Wales Literature Exchange interviewed our Bookshelf author Abeer Ameer about her writing and influences.

1. What first inspired you to be an author and where do your ideas come from?

I must admit I still find it strange to describe myself as an author. This is probably because I came to this poetry world, as I often say, through the back door. I worked as a dentist previously, and came to writing as part of reflective practice when I had to take early retirement. It’s quite odd that I find myself talking about what first inspired me to be an author. I’d say it was my need for quiet reflection. Before that, it was my listening ear; the stories, conversations, poems I heard when I was young. With poetry in particular, I love how so much can be expressed and commonality can be found in relatively few well-chosen words. I also loved hearing the rhythms of tones in Arabic despite not always understanding the language well. My ideas come from family and life experiences.

2. How would you describe your writing?
I hope it is true to say that my writing is writing that helps the reader understand people or events as if they are there, that it’s writing that brings into view the forgotten or unnoticed. Like a transportation. It can be sorrowful sometimes, but it can also be hopeful too.

3. Which authors have influenced you the most?
I find that more than being influenced by particular authors, there are ideas, paradigms or themes that I might research and think about. I gravitate towards poems, poetry collections and memoirs which include these themes and have had an impact on how I write. There are a number of collections I regularly return to: At the Time of Partition by Moniza Alvi, To live in Autumn by Zeina Hashem Beck, My family and other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards, Here, Bullet by Colin Turner, The Immigration Handbook by Caroline Smith, More than you were by Christina Thatcher and almost anything by Emily Dickinson and Rumi. Autobiographical works by Dannie Abse, Maya Angelou and Michael Rosen were some of the first works I loved early on.

I must also mention that the authors who have had the greatest influence on me are those I have worked with and learned from. Amy Wack always points me in the right direction in terms of reading other poets and knowing their voices, Katherine Stansfield helped me apply different techniques in my own poems and helped me overcome some issues I had with particular poems. Emma Beynon, Christina Thatcher and Amanda Rackstraw were my first poetry teachers and they really opened my eyes to this wonderful new world. The authors I attend workshops with always provide a new lens with which to view my own work. These are just a few, there are so many more. I have really been very lucky.

4. In your opinion what are the biggest challenges that writers face today – and do you think these challenges have changed since you started writing?
I started writing with the image in my mind that I could just hide away and write and just send work out and it be read by audiences far and wide. Clearly, I didn’t think that through! I guess one of the biggest challenges is the necessity of self-promotion and the need to be relevant in a quickly changing and at times scary world where attention is quickly distracted to the next new thing.

5. What are the hardest and easiest parts of being a writer?
The hardest part is probably to keep going, to keep writing, knowing that what I’m writing is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Also, having the confidence to be vulnerable and open in the public sphere.
I’m not sure there is anything easy about being a writer, but there have been many joys along the way. Maybe the easiest part for me is enjoying the process.

6. Which writer from Wales would you recommend to readers and why?
There are so many it’s impossible to limit to one. There are quite a few writers who haven’t published collections yet, but readers are in for a treat when they do.
At the very least, please read all the poets mentioned in the acknowledgments page of Inhale/Exile. I could have done with a few more pages, to be honest.
Like I said, impossible to limit to one!

Inhale / Exile is selected to our 2021–22 Bookcase, our annual selection of recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.