EREMITE CONVERSATIONS : A THEME DOES NOT RESTRICT CREATIVITY — JOSHUA EFFIONG
Joshua Effiong, 2022 Starlit Award Winner (Poetry), in conversation with our Interview Editor explores his writing process, literary rejections and motivations in matters of craft.
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FLOURISH JOSHUA: How do you approach a poem?
JOSHUA EFFIONG: My approach to a poem I'd say is in two phases, as a writer and as a reader. As a writer, many times I ensure that a line or two in a poem carry the essence of what I'm writing about. Just like a topic sentence suggests the main idea of a paragraph. Then as a reader, I aim not at understanding the whole poem because I'm not the writer, I would always separate every line of the poem, looking out for that “topic sentence” in it. A good poem for me is that which when shredded, its main purpose can be identified. If you've read my poems, you'd have noticed how I employed rhetorical questions to push home my points.
FJ: How do you know when a poem is ready to be submitted for publication?
JE: It is only in rare cases that a poem is really “finished,” I mean it has been completely looked at from different angles and it seems you can't add anything. Recently, I read my poem that got published somewhere last year and discovered that I should have added something to a certain line. Personally, after I'm done with writing a poem, I send them to a couple of friends or my writing family, The Frontiers Collective, these persons look at my poems from different angles. It is necessary to always have a third or fourth or fifth eye look at your work. After all these inputs, I'll look at my work over again. I might give it a day or two before sending it out or I'll send it out immediately, it depends on my mood. But patience is very necessary.
FJ: How do you handle rejections?
JE: Haha. One can never get accustomed to rejections, really. When I get a streak of rejection mails I distract myself with creating digital art. Other times, when I've anticipated a response and it comes back negative I will always tell someone, anyone close to me. This outpouring helps to lighten the weight of rejections.
JOSHUA EFFIONG: My approach to a poem I'd say is in two phases, as a writer and as a reader. As a writer, many times I ensure that a line or two in a poem carry the essence of what I'm writing about. Just like a topic sentence suggests the main idea of a paragraph. Then as a reader, I aim not at understanding the whole poem because I'm not the writer, I would always separate every line of the poem, looking out for that “topic sentence” in it. A good poem for me is that which when shredded, its main purpose can be identified. If you've read my poems, you'd have noticed how I employed rhetorical questions to push home my points.
FJ: How do you know when a poem is ready to be submitted for publication?
JE: It is only in rare cases that a poem is really “finished,” I mean it has been completely looked at from different angles and it seems you can't add anything. Recently, I read my poem that got published somewhere last year and discovered that I should have added something to a certain line. Personally, after I'm done with writing a poem, I send them to a couple of friends or my writing family, The Frontiers Collective, these persons look at my poems from different angles. It is necessary to always have a third or fourth or fifth eye look at your work. After all these inputs, I'll look at my work over again. I might give it a day or two before sending it out or I'll send it out immediately, it depends on my mood. But patience is very necessary.
FJ: How do you handle rejections?
JE: Haha. One can never get accustomed to rejections, really. When I get a streak of rejection mails I distract myself with creating digital art. Other times, when I've anticipated a response and it comes back negative I will always tell someone, anyone close to me. This outpouring helps to lighten the weight of rejections.
A good poem for me is that which
when shredded, its main purpose
can be identified...
FJ: When did you know that you wanted to do poetry and what you wanted to do with poetry?
JE: It all started in 2019, before now I'd been writing series of stories and posting them Facebook. Presently, I cringe when I stumble or them or it comes up as an on-this-day memories. I took to poetry after I couldn't find the best words in prose to express my thoughts and emotions. I had a lot on my mind and I needed a medium to vent, to pour out, and poetry gave me home. It's been almost five years now, I’ve been intentionally about my growth in poetry and once in a while I remember the main purpose why I took up poetry as a language. The publications are/should be a testament to this.
FJ: How long did it take to write your Aster Lit winning poems? What are the poems' writing process?
