer andeditor in downtown St. John’s, Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) where she lives with herpartner, three teens, one tween, and two cats. She can be found on social mediaunder the handles @Jennifer May Newhook (Facebook) and @jennymayrunaway(Instagram).
1 - How did your first book change your life? Howdoes your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feeldifferent?
Well, Last Hours is only a few days old, soI can’t say that much has changed, yet! I would say that my most recent work,in terms of poetry, is definitely looser than my early stuff.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposedto, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I published my first piece of writing when I wasseventeen; it was a poem. That first publication certainly gave me themotivation to pursue poetry. I had a book when I was quite young—a collectionof writing by children that contained all kinds of funny and thoughtful verse—thatmade the idea of writing poetry and having it appear in a book or magazinequite real for me, very early on. I was always a voracious reader of fictionand certainly wrote lots of that as well, but in terms of completing a piece,poetry definitely seemed more realistic and achievable.
3 - How long does it take to start any particularwriting project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slowprocess? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or doesyour work come out of copious notes?
I subscribe to the “clock of the long now” schoolof creative thought! I need to ruminate and mull on things a great deal beforethe various strata of whatever I am working on are revealed to me. I do tend toproduce rough first drafts quite quickly when I am inspired, but they aremessy. I am not a note taker or planner. Part of the joy of writing for me is theelement of surprise—I love surprising myself!
4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usuallybegin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into alarger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
A poem for me almost invariably starts in a flash:a moment where a number of feelings and thoughts and images suddenly coalesceinto “a thing.” For the most part, I would have to say that my poetry generallygets whittled into something smaller and more defined from a larger amorphousmass. There are exceptions: one of the longest poems in Last Hours,“Atwood Machine,” came from a very emotional place that I greatly expanded onwith some research, and there are a couple of others in there like that aswell. My first novel, The Gulch, came from a series of short storiesthat I just couldn’t seem to stop writing.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to yourcreative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love going to public readings but am less a fanof doing them. I read my own work out loud to myself all the time, though!
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behindyour writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work?What do you even think the current questions are?
I have a very dark bent. I see the shadows ineverything and in all my work (poetry, short fiction, long-form narrative) I amdefinitely trying to see into that grey space. What’s in there? How does itaffect us? How do we affect it? In terms of technical concerns, I do strugglewith the parameters of genre writing, in particular. It is a difficult balanceto produce original work that still adheres to the word counts and plot movementsthat publishers and agents are looking for. Mostly, I want to write what excitesme. If I am laughing diabolically at my desk, I feel that is a good sign.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writerbeing in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role ofthe writer should be?
Oh my gosh. Well, the writer provides the seeds forall kinds of invention and creation. The writer is out there describing thingsand experiences from a very specific viewpoint that is so personal andtherefore always novel, and the hope is (as a reader as well as from a writerlyperspective) that a chime of understanding and emotional growth can come fromthat, that will connect us as a society. I do know that the role of writershould NOT be to simply provide data for machine learning.
8 - Do you find the process of working with anoutside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I love working with an editor! It is so easy to getburied in your own work. A good editor can really help you see what’s going onin there and pull the guts of the work out to examine it. Between the two ofyou, it should go back together more neatly meshed, greased up, and ready torun smoothly. I work as an editor myself, so it has really been illuminating tosee and experience both sides of that process. My skin is pretty thick when itcomes to receiving editorial advice, but I am very tender hearted when it comesto delivering that advice to someone else!
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard(not necessarily given to you directly)?
Well, the first piece of advice that Ireceived at large—and actually attempted to follow—was to write daily. Youlearn so much about your own process, and it’s good to maximize yourproductivity once you understand what the best writing times are for you … butit’s not always possible. That’s an ideal situation to aspire to.
The best piece of advice I’ve received recentlycame from the editor of this collection, poet, and novelist Sue Goyette.When we first met virtually, I was nervous about what was expected of me. Shesaid: “Your orders are to prepare to do the work. Get yourself in the rightheadspace. Spend some time clearing your mind.” I don’t think anybody had evergiven me permission to do that before! To just take some walks, dabble inreading, relax, and ponder. Very helpful advice.
And my own advice is: Keep those scraps! Every bitof writing that actually makes it onto paper or into the screen has some value.You wrote it down for a reason! Last Hours was very much conjured fromliteral scraps of paper, accumulated during a hectic time of raising youngchildren. I tried so hard to “write,” but the time just wasn’t there. Thosescraps and fragments ended up holding so much beauty and meaning, and I feelvery proud that I fought to get them recorded, whatever way I could—I thinkthere were even some words written in eyeliner on a band aid wrapper!
10 - How easy has it been for you to move betweengenres (poetry to form narrative fiction to dramatic script)? What do you seeas the appeal?
