Hello friends and fiends,
Today in The Madhouse, I'm excited to share a guest post by Geneve Flynn in celebration of the upcoming poetry collection, Tortured Willows, a collaborative effort from Christina Sng, Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, and Geneve Flynn.
On Being a Baby Poet and Jumping Out of a Perfectly Good Plane
by Geneve Flynn
I
once paid money to jump out of a perfectly good plane.
As I
walked to the tiny aircraft, I started to have serious doubts. The weather was
glorious: typical Australian sunshine and endless blue skies. It seemed much
more sensible to stay on the ground and enjoy being alive for longer than the
next hour.
“Don’t
worry.” My tandem skydiving instructor grinned as he did a final check on my
harness. “You’ll be strapped to me, and I’ll be looking after myself.”
The
terror of imminent, splattery death evaporated, leaving behind the fierce buzz
of adrenaline.
It
was only when I watched the video afterwards and saw myself tumbling out into
nothingness that my stomach swooped.
I could have died! What idiot takes such
unnecessary risks?
Writing
for Tortured Willows felt very much
the same. When Angela Yuriko Smith and Lee Murray invited me onboard, along
with Christina Sng, to write fifteen poems for a collection to expand on the
conversation begun with Black Cranes:
Tales of Unquiet Women, I felt that same desire to stay on safe ground.
I
knew how to write short stories; I had never
written any poetry. The only poems I knew were limericks, and there’s only so
many ways you can write about the Asian female experience of otherness in that format.
Who
was I to have poems alongside these accomplished poets? Black Cranes had won the Bram Stoker and the Shirley Jackson awards
and been nominated for a string of others; what if I couldn’t follow up such
phenomenal success?
Then
Lee revealed her excitement at sharing space with Christina and Angela—two
award-winning poets—and me. I’ve read Lee’s poetry and it’s gorgeous and fine,
like a scalpel glinting in moonlight. She also has work featured in the Horror
Writers Association Poetry Showcase. Multiple times.
I
realised then that she trusted I wouldn’t fall. We would all leap together.
I
dived in and allowed myself to play. I explored different forms, knowing I
would probably look ridiculous but it didn’t matter—I had signed up; the only
way was through. I wrote as fast as I could, trying to outpace my imposter
syndrome.
What
happened next was wonderful. I experienced that same sense of freedom and
free-falling abandonment. I had fun. It didn’t matter if my face looked like a
windsock [with] a bit of drool escaping. I was trying something new and
creating and letting myself be terrible.
The
upside? It wasn’t as terrible as I thought. I made work that gave me shivers
and made me cry and allowed me to rage. Poetry gave me new ways to expand on
the conversation Lee and I, and all our contributors began with Black Cranes. The poems in Tortured Willows are deeply personal and
we each tackle the many facets of otherness as an Asian woman. It feels
important and I’m so thankful I got a chance to be a part of it. There’s still
so much to say, and we aren’t done talking.
Plus,
I didn’t die.
Author Bio:
Geneve Flynn is an award-winning speculative fiction editor
and author. She has two psychology degrees and only uses them for nefarious
purposes.
She co-edited Black
Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women with celebrated New Zealand
author and editor Lee Murray. The anthology won the 2020 Bram Stoker Award® and
the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for best anthology. It has also been shortlisted
for the British Fantasy Award, Aurealis Award, and Australian Shadows Award. Black Cranes is listed on Tor Nightfire’s Works of
Feminist Horror and Locus magazine’s 2020 Recommended
Reading List.
Geneve was assistant editor for Relics, Wrecks, and Ruins, a speculative fiction anthology which features authors such as Neil Gaiman, Ken Liu, Robert Silverberg, James (SA) Corey, Lee Murray, Mark Lawrence, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Angela Slatter. The anthology is the legacy of Australian fantasy author Aiki Flinthart, and is in support of the Flinthart Writing Residency with the Queensland Writers Centre.
Geneve’s short stories have been published in various
markets, including Flame Tree Publishing, Things
in the Well,
and PseudoPod. Her latest short
story, “They Call Me Mother,” will appear in Classic Monsters Unleashed with some of the biggest names in
horror, including Joe Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, and Ramsey Campbell.
Geneve loves tales that unsettle, all things writerly, and
B-grade action movies. If that sounds like you, check out her website at www.geneveflynn.com.au.
About Tortured Willows:
Bent. Bowed. Unbroken
The willow is femininity, desire, death. Rebirth. With its ability to grow from a single broken branch, it is the living embodiment of immortality. It is the yin that wards off malevolent spirits. It is both revered and shunned.
In Tortured Willows, four Southeast Asian women writers of horror expand on the exploration of otherness begun with the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women.
Like the willow, women have bent and bowed under the expectations and duty heaped upon them. Like the willow, they endure and refuse to break.
With exquisite poetry, Christina Sng, Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, and Geneve Flynn invite you to sit beneath the tortured willow’s gravid branches and listen to the uneasy shiver of its leaves.
Release date: 7th October 2021
Publisher: Yuriko Publishing—https://yurikopublishing.com