JE: [Laughs] After their winter 2021 edition, I had kept track on the contest, waiting patiently for the theme. Personally, I do find it a little difficult to write for theme-related contests. But, if I needed to grow I had to do this, too. The theme was “florescence” but I read it as “fluorescence” I can't tell what happened to me. I can't remember how long it took me to write both poems but I know it wasn't up to a week. One thing was certain, inasmuch as I was writing for this contest, I already had a story to tell which I needed to do it with all sincerity. If you read the first poem, Genesis, this is what happens in our family devotion every morning. The second, Self-portrait as Celestial Bodies was an infusion of a personal experience and someone's. Throughout the process, I was writing tailoring my poems to portray “light” while maintaining its originality. It was a month or so after I'd made the submission that I checked the website to see that the theme was about “bloom, flowering.” To be very honest, I was a bit skeptical about my chance of not only getting accepted but also winning my category, so I texted Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arolowo because I needed some sort of reassurance and he talked about the similarities in both themes, that it is more about the message carried by the poem. Fast forward to when the issue was published, I came online to see members of the Frontiers Collectives’ share it already in the collective and on their statuses. And yes, I was very happy. In all, I feel a theme somehow doesn't restrict one's creative ideas.
FJ: Do you have a favourite quote (it could be from a poem, novel, essay, even a movie)?”
JE: I don't think I do. I may stumble on a certain quote and like it, masticate it, but I don't have any favourite.
FJ: What question do you wish I had asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JE: Well, I can't place a finger on anything now. I love how the conversation stretched into what we've got now.
JE: It all started in 2019, before now I'd been writing series of stories and posting them Facebook. Presently, I cringe when I stumble or them or it comes up as an on-this-day memories. I took to poetry after I couldn't find the best words in prose to express my thoughts and emotions. I had a lot on my mind and I needed a medium to vent, to pour out, and poetry gave me home. It's been almost five years now, I’ve been intentionally about my growth in poetry and once in a while I remember the main purpose why I took up poetry as a language. The publications are/should be a testament to this.
FJ: How long did it take to write your Aster Lit winning poems? What are the poems' writing process?
JE: [Laughs] After their winter 2021 edition, I had kept track on the contest, waiting patiently for the theme. Personally, I do find it a little difficult to write for theme-related contests. But, if I needed to grow I had to do this, too. The theme was “florescence” but I read it as “fluorescence” I can't tell what happened to me. I can't remember how long it took me to write both poems but I know it wasn't up to a week. One thing was certain, inasmuch as I was writing for this contest, I already had a story to tell which I needed to do it with all sincerity. If you read the first poem, Genesis, this is what happens in our family devotion every morning. The second, Self-portrait as Celestial Bodies was an infusion of a personal experience and someone's. Throughout the process, I was writing tailoring my poems to portray “light” while maintaining its originality. It was a month or so after I'd made the submission that I checked the website to see that the theme was about “bloom, flowering.” To be very honest, I was a bit skeptical about my chance of not only getting accepted but also winning my category, so I texted Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arolowo because I needed some sort of reassurance and he talked about the similarities in both themes, that it is more about the message carried by the poem. Fast forward to when the issue was published, I came online to see members of the Frontiers Collectives’ share it already in the collective and on their statuses. And yes, I was very happy. In all, I feel a theme somehow doesn't restrict one's creative ideas.
FJ: Do you have a favourite quote (it could be from a poem, novel, essay, even a movie)?”
JE: I don't think I do. I may stumble on a certain quote and like it, masticate it, but I don't have any favourite.
FJ: What question do you wish I had asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JE: Well, I can't place a finger on anything now. I love how the conversation stretched into what we've got now.
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BIO:
Joshua Effiong(Frontier VI) is a writer and digital artist from the Örö people of Nigeria. A Pushcart Prize Nominee. He was winner of Aster Lit's Spring 2022 Award in Poetry, 2nd prize winner of Creators of Justice Awards 2021(poetry category), Finalist for 2021 River Heron Editors' Prize and Semi-finalist for Jack Grapes Poetry Prize 2021. Author of a poetry chapbook Autopsy of Things Left Unnamed(2020). His works has been published or forthcoming in Kalahari Review, Shallow Tales Review, Rough Cut Press, Madrigal Press, Titled House, The Indianapolis Review, Chestnut Review, Rising Phoenix Review, Acropolis Journal, FERAL, Augment Review, Ghost City Press, Hearth Magazine, 580 split, Wrongdoing Magazine, Vast Literary Press, Native Skin and elsewhere. Find him on Instagram @josh.effiong and twitter @JoshEffiong |
