Spotlight: Cara McKee & Simon Wade
One of the greatest privileges of publishing Gutter, is being able to connect with writers familiar and new. Each issue, we’ll shine a spotlight on some of our contributors, to discover more about what inspires them, and where they hope their writing takes them next. Today, it’s our pleasure to speak to Issue 27 contributors, Cara McKee and Simon Wade!
Cara McKee
What was the inspiration behind your submission, ‘Bending to Nightbreak’?
I was thinking about the ending of one way of being and the start of another. Even positive change, like moving out of patriarchy, is difficult when it's happening. Some fight it. There's worry about what will happen, change is coming and it won't be the same and everything we've done up until now is built around the old way. I'm recognising that it's scary, but trying to remember that there's good in it.
Who do you imagine to be your ideal reader?
I think I write for lefty witchy feminists, but hope I appeal wider! I really enjoy hearing the things people take from my poetry which I hadn't recognised was there myself!
What's your favourite part of the writing process?
Fountain pen (Manuscript Calligraphy pens are my favourite) and coloured ink on a notebook, when the wrangling process is coming together, and I think that this might be something interesting. This is probably only the second draft, but I like to have inky fingers and a messy page.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
I'm working on a second chapbook (my first was First Kiss with Maytree Press), but the main challenge for me at the moment is rebuilding my confidence after covid, grief, and health issues gave it a whacking. I'm getting there and have amazing friends who help.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
Towards a General Theory of Love by Clare Shaw (Bloodaxe 2022) is an absolutely stunning read which I keep going back to. I am late to the party but am currently reading Deep Wheel Orcadia: A Novel by Harry Josephine Giles (Picador, 2021), which I absolutely love: the language is so important to this verse novel, which is written in Orkney dialect, and translated into English in a way that shows that English isn't quite good enough to express it. Of course there would be outposts which used different dialects, and it's an amazing, and spare way to tell the story. Love it. We need more SciFi like this.
Who is an author or poet you think more people should know about?
My current obsession with Clare Shaw led me to the glorious grotty fairytale strangeness of Jane Burn's work. Buy her books, attend her workshops, and watch her videos! She draws you right in, but you're never sure what's lurking in there with you!
Anything else you want our readers to know about you and your writing?
More about my writing, including where to find my poetry, and signed copies of my book are available on my website: skeletonarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk
Simon Wade
What was the inspiration behind your submission, ‘Hiding Place’?
The inspiration behind my submission was pretty literal, I would occasionally find myself in my flat waiting in a room to do something 'funny' to surprise my wife, whether that be playing dead or wearing a Halloween mask to scare her or dancing to music a certain way to try and catch her attention. Whilst doing these things I would have that awkward moment where she would never actually enter the room and I was holding my pose for a depressing amount of time for absolutely no one's enjoyment but my own. I would imagine what would happen if I really just committed to the joke and stayed where I was, how long could I hold out? How long would it stay funny? Really I spend far too much of my time just trying to make my wife laugh and this short story was simply a case of taking this idea to its extreme and seeing where it would go.
Who do you imagine to be your ideal reader?
I don't think I have an ideal reader, this was one of the first short stories I wrote while in between other work and I found it a fun distraction and creatively pretty freeing. I wasn't doing it for any deadline or even much of a reason beyond enjoying it myself and really it's a pretty silly little story that I hope someone enjoys for the brief time it takes to read it.
What's your favourite part of the writing process?
When you have an idea in the moment that wasn't planned, a spontaneous line of dialogue or direction to take the story in that just appears out of nowhere. The rare moments where it happens are extremely satisfying and when it materialises it makes you feel like a real writer who knows what they're doing and has some secret ability hidden in the depths of your unconscious.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
One I've just finished, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. It's a post apocalypse story that still manages to feel fresh, interesting and emotionally engaging in amongst the tidal wave of post apocalyptic stories.
Who is an author or poet you think more people should know about?
I almost feel silly saying Raymond Carver is the author I would want everyone to know about because I'm sure most people already do, but I was recommended his work years ago by my university tutor and think it so well observed, authentic, timeless and other hyperbolic words that in this case easily justify the hyperbole.
