Poet Interview: Chloe Hanks on 'I Call Upon the Witches'
Chloe Hanks is an emerging poet from Worcestershire. With the desire to absolve female villains from the patriarchal lens, her writing destabilizes stereotypes and reinvents what is familiar. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including the recent debut from Fawn Press, and she was the winner of the V Press Prize for Poetry in 2020. She is currently studying an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.
Can you tell us a bit about the book you just published with Sunday Mornings at the River?
I Call Upon the Witches was my undergraduate dissertation project completed at the University of Worcester. In its entirety, it is a collection that moves through the evolution of the Witch as an archetype, each poem written in response to an example of what we call witches.
What inspired you to write this book?
I spoke with my supervisor and explained that if you were to ask a room full of student writers to write a piece about a witch, everyone’s characterisation would be completely different. We have witches who poison apples, witches secluded in the forests, witches with emerald skin, witches who are exceedingly sensual, even witches that seem otherworldly. I was intrigued by how much this contrasting ideology was rooted in the history of witch hunts, trials and misunderstandings.
What does the title mean, and why did you pick it?
To me, I Call Upon the Witches echoes the general mood of the pamphlet. I wanted it to read as though I was bringing all of these women together and acknowledging where history has wronged them. By the closing poems, it is as though we have all gathered together to hear them and do justice to their legacies.
Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes, and did they influence you at all while writing this book?
I was hugely influenced by Rebecca Tamas’ poetry collection Witch for the way she used both voice structure to elevate her poetry off of the page. It is a skill I have dabbled with, but not yet mastered. I refer regularly to Sylvia Plath’s work, specifically her villanelle Mad Girl’s Love Song. To me, her poetry feels like magic.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
I find, no matter how you plan and daydream about your book, the collection shapes itself. When writing poetry, I think writers use a part of their brain that they haven’t fully tamed yet. Poems that I set out to write, because I felt like I should, simply did not happen. And yet I found myself writing authentically by accident. Poetry is like no other form in that way, your best poems will be the ones you left to their own devices.
What is the key theme and/or message in the book?
The message I would like readers to take away from I Call Upon the Witches is that our women have had to compete in a different capacity than their male counterparts. We need to question the concept of villainy and how much we limit our women to these characteristics that are familiar. It is easier to define an evil stepmother than it is to celebrate a woman’s choice to not have children of her own. I think we have evolved to give narrative arcs to villains to avoid stereotyping, but we are running the risk of leaving some of our female villains behind.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Rejection is a positive experience. Every opportunity to be read by a publisher is unique and beneficial, if the answer is no it sends you back to your desk and your work will only ever get stronger. It is part of the game, and you have to climb that ladder.
What does "good poetry" mean to you?
Good poetry should leave you enlightened as to how to define poetry.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
I have always had a strong connection to music and lyrics. When I was younger, I wrote and performed songs– for me, it was Taylor Swift and the way she captured feelings in her words. I have never been able to lose touch with my fixation on how she writes. She has defined a generation of young women just with her words and there is something revolutionary about that, and I don’t think we will fully understand it until someone looks at her legacy in hindsight.
What did you edit out of this book?
I could double the book's length with exiled poems. Partly because I am hard on myself, but also because the subject matter is so broad and there is a lot that could be said that didn’t necessarily serve the purpose of the collection. For example, I wrote several poems about the Witch Trials that pulled the collection away from its conversation about characterisation.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Actually getting started. I tend to daydream a lot about what the book will be, but then sitting down to write it seems impossible because I know in so much depth what I want it to be. My previous pamphlet, May We All Be Artefacts, worked itself out because I wrote many of the poems without knowing exactly what book I was writing. It was a very unique experience for me to write in that way, and I was stunned by how they collated themselves together to explore a theme I didn’t know I was even discussing in my work.