A Chat with Atlas Elijah Harrison
Atlas Elijah Harrison (he/they) is a South African-born writer currently residing in England. He is set to begin a Neuroscience BSc in September 2021. This is his first publication. His fear of chickens and the dark is the only thing that has kept him alive long enough to become good at poetry.
Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes or influences?
Am I being predictable if I say Richard Siken and Ocean Vuong? Also Margaret Atwood, Zanele Muholi (an amazing Black South African lesbian photographer), Hanya Yanagihara, Anne Carson, Rodin, Laura Gilpin.
What are you currently reading?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson!
What are some common themes you see in your own work?
Longing, isolation, family issues, trauma; but also trying to make yourself better. Trying to bring the light back into the dark.
How do you beat writer's block?
Generally, reading books or watching movies that I love to try and reignite the spark. Sometimes forcing myself to just put words on paper helps, but more often than not, it just produces work I’m not proud of.
Do you feel that sharing your poetry is a vulnerable process?
Oh, definitely, every time I send a poem to someone to edit, I go bury myself in my bed and blast music to try and distract from the wretched feeling that I get. It doesn’t help that all my poems tend to focus around mental illness/self-harm/family issues, and so sharing poetry and art feels like a very intimate thing to me.
Do family and "real life" friends read your work?
Almost entirely not; 1 family member and 1 friend have read my work, but that’s because I trust them a lot. I would probably smash my laptop before I let my parents read any of my work.
What does "good poetry" mean to you?
A good poem to me feels like someone coming up to me in the street and telling me a secret about myself that I’ve never told anyone else. The best poems are ones that I can’t stop thinking about for days or weeks after I’ve read them.
What is your revision process like?
Very little, I generally can’t stand to look at my poems after I’ve written them, so normally I’ll just give it a quick once-over to make sure I haven’t made any glaringly obvious mistakes. Usually I’ll send it to a friend for review, but it’s not an extensive process at all.
What is your writing process like?
I’ll either write a poem in a frantic 10 minutes or agonize over it for a month or more. Generally while listening to music (Mitski, Orville Peck, Kate Bush, and Nina Simone are on rotation at the moment).
How do you research for your poems?
I’m meant to research for my poems? Most of my research consists of reading through endless pages of synonyms trying to find the word that feels right, or making sure the word I’m using actually means what I think it does. The last thing I actually googled fact-wise was the lifespan of a bumblebee.