In my twelfth interview for In the Booklight, I talk to Kate Garrett about her poetry pamphlet ‘The Density of Salt’ (Indigo Dreams Publishing)…

If I’m reading correctly, the pamphlet title is a quote from one of the poems, ‘Following the River Exe on a Wednesday Afternoon’, which has beautiful lines, including “This river remembers smugglers, | the density of salt” Could you say a little about the pamphlet as a whole and how it came to be fit together under the title ‘The Density of Salt ‘?

The pamphlet actually came together as a result of that line! I was reading through some poems when putting together journal submissions, when it struck me that part of the line would make an interesting title, and I had enough new poems to make another pamphlet. Thematically it seemed to make a lot of sense as well, with recurring imagery or motifs that relate back to salt – the sea crops up a bit, but there is also the stuff of physical human life: blood, tears, sweat, sex.

The Density of Salt’ directly references, among other things, Hans Christian Andersen and a selkie (‘A Selkie Seeks Truth on Fascination Street’). You also run the web journal ‘Three Drops from a Cauldron’, which publishes flash fiction and poetry involving myth, legend, folklore, fable and fairytale. What role do these elements have in your own poetry?

My favourite things as a child were fantasy films (spoilt for choice as an 80s kid), choose your own adventure books, Greek mythology, the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, and my grandpa’s storytelling. He would tell folktales of rural Tennessee and I used to believe every word – some of them I realise now in typical “urban legend” style, e.g. ‘My oldest brother and his friend went hunting’. Some of his stories were true, but the important thing was always the story. So the combination of all of those things led to a love of myth, folklore, storytelling, legends that I will never shake. Of course that was the driving force behind creating Three Drops. And with a lot of my own poetry, particularly in The Density of Salt, the poems are either taking a mythical subject and making it contemporary, more grounded in reality, or attempting to make a very real moment or situation into a more ethereal tale. For example ‘When I think about Hans Christian Andersen’ is about my struggle with PTSD. I had an abusive childhood, and at times I do feel compelled to write about how that sticks with me – but I don’t want to do it in a sentimental, overdone or clichéd way (because what writer would!). So in this example, rather than make my mother a specific fairytale villain, I reference a fairytale that doesn’t have an antagonist, and sort of make her into a new one. In ‘Kitten’, the mother is a larger-than-life goddess-form, but the speaker, the abused child, is something of a shapeshifter. It’s much better than an angry rant about cruelty to children or how miserable I feel. By extension the myth/folklore elements end up flavouring most of what I write.

There are many poems in the pamphlet that feature strong female characters, these persona often with striking voices that ‘tell it how it is’. Would you say that there’s a deliberate feminist angle to some of your work, and is this something that you feel is an essential characteristic to your poetry, or one of many other roles, aspects and aspirations you have in mind during the writing process?

I’m not sure the feminist thing is intentional. I would definitely say I am a feminist, and the strong female voices are deliberate. However, when someone says ‘feminist poetry’ I think of icons like Adrienne Rich or Audre Lorde, or in a contemporary sense I think of Hollie McNish, or my local Sheffield-scene poet friends Sez Thomasin and Carol Eades, or Marina Poppa from A Firm of Poets – writers and performers who have a clear message. My messages, such as they are, are there for interpretation by the reader. It might be difficult for them to be interpreted as anything but feminist, but even so, they aren’t openly political or anything. My main aspirations as a writer are to tell interesting stories and hope readers feel something. But because I am a feminist, as well as a wife, a mother, an abuse survivor, someone with ptsd/anxiety/depression, a person on the autistic spectrum, bisexual, American-born but moved to Britain in my late teens – so many things make up our identities, they are bound to come out in various ways when we write.

Which character or poem in the pamphlet is most important to you, and why?

Well. It’s ‘Nest’, if I’m honest. A lot of the poems are important to me, but ‘Nest’ is a sweet little poem I wrote for my husband after we’d been together a few months. I knew I was in love with him, he was in love with me, we’d openly talked about where our relationship was going, but it was hard to get across just how much he’d opened my heart. My love poems for Rob – despite being the happiest love poems I’ve ever written – are nonetheless usually tinged with worry, because in dark moments (from which so much writing comes) I find it tricky to accept how good things are in that respect. But ‘Nest’ has a air of awe blended with triumph. I read it out at our wedding reception. People who don’t even care about poetry cried. That’s always a mark of success.

Outside of myth, fairytale and folklore what subjects, people or landscapes inspire you most?

Landscapes – the city, woods/forests, the sea, rivers. Music moves me as well. People in general are interesting, they don’t have to be my own family, friends, etc. I find relationships with others intriguing, sexual/romantic or otherwise, just the way people interact. History. Anything with a story, or an event, however subtle. Strange connections. I’m working on my next pamphlet, which is a lot more grounded in gritty realism, but there’s still an edge of the odd or unsettling to the poems.

What aspects of writing and influence haven’t I asked about that ‘The Density of Salt’ really wants to talk about?

Journeys, whether literal or metaphorical. The poems in The Density of Salt contain a lot of movement, and that was intentional.

Where can people get hold of a copy of ‘The Density of Salt’?

It is available from Indigo Dreams Publishing: http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/kate-garrett/4591581784, or contact me via my Facebook page (facebook.com/butterflypausing) for instructions to purchase a signed copy.

Thank you, Kate, for talking to us about fairytale, landscape and more in your fabulous pamphlet.

To read more In the Booklight interviews with authors, please click on this link.