A writer on the 'outside'

Menna Elfyn, a leading Welsh writer of novels and poetry who has recently been made Poet Laureate for children's literature, will be in Malta this week to lead a number of creative writing workshops and to present her latest work. She will be the main speaker at a public forum on "Women Writing" on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. in the Music Room of St James Cavaliier in Valletta, to which all are invited. Her visit to Malta was made possible by the Mediterranean cultural organisation Inizjamed, in collaboration with the British Council.

In your work you strive to promote the Welsh language and its intrinsic link with identity.

It's true that I somehow promote the language in my writing but that's only because it is my identity and the starting point of every writer is - who they are, where they live, what is important to them. It follows that the language I speak and wish to write in, has an ambivalence to the outer world, having once been banned.

I can recall in school, people laughing at me and saying that I was speaking a 'dead language'. I agonised over this. After all my family were all alive and speaking the language, as were my friends and community. Yet, officially, until we actively campaigned to change all that, insisting on Welsh being allowed to be official, the language was seen as a 'curse'. It also became my personal 'curse', my private language. If I couldn't speak it without it being deemed as less urgent than English then, I would write it, in diaries, in stories, in poems. Nothing gives a writer more energy than to be on the 'outside'. In fact the writer is always in exile.

The minority language is now accepted as official: schools, all government bodies, television, they all are part of a new confidence in the language. But the sad fact remains, only 20 per cent of the people still speak it... and the new in-migration of English people to the west is a huge social problem for the language.

You call yourself a "Christian anarchist". Why do you choose to wear these robes?

I hate labels but it all started jokingly. I suppose I am really a post-Christian. My father was a preacher/minister and so I grew up with theology, loving Christ but hating the Yahweh of the Old Testament and so forth. Also, I feel a great disdain towards institutions (they have upheld a very male view of God). So I guess, I have a God-problem. I'm fascinated by religions, however, and regret the distance (wars) between them.

At times I feel a Buddhist; when people attack the Muslim faith, I feel I'd like to be a Muslim, and so it continues. That's where the anarchism is within me. It's a constant search, I guess, for the spiritual in life and that crucial question - how can we be merciful in this world?

Perhaps I should instead call myself an atheist Christian. That will really confuse people.

In your latest collection of poems Blind Man's Kiss we encounter the more mundane, yet intimate details of a woman's life. For example, you talk about female underwear, and with humour delve into all the social/sexual implications this carries for women. Why have you chosen this focus?

There are a lot of whimsical poems in Blind Man's Kiss. It is, in many ways, a happier book than Cell Angel (that was written while also writing a book on violence for Save the Children Fund - and the poems there are rather sad).

This shows my true side, I hope. The quirkiness, the whimsical approach to life, the fun, the joy, along with some sombre moments. In Welsh, writing about 'sex' is almost a taboo subject and so I wanted to open it up by writing about it even if it made my usual admirers a bit fearful of where I was going and started all kinds of rumours about my personal life!

In many of your works you combine traditional metrical forms and free verse in a curious and interesting way.

I would need an hour or two to explain the strict metre, especially in Welsh.

We have unique forms here in Wales, and they stem from the sixth century. So it's very old and intricate. Basically, the words in a line have to be chimed, and echoed, with similar consonants all through the line, and sometimes, even with rhymes.

It is a form that takes years to master, and to learn it you need a master who knows all the minute rules and regulations. My father was able to write in this way, and I also played with writing these forms, when I was a teenager. (I still do - I'll write a short stanza in this form, sometimes daily, like playing the scales if you play the piano.) It keeps me in trim, But when I was trying to write, as a woman, I felt I had enough restrictions, and captivities without putting myself into this form of poetry.

So my poetry is free verse but laced with the strict metre, like an underlay, so it's not noticed. There is something very showy about those who write in strict metre in Welsh and they hold long competitions drawing huge crowds. The battle is called 'cockpit'. Need I say more!

