The Ottobrunn poet Laura Theis (35) published her first poetry debut in this sad last year.
As she says herself, it helped her through this difficult time.
Ottobrunn / Oxford - Laura Theis has lived in a small witch's house in Oxford with her partner and her dog Wodehouse for years.
The publication of the volume of poetry was made possible by an English literature prize, which she won in the spring of the first Corona year.
She is currently on the longlist of the National Poetry Competition Awards.
The book has now come out, the launch party and reading had to take place via zoom due to the corona.
The language artist designed the book cover with the jellyfish herself.
It's a photo that she took many years ago in Vancouver, Canada.
Here is the link to order directly from the publisher: www.dempseyandwindle.com/lauratheis
Which topics do the poems revolve around and where do you get their inspiration from?
There are many little stories that often arise from the question "what if ...".
How about, for example, living with a dragon as a roommate or one day waking up with spiders instead of hair on your head?
What would I write if I were the first to be stationed on the moon as writer-in-residence?
I hope the poems will allow my readers to immerse themselves a bit in their own imaginations.
The title “how to extricate yourself” could be translated as: “How to get out or out”.
The speaking voices in the poems find answers to this question.
Sometimes the answer is "pretend" in various forms.
In addition to fantastic elements such as zombies, fairy tales and magic, it is also about insomnia, longing and the strange melancholy of this unusual time of isolation.
And my beloved dog also appears again and again in a fragmented and transformed form.
How did the fantasy pieces come about?
Most of the poems were actually written in the middle of the first tough English lockdown.
Other authors were of great help during this time.
For example, I was part of a spontaneous writing group, inspired by the Italian Decameron Boccaccios (which takes place in the late Middle Ages at the time of the plague), of writers from different corners of the world who spent ten weeks responding to topics and exchanging poems and short stories.
Or a WhatsApp group with fellow writers here in Oxford, in which we wrote small motivational messages to each other.
All of this helped to get through the great lockdown loneliness.
And my regular writing group, which usually meets regularly, has fortunately been able to continue to exist virtually thanks to Zoom.
Why did you choose the poem form in English?
I've loved writing in English since I first tried songwriting as a teenager, regardless of whether it was prose or poetry.
I also think it's great that it's a language that so many people have access to: 360 million are native English speakers, but well over a billion people understand the language.
So you can get it in the remotest corners of the world?
Yes, my book is also available in the Bouquinista bookstore in Australia, for example, and has made it to Turkey, Canada, Denmark and America.
I've lived in Oxford for a decade now, and my reading habits have changed accordingly.
I think what I read every day also has a huge impact on what I write.
For example, I am part of a reading group that meets online regularly to review newly published books by contemporary female poets.
Interestingly, my greatest role model is someone who continued to write in German while in exile in America: the Jewish poet Mascha Kaleko.
I have also dedicated my book to her because her words have always inspired my great love for poetry.
How does Corona affect writing and music?
The pandemic has changed a lot: live music, which was a part of my life, for example, has become impossible.
New possibilities have been created for this: for example, that family and friends from all over the world can come to readings or award ceremonies who otherwise would not have been able to attend.
There are currently two dates to which everyone is cordially invited: The award ceremony for the OBhéal Five-Words Prize, which usually takes place in Ireland, is online this year on April 12th, with a presentation of the anthology, a reading of the winners and an open Mic session.
The link is available from info@obheal.ie And on April 23, my publishing house is holding a virtual Shakespeare birthday party with readings about Shakespeare's work.