Polly Clark

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Polly Clark, a poet and writer. I’ve published three poetry collections with Bloodaxe, one of which - Take Me With You - was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and most recently Farewell My Lovely which was a Sunday Herald pick of the year. I’ve also published short stories and I do some reviewing as well, for the Guardian and other journals.

The other part of my life is at Cove Park, Scotland’s international artist centre, where I run the literature residencies. This includes the Fielding Programme which is a mentored programme open to all writers who have a project they’re working on, and also Hothouse, which this year is a weekend residency for budding poets tutored by Ron Butlin, Edinburgh’s Poet Laureate. In addition I am a Special Advisor in Literature for the Scottish Arts Council and a judge for the Eric Gregory Awards. It gets busy!

How did you begin your career as a poet/writer?

I was always writing – little stories; short, intense pieces that I recognise now were poems trying to come out. Although my family was bookish, there wasn’t much poetry in our book collection and I discovered it on my own, through writing and stumbling across writers I admired. I published poems anonymously, no-one knew about my secret life. I didn’t know anything about a poetry ‘scene’ and it was a long time before I met any other poets. It changed for me when I won an Eric Gregory Award – the award for poets under 30. Suddenly I was thrown into a whole world that I hadn’t known existed!

My ‘career’ is pretty chequered. I have had lots of jobs, from being a zookeeper at Edinburgh Zoo, to teaching English in Hungary, via a near-miss of training to be an accountant! My most normal job was at Oxford University Press which was a blissful sort of role for writers that doesn’t really exist anymore: low-pressure and with its own office! These days you’re expected to give 110% to your job, which can make it difficult to work creatively outside it. When my first book was published I went freelance. It means I can choose the projects I get involved with.

Tell us a bit more about your role in the Fielding Programme.

I devised the Fielding Programme for Cove Park because after having been a resident there I saw how this unique and beautiful place could be used to offer something to writers not currently available.

Our writers bring a project with them, in any genre, which I’ve discussed with them before they come. It’s a very small group – only six – and I meet with each of them individually to discuss their project in detail. We hold some social events too, and there’s lots of solitude on top. It really works: our residents have completed all sorts of projects that they were stuck with or needed that bit of peace and intensive support for. Fielding residents stay in Cove Park’s high quality and private accommodation, unlike anything else on offer in the UK for writers. The Fielding Programme is devoted to Cove Park’s charitable aims of achieving excellence in the arts: it is  non-corporate and not-for-profit and I’m pleased to say it also costs less than any remotely comparable course.

Tell us about something which inspires you.

It changes… I’m inspired by my situation, even if it’s a difficult one.  You have to look for inspiration, it rarely descends magically. As Bill Clinton says, ‘Bloom where you are planted.’ I think this summarises what drives me to the page, my struggle to understand why I’m here and what it all means. Having a child has brought an entirely new dimension to that: you see someone come to the world completely blank, a fresh clean sheet, and from that they build a self and meaning for themselves. I find that completely amazing: discovering meaning in life is a task we are all engaged with, from our earliest days. Being a writer is, for me, keeping engaged with that task every day, forever.

If you had one wish, and it had to be for something purely selfish, what would it be?

I would love to have a clone of myself. Sharing the task of being me would be just great.

Links:

www.fieldingprogramme.com
www.covepark.org