Rae of Light

I wrote poetry long before I became embroiled in fiction. I was 12 and had just started school at St Barnabas College . My English teacher got us to create an anthology of favourite poems. I spent hours trawling through books in the local and school library. I'm talking here about the dark ages before the internet. At any rate, this first dip into poetry soaked the form into my bloodstream through my fingertips as I licked pages to turn them. I didn't always understand the poems but they stirred the embers of a certain something in me. A something my 12 year old self couldn't quite name but felt compelled to rake up into the steady flicker of a pilot flame. And so it began.  While other girls my age were writing in their diaries, I was filling a notebook with poems. Some of these I shared with my mother – my harshest critic. Others I kept to myself because, they voiced my teenage angst – you know, the kind only a teenager can possess. ...

                     Caroline Natzler Caroline Natzler is a poet and creative writing teacher. Her first book was a collection of autobiographically based short stories, Water Wings , published by Onlywomen Press. Her poetry collections are Speaking the Wetlands (Pikestaff Press), Design Fault (Flambard Press), Smart Dust (Grenadine Press) and Fold (Hearing Eye). She teaches at the City Lit in London and also runs small private classes.   At Last                                       I slip along the organised, brimming canals                         ...

While on a writing holiday in Skyros (2005), I made the conscious decision to leave teaching and become a full time writer. During this time I've attended a plethora of writing courses and have had the privilege to meet several fabulous poets. One of these , Caroline Natzler , has graciously agreed to be interviewed for my blog. I met Caroline about two years after my decision to take my writing more seriously when I joined a writing class at City Lit . The large group environment didn't suit me. So I signed up for Caroline's privately run small group sessions. Cover photograph: Nathan Vidler It is mainly due to the critique and support I found in these sessions that I completed my first novel, Six Dead Men and began sending it off to agents. I had little joy in this department but as many of you know I subsequently published it as an e-novel through Autharium . Now the sales of my book have not made me millions. But the sense of pride an...