I find artistic genres to be quite fluid and mutuallyinformative. One of my favorite projects I’ve worked on was writing a shortfilm script based solely on an already-composed musical score. I would love tosee that script animated some day! For me, poetry is the ultimate doorway toall writing. The way I think when I am writing poetry is simultaneouslyexpansive and extremely focused. It benefits my short fiction and my long-formnarrative. Whenever I get stuck, I return to poetry. I feel like if I can’twrite poetry, I can’t write anything!
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend tokeep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Unless I am lucky enough to having funding for aspecific project, my workday is usually spent trying to balance my paid workwith my current writing projects, which at the moment are a collection ofspeculative short fiction and a new novel. I have a twenty-year-old, two teens,and tween who need transporting to school every morning, so by the time allthat is done, it’s usually 9:30 or 10 a.m. If I’m really organized, I’ll do abit of housework, go for my walk, and aim to be sitting at my desk by 11 a.m.,where I’ll usually work until 2:30 or so when my youngest gets out ofelementary school. If they have after school plans, I might head back to thestudio and continue working until supper time. I have had periods of time whereI was motivated enough to get up early and get an hour or two in before morningroutines start at 7:30 a.m., but that is not the norm for me.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do youturn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Well, during a time when I was fortunate to receivefunding to pursue a project as well as a daily writing practice, I learned veryquickly that my episodes of writer’s block—which used to frustrate me terriblyand scare me away from my desk for weeks—actually only last a few days. If I’mreally stuck, I’ll head out to the vegetable garden behind my studio and dosome garden work. If my mind drifts in the right way while I’m occupied by aphysical task, often the solution will just present itself! A walk willsometimes create the same opportunity. And moving into the headspace to writepoems and getting some of that type of writing on the page will often unlock anarrative block for me.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
In the larger sense of “home,” as in my region ofthe world, I would have to say wild rose, spruce forest, salt water, and wetbog. As in “my own personal home,” I would say wood smoke, cooking, and bathproducts. I take a lot of baths!
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books comefrom books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whethernature, music, science or visual art?
Well, obviously dreams. Dream imagery sneaks itsway into almost all of my projects. Research of any type can certainly send meoff on different tangents and will inform my work, whether I intend it to ornot. My short fiction skews toward the speculative, so science and politicsoften sneak in there. I’ve also written several ekphrastic poems based onvisual art by David Blackwood and John Hartman—one of those, a series called“After Viewing” actually won some component of the Atlantic Poetry Prize azillion years ago.
15 - What other writers or writings are importantfor your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I am very much an omnivorous consumer of writing—Iam intrigued by anything that can sweep me away regardless of genre, subjectmatter, story structure, or expertise. I am definitely drawn by the dark side,so I do enjoy contemporary horror and ghost stories. I am just finishing up myfirst novel, The Gulch, which is a ghost story and definitely horroradjacent, so I am always on the look out for the creep factor. I’m not intoguts and gore at all, but I live for ideas, images, and experiences that reallyraise the hairs on the back of my neck. If I’m writing prose, I’ll oftengravitate towards short stories and literary fiction. If I’m looking to justtap out and relax, my go to is always historical fiction—I love Tudor-era andmedieval settings.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yetdone?
I would love to take a family vacation somewherewarm in the dead of winter. For our twentieth anniversary my husband and I tooka “honeymoon” in Montreal this past year—it was the first time we had ever beenon a plane together! I would love to expand on that sometime with a trip to theMediterranean with him.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation toattempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would haveended up doing had you not been a writer?
I have always joked that I didn’t care what I gotpaid to do and that I’d be happy to get paid to sort colored pieces of string.Then I started working as an editor, and I realized … that kind of is myjob now—except with words! Whether or not I pursued writing, I would have endedup somewhere in the literary world for sure. I’ve spent many an hour working inindependent bookstores which is a fabulous gig, except the pay is absoluteshite.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doingsomething else?
I couldn’t not do it. According to my mother, myfirst word was “book,” and I’ve been obsessed with writing and reading myentire life.
19 - What was the last great book you read? Whatwas the last great film?
I really enjoyed Motherthing by AinslieHogarth and Lindsay Wong’s book of short stories, Tell Me Pleasant ThingsAbout Immortality. They were both off the hook in completely differentways, which is something I aspire to!
20 - What are you currently working on?
Many things that I liken to pushing a boulder up ahill are coming to pass—myself and my partner are entering the end stages of amassive home renovation that has taken place over the past decade on ashoestring budget, engineered with blood, sweat, and tears. All four kids arenow in the double digits and require less hands-on daily care—one of them evenhas a driver’s license, which has been great. I’ve just released my firstpoetry collection, Last Hours. I am finishing the final draft of myfirst novel, The Gulch and hopefully finding a home for that manuscript,as well. I am gathering the internal fortitude to begin my second novel,Maggot Beach, which I am in the process of researching. It is partially inspiredby the journals and writings of my great aunt who was hearing impaired andspent a great deal of time unjustly incarcerated in psychiatric institutions. Iam eager to dig into that project, but I think I need to recharge a bit—Ishould probably take a minute and clean my house!
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