Spotlight: R C Thomas, Augustijn van Gaalen & Annette C. Boehm
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, R C Thomas, Augustijn van Gaalen & Annette C. Boehm.
R C Thomas
Instagram: @rcthomasthings / Website: rcthomasthings.com
What was the inspiration behind ‘Rectangle Square Rectangle’ and ‘Lesions’?
Both poems come from my own experience of having a benign brain tumour, undergoing brain surgery and how that has affected me since. 'Lesions' is fairly self-explanatory and was written to potentially open a book of poems about the experience, so I wanted a tender and reflective tone and allowed myself to be a bit vulnerable. 'Rectangle Square Rectangle' is about a sensation of life being broken up into two parts – before and after the tumour – with an 'advert break' spent in hospital between my life's two parts. Ever since my surgery in 1997, until recently, I thought everyone saw their life in their mind's eye as made up of two parts. It wasn't until I began researching to write poems about my experience that I realised this sensation was unique to people who had had brain surgery (I imagine other types of trauma could cause this too). It sounds insane to say that now, of course, but for years that perspective was all I knew.
Who do you imagine to be your ideal reader?
I think my ideal reader must be me. I try to please myself first and foremost with my writing, which as my writing (hopefully) improves, and as such I become more critical of my work, is increasingly difficult to do. If I don't like a poem or story then it's probably because it's not hitting the right note. In which case, it would be silly to expect others to accept it as good. When I get it right, I hope all sorts of people will enjoy it.
What's your favourite part of the writing process?
I like to write automatically. I will often have a topic in mind, and will have done the necessary research when it's needed, but I usually don't have much else, so when I get to the end of a poem, I particularly enjoy the surprise of seeing where it's ended up.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
The two poems mentioned here are part of a collection I've been working on, on the brain tumour theme. I have also been working on a collection of wildlife haiku. It's just a case of which crosses the finishing line first.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
I read In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan recently. He's a writer I had been meaning to get around to for a while and immediately on starting the book, I had one of those moments of 'Oh, this person has just been hanging around here patiently waiting for me to finally discover their work, which I was so obviously always meant to read.' The way he merges the surreal and absurd with tenderness, beauty and meaning is inspiring, and I love how no image or description is off-bounds for him.
Who is an author or poet you think more people should know about?
I was introduced to Leonora Carrington's work in recent years. She played a significant role in the Surrealism movement as an artist, but wrote short stories too, one of which, 'White Rabbits', inspired David Bowie's music video for 'Lazarus'. Given her background as a surrealist, her writing is what you'd expect in that sense, but for that very same reason, it's like nothing you'd read before either.
Augustijn van Gaalen
What was the inspiration behind ‘The Drowning of Saint Juste’?
There was a short segment in a book I read a while back that stayed with me for a long time, which described a scenario similar to the one in the story: people are buried in the sand and the tide washes slowly over them until eventually they drown. I can’t quite remember what book it was from – it was either John Steinbeck’s East of Eden or Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. I read them around the same time, and the image was a fleeting one but one that stuck. In my head, the question became: when could something like that occur, without it being a crime? I found that question fascinating. And I immediately thought of a family and the idea of tradition, and masculinity, and tests – which are the central themes of the story.
Who do you imagine to be your ideal reader?
Difficult to say. I’m not on social media, which is where I think a lot of people get that engagement with potential readers from and get a sense of their audience. In a way, I think this isn’t a bad thing – I’d like to write things that anyone can read and connect to, work that isn’t intended for one type of person or group.
What's your favourite part of the writing process?
The moment where everything in your story changes, where – with one sentence or image – the entire trajectory of the narrative shifts. That is where I can really lose myself, when I’ve taken the story somewhere unexpected and I am not so much writing it, as reacting to it, engaging with the characters who have become alive. It doesn’t always work, but it’s also something I look for in other writers – Martin McDonagh being a good example of someone who creates these unexpected moments and shifts which become stories of their own. Murakami is another.
Many of my stories have evolved in this way, or they start off as longer pieces. Then I find myself hacking away at a piece until I reach its core. I think if you can achieve something profound in a more condensed format, then it’s all the more meaningful.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
I recently expanded the story published in Gutter 27, taking it from a story of just over 2,000 words to around 8,000. When the story was accepted by Gutter I reread it again and it felt not so much like an ending, but a beginning. It felt like there was more to the characters that could be explored. I think it’s quite funny (also painful) how one week a story is forgotten about, the next week it’s accepted by a journal you’ve always admired, and suddenly you find yourself returning to it. I do think that recognition is extremely important in this sense, especially for such a singular and lonely enterprise as writing.
I’ve also been writing other stories, a few longer ones as well which I don’t really know what to do with. I find the short story a wonderful format, both to read and to write.
Who is an author or poet you think more people should know about?
Pearl Buck. I once found an old copy of the Good Earth Trilogy – all in one big, old-fashioned book. I must have been around 12 or so. I was fascinated by the object, the lettering, and the diction – it all struck me as very old-fashioned. The strangest thing was that it was a translated copy – in Dutch no less, and I never really read Dutch books. But I found myself completely transported and invested and I think this was where my love of long sagas was born (hence Steinbeck and Stegner in one of the earlier questions). I think a good story across multiple generations can teach you so much about the world, and humanity in general.
I always come back to this book every few years. I still haven’t read it in English but I’m really looking forward to that moment when it comes.
Annette C. Boehm
Who do you imagine to be your ideal reader?
Someone who is curious about being alive, now. I’ve always thought of poetry as an exploration of what it is to be human - to feel, to exist in both the man-made and the natural world.
What's been your favourite book of the last twelve months?
I really fell in love with the first book I read this year, Strange Beasts of China, by Yan Ge. I’d describe it as a gentle, fairy-tale like fantasy story set in modern-day China. I also enjoyed The Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafur.
Are you working on anything exciting or challenging at the moment?
I’m working on a book-length manuscript of poems on the experience of mental illness / mental health. It has taken me years to find a way to write about these things - they are wildly personal, but also, as I keep learning, important to share, for those who also struggle to find words for their experience, and for those who are curious / would like to better understand someone else’s experience. In many places, talking about mental health problems is still a sort of taboo, and that actually hurts all of us.
