In the Spotlight: Victoria Larroque
If you enjoy short-form poems that are dreamy, filled with youthful pain, then you’re going to like reading Victoria Larroque’s poetry collection, Scraps. Divided into five sections, from past to present, teenager to teacher, you get a grasp on the aging while reading these poems.
When starting this interview process, through email, both me & Victoria felt too much pressure from ourselves. She suggested we just chat in Instagram messages for it to feel more casual. It immediately felt more comfortable & easy. I am so grateful that I can call Victoria one of my friends and through this interview about Scraps, I got to know her even better & got an insight into her writer’s brain.
Jordan McDaniel: Your first book! How are you feeling?! Can you tell me a bit about the decision to self publish & how that process was?
Victoria Larroque: I’m terrified and full of self-doubt. What if nobody likes it? What if my poetry is horrible? What if people don’t like ME anymore after reading them? I know that fear stems from a place of knowing that I’ve put myself out there. I’ve been writing these poems since I was 13. And a decade later, they’re here. And that’s scary but also beautiful. I always said I’d write a book. As the years went by, it felt the same as saying, someday I’d be a princess. Like a fairytale. I submitted poetry time and again to poetry magazines and was rejected. I posted to blogs and social media and never got any traction. I felt like my poetry didn’t matter. Then I woke up one day and was like, I matter and so do my words. I was going to make my teenage dreams come true and publish this book for my younger self. It took me three days. I gathered all my words into a manuscript, culled the ones that didn’t work in the collection, doodled a cover on procreate, and uploaded to amazon. It was quick which is good. Had I had any more time to think about it, I think I would have backed out. Yes it’s amateur or whatever but it’s mine. I made a thing and now it exists. I’m so proud of my younger self for always writing regardless of what anyone thought. And my present self, for realizing my worth and putting my art out into the world.
JM: Wow! Spanning over a decade. How many poems did not end up in ‘Scraps’?
VL: I removed like 30 poems from the manuscript. Some were too old and I felt were a poor representation of what I like my poetry to be, or they were in Spanish. I write in Spanish sometimes since it’s my first language but I didn’t feel like it fit well with the rest of the collection. They also didn’t translate well.
JM: The majority of poems in ‘Scraps’ are in short form. Is that your favorite style of poetry?
VL: Yes! I’m super insecure about it. In my mind I have this thing where poetry should look a certain way and follow a script. But I can’t do it. I can’t sit there and force myself to write poetry the way poetry should be written. There are no rules to art. My brain just works that way and that’s how I write. It’s not deliberate, just an extension of who I am. I think a lot can be said in short verse. There’s this poem I read in a literature class that says something like “the red wheelbarrow next to the white chickens” and we spend the whole class analyzing it and I realized then that so much meaning can be hidden in a only a few lines. And I love that!
JM: I absolutely love that ‘Scraps’ ends with the poem ‘Welcome’. Can you tell me why you wanted to end your book that way?
VL: I chose to end with a beginning because that is what this book felt like. I wanted the final poem to serve as an invitation to keep going. To keep writing. I also think it summarized the book quite well “unexpected, imperfect, but exactly as it was meant to be.” Yes I feel like a total dweeb for quoting myself but there you go.
JM: Your poems are filled with so much youth, pain. They’re dreamy & light. Two of my favorites are ‘Phone Chord’ and ‘Barefoot’. How old were you when you wrote those?
VL: I wrote those poems in college, so about 22 years old. I actually wrote ‘Barefoot’ back home on break. I stood out on my balcony trying to catch rainwater in a mason jar for a spell but I couldn’t get a single raindrop yet I got soaked. And I was so mad.
JM: Hahah I love that!
VL: And then I was like, I can’t blame the rain. We’re all part of this earth and we all want the same things. And so I write a poem about it. And it reminds me of Plath too. (I’m obsessed it’s fine.) In her journals she writes “it is raining. I am tempted to write a poem. But I remember what it said on one rejection slip: after a heavy rainfall, poems titled rain pour in from across the nation.”
JM: I need to read more of her. I’ve only ever read Ariel. I’m very in love with that collection.
VL: It’s so good! And sad!
JM: What other writers inspire you?
VL: I mean Levy... but your fault!
JM: You’re very welcome! Ha!
VL: I think in regard to poetry ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ (Rainer Maria Rilke) was inspiring and exactly what I needed to hear when I read it. Not only about art but about life. As to Levy, she can write a biography like no one else. It’s poetry. I’m inspired by Patti. How she can weave so much love into her words, capture her childhood so perfectly. How she can write about having a cup of coffee and it seem like the most beautiful thing In the world. And music! Florence Welch, Queen, Lana. I listen to music when I write. I think it helps bring out the muse.
JM: And can we take a moment to acknowledge Florence’s love for Patti Smith?!
VL: They’re soulmates! Like I deeply believe they were meant to meet in this lifetime.
JM: Are you thinking about publishing a second book in the future? Another poetry collection or something else?
VL: Of course! I don’t know what that would look like or when it will be, but yes. I write every single day, even if it’s just to check in with myself and say “hi, im stressed.” I would love to publish another poetry collection in the future. Or even just some of my journals. This honestly scares me a bit, but that’s a sign you’re on the right track.
Victoria Larroque loves drinking cafecitos and pouring her soul into her journals. She’s been writing her whole life, and adulting in between. She graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology and is halfway through a Master’s in Curriculum. Victoria is a teacher to five-year-olds and a granddaughter to the best Abuela in the world. Born in sunny Miami Florida, and yet, she spends my days indoors. Reading books, writing poetry, and dancing to records by herself —it is her dream to inspire others to be their incredible and creative selves. To live off of her art and not worry about all the what if’s.
About Jordan McDaniel
letter carrier for USPS, bibliophile, lives in the swamp and barely breathable humidity of Louisiana.