Poems That Don’t Suck: A Classmate Interview with Carson Wolfe
I took Poems that Don’t Suck by Megan Falley with Carson Wolfe. I was fortunate enough to get to sit down for an hour with them. They are blazing a trail behind themselves! Make sure to check them out on Instagram and recent work here. In this interview, we chatted about queer family representation, PTSD, writing rejections, what they are reading, and more!
Q: What do you want readers to know about you?
I usually start with I am married and have three children because I like to represent queer families out there in the world. That’s a big part of who I am as a person.
I just finished my second year at University, so I’ll graduate next year with a degree in creative writing. I’m also the first in my family to go to University.
I just finished, well I say it’s finished. It’s a never-ending project actually. You know I’ve been a finalist twice for Write Bloody UK. That book is about the time I left an abusive relationship to live on a hippie commune in southern Spain with my three year old. It’s about bravery, adventure, what it means to question your gender, to be a mother, and to strip away everything you were conditioned to believe about yourself. I have also started writing a chapbook on queer family making and specifically sperm—sperm donors. It’s very ridiculous and also kind of funny. I wrote my first sonnet and it’s called Sperm Sonnet.
Q: How long have you been writing?
I actually haven’t been writing that long. I took PTDS in February of 2020. I took that workshop and it just completely changed everything about my writing. And before that, I hadn’t considered myself a writer. I had never submitted to a journal before or sought out publication. I had one poem published, and it was because that person approached me and asked if they could put it in an anthology.
I’ve never written seriously and I’ve never edited before. Taking Meg's class taught me what it means to take your writing more seriously I suppose, even if it’s for yourself. I don’t know where I would be without that workshop, to be honest. I’m doing a degree and they don’t teach no way near the same amount as what Meg does on those six-week courses.
Q: Are there any other goals you have or anything you want to share?
I actually went on a rampage to get 100 rejections in a year. I am currently at 98. I was published with Fourteen Poems. It’s UK-based. I am mostly published in American journals.
Mostly, I want to get my full collection published and then work on this chapbook so I can get that out there and bring some visibility to queer family-making, but also to address the misconception we used IVF (which is something everyone seems to go to). I am working class, and for people like me it is not as accesible to spend thousands at a fertility clinic. We actually used a known donor, so that’s going to be a fun narrative to bring to light, I think.
If I get it, I want to go on tour. I’m really excited about that. I love my kids, but then I can get away from them (we laughed a good minute).
Q: Anything else about PTDS?
I am a teaching assistant now at the workshop. I was training and then I got fully initiated into the gang... Ha!
I’ve taken the course twice, and After the Ode once…I’m obsessed with that community and the course always teaches me something new even though I’m learning from the same materials. It’s cool now that I get to be on the teaching side of it and be part of the community, but pass on everything I’ve learned.
Q: What book recommendations do you have?
The Girls by Emma Cline
Stags Leap by Sharon Olds
Your Family, Your Body by Penguin Modern Poets
Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood
In the Dreamhouse by Carmen Maria Machado
Q: Which writers do you draw inspiration from / who do you look up to?
Megan Falley for her teachings. She can convey something in such a simple way…I don't know, she has such a gift for teaching.
Olivia Gatwood has a way of being very clear in her work, but poetic at the same time.
Sharon Olds (so that’s three white women…ha!)
Q: Where are you submitting this summer?
Q: What is your favorite writing prompt?
I really hate free writing in the sense…here’s the prompt and now you’ve got to write for ten minutes… honestly, my favorite prompt, the thing that gets me so motivated to write is an end goal for where it’s going to be…a clear deadline.
The Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge
Serotonin (only allows 20 lines) and focuses on a strong theme
Q: What advice do you have for writers new or old?
To find a way to give space to your craft or your writing or to your whatever—once per day—even if it’s like just a minute whilst you’re on the toilet and you’ve got google docs on your phone. If you’re super busy, find a way to work it into your day so that you engage with that part of yourself…I always feel nourished…I did it in April. I wasn’t writing a poem a day. I could have just put a comma on a poem one day and that’s it…I think of it the same as running. I love running, but then I don’t love the idear of putting on the clothes and going outside to run. I always dread that part, but I never regret the run…I never regret it.
I learned after a while sometimes, very rarely, you might write a pretty fucking awesome first draft, and it’s okay to trust your awesome first draft and not be like there’s gotta be something wrong with it. When you start out and you’re kind of rusty, it takes you a while to get to the point where you can sit down and write something pretty cool that comes out…when that first happened to me I was confused. I was like I have to edit…I couldn’t find anything wrong with the poem, so I sent it to Melissa Sussens and she couldn’t find anything wrong with it either…Once you put the work in you’re eventually going to sit down to write and it’s just gonna come out as one whole thing. So just trust that when it happens, it’s not always going to happen, but be grateful when it does. Don’t be surprised sitting there for weeks wondering what was wrong.
Carson Wolfe is a Mancunian poet exploring patriarchal violence & queer family making. They are an Ergon Theatre contest winner and a recipient of the Aurora Poetry Prize. Their work has appeared with Button, Hobart, Fourteen Poems, and is forthcoming on Reform Radio. They currently serve as a teaching assistant to Megan Falley on her renowned workshop Poems That Don't Suck. You can find them complaining about their kids on Instagram @vincentvanbutch.
