Alvaro Segovia
Ángela Segovia (Las Navas del Marqués, Ávila, 1987) publishes Jara Morta (La Uña Rota), a volume where poetry and prose are confused.
What do your poems talk about? Jara Morta is a book made from a notebook that I wrote during a time when I dedicated myself to going every day to the same clearing in a forest in my village. It is about the death of that natural landscape and is an attempt to accompany that mourning with writing. It is between the diary, the story and the mystique.
Last year he published his first novel, Las vitalidades. Has narrative altered your poetry? Right now I am at a time when I am interested in exploring the narrative part of my writing from forms close to the novel. That's why when I write poems I like to go to the opposite place, take away the narrative, make them more elliptical. I really enjoy that indomitable language. But I consider all my books to be genre-fluid.
Who are your three leading poets? Perhaps Dickinson, Celan and Bolaño, understanding Bolaño as a poet in everything he wrote, and not only in what is considered poetry about him. But I have a hard time staying with only three. In fact, they are always changing. I could have said Dante, David Lynch and Marosa di Giorgio.
A verse that always pops into your head?" When I consider everything that grows...", from Shakespeare's sonnet XV.
What time of day do you prefer to write? And where do you prefer to do it? Now that I'm a mother, I don't have much choice. It is not about preferences, but about tearing a small piece of writing out of the day. I almost always write at night, next to my son, because if I'm next to him he wakes up less. That way I avoid major interruptions in those desired moments. I have to say that I am taking a liking to this way of writing, it is interesting for me the state of sleep.
What's the best review you've received? Ugh, they make me blush! I think I try not to pay too much attention to them, it's easy to get lost.
And the worst? A comment written by an online reader about The curve became a barricade comes to mind. He said: "In my opinion this is the furthest thing from the literature that I have read." Come to think of it, this may be the best of the reviews I've ever received.
What book do you have on your bedside table right now?La frontera, by Can Xue. I'm amazed.
And one that didn't make it happen? There are so many! I never force myself to finish the books, sometimes I don't finish them because I'm too sorry that they end. For example, I have never finished Kafka's The Castle, which I love and anguish in equal measure.
What writer admired by everyone seems to you rather than the lot? Many times I do not understand certain consensuses well, but it is also true that, when dedicating myself to writing, my tastes are more mediated than normal, I often read looking for things.
Recommend us a comic. I like the Japanese Yuki Urushibara: Suiiki, Mushishi.
The disc he would take to a desert island? I think I'd take Bob Dylan's Desire. When I listen to it I am very happy.
The last song that obsessed you?Hollywood, by Nick Cave, although according to my Spotify account it would be the soundtrack of the Disney movie Robin Hood...
What is the movie you've seen the most times?Nostalgia, by Tarkovsky, or Mullholland Drive, by David Lynch. I have seen them more or less the same times, that is, at least once a year.
And one that reminds you of your childhood?The south, by Erice. I always cry in the scene in which Estrella, dressed in communion, dances with her father.
Who would play her in a biopic about her life? Surely that biopic would be a roll, like all biopics of writers, but I think Giulietta Masina would be perfect if she could return from beyond.
A recent release that fascinated you? Loved Licorice Pizza.
Cite your three favorite series of all time. That's easy: Twin Peaks, Mad Men, and The Wire.
And the last one he saw at once?The White Lotus. And I hadn't seen any for a long time.
In which museum would he stay to live? At the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. If only I could enjoy a night alone there it would be almost a lifetime.
What's your flagship podcast? I love Las hijas de Felipe and I really enjoyed listening to Solaris, by Jorge Carrión. Then, I usually listen to a lot of interviews with female writers. For example, I listened to everything I found from Ariana Harwicz and Mariana Enriquez.
Do you have any guilty pleasure in cultural matters? Sometimes I watch rich shows on Netflix. They leave me stoned.
Who is your favorite historical figure? Jesus and Sappho.
What is socially overrated? Success.
If she wasn't a writer, she would have liked to be... Right now I can't think of anything. I guess if I didn't write I would have a problem.
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