You have edited two anthologies of poetry by women. What is your belief behind setting up a 'space' solely intended for women?

Once again, when I started writing in Welsh, there were no women poets as such I could look up to. There was one poet, a farmer, but it was a very lonely existence. My second collection won a big prize Waiting Rooms, poems written after losing a baby. The response was mixed. Some thought them crude and I guess it was because men had never had to read about the life of a woman before.

My first anthology was a drawing together of some 20 poets in order to try and make a new tradition. But if I'm honest, the poems weren't very startling - they were very conservative as if the women wanted to try and behave within this very old tradition of poetry.

When a new feminist Welsh press asked me to do a second anthology, years later I was adamant that I would ask for daring work, for no holds barred in the writing. And it worked. Many of the poets were young, and have since published their own collections which is exactly what I wanted to happen.

You will be leading a series of four creative writing workshops in Malta. How do you go about your writing? Are you disciplined? What do you need around you; what do you avoid?

I'm looking forward to the workshops even if I tend to do things there that I cannot do myself! It seems to work for others.

I take a long time to write anything, I'll write endless notes, grab epigraphs and read a lot... but being satisfied with a poem is another thing. I am very disciplined. I write in the mornings. I try and write till noon and if I have to do so, I'll allow myself more time in the afternoon.

It's all 'creative' in the end. I write long hand. I still don't trust computers. I like playing with ink, with nice paper, etc. And I like paints. Sometimes, I'll paint to get a charge and then return to writing. I'm no painter though. Pity!

You have recently been made Poet Laureate for children's literature in Wales. What does this mean to you?

This came as a complete shock to be made Poet Laureate, as it's an honorary position and most people don't really think of me as a children's writer. In fact, I'm not really, although I love writing (and have done books for children) for the 12-14 age group. It's the perfect age to address, challenging and difficult. It also reminds me of the joys of being a mother, my children's love of life and I get strength from that.

I guess it will mean less travel, (or so I read in a newspaper!), for one year anyway. I'll try and stay close to homeground though they understand my commitments in the US. I will edit a book for children before the end of the year and I've just written my first commissioned poem for a poster that will go into all schools in Wales. Then there's a television programme to present.

The work could be very exhausting, but very rewarding I hope.

Any future projects you'd like to tell us about?

I have a new novel coming out in October called Rana Rebel. It's about a child soldier who becomes a suicide bomber eventually.

With all that's happening in the world I do hope it doesn't get banned before it's read. I do think however that literature is the perfect arena to discuss issues that are difficult. Children see terrible images daily and they need to understand what it is that engages young people in battles. I started writing it after visiting Sri Lanka, but I've taken an active interest in child soldiers. It could be set in Nepal, in Africa, in the Philippines, in Palestine, ... but it's set in nowhere, more a kind of parable of this luscious place that could be paradise.

And the soldier is a girl. That in itself will raise questions I hope.

I've also been commissioned to write a 50-minute libretto for a composer I've worked with before and a television company will televise it.

Then I also want to bring out a Welsh poetry book, my admirers deserve one since I haven't brought out a Welsh only book for more than ten years. That is why they are a little impatient with me, and rightly so.

It isn't fair to them, that my work sells more copies overseas than in Wales. That's the good or bad side of the globalised poet. But my half a million Welsh speakers mean everything to me. They are in fact my muse. They are also my family. Though it gets a little crowded at times, and I'm scolded more often than praised for forgetting them. Which is why it is good to end this conversation with them in mind.

Menna Elfyn will be giving two sets of creative writing workshops to small groups of people at St James Cavalier. The first two sessions are for women (not necessarily writers) and are being held tomorrow and on Tuesday between 6 and 9 p.m.

The other two sessions, open to both men and women, will be held on Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. and on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Participants must be aged over 18.

To book for the workshops call Clare Azzopardi on 2138-8995, e-mail. clareazz@malta.net