BOOK REVIEW
“I just move from one to the next frustration.”
Upon opening Photogenic Thoughts, by Adam Shove, it’s clear to see he bares all with a realness in his storytelling of his adventures and experiences.
Although it’s a quick read written in just under 100-pages, it’s a fascinating book. There’s a good rhythm to move the pieces along, especially writing in real-time about the global pandemic of COVID-19. He pens the uncertainties and his worries in an honest way that will resonate with the reader, with stories in-between that truly piece the book together with excellence.
With captivating writing and stories that will stay with the reader, it’s an exceptional book with a lot of hard-hitting pieces that are thought-provoking. Each piece unfolds wonderfully, word after word, over the course of the book which seems fast but has a heavy feeling to it.
Adam Shove is an Estonian and English poet, who writes poems laden with cryptic metaphors and pop culture references; doused in vodka and thrift shop ideas. He is inspired by RZA, Frank Ocean, second hand clothes, models, tattoos, and expensive cars.
Words by Danielle Holian
INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about your writing background.
As a child if my mum found out that I had skipped school or not handed in my homework I had to read the dictionary which is soul crushing! And I was tested. So that got me into my love of words. But my English teacher in high school showed me Bukowski, Plath, Sexton, and that was what made me want to do it so much more.
What, or who, inspired you to start writing?
My English teacher Mrs Cargill, beyond that when I was younger it was women I was trying to impress which sounds so corny but yeah.
And what influenced your poetry collection ‘Photogenic Afterthoughts'?
Photogenic Afterthoughts is so different from everything else because I normally spend like two months working on the idea for a book before I write a word, I will decide what I want to talk about, word choices. P.A was written in 18 hours about the day and night before, which I had spent with an American woman called Laurel in Bilbao. And how we spent the day together and getting phone calls from my sister, a friend, a nurse I know telling me to look after myself. I guess it’s my Paris (a poem by Hope Mirrlees).
How has your life in general influenced your work in general?
I would like to think that is the same as anyone else, without life there is no art. I’m just good at documenting what happens in my chaos.
What makes a piece of your writing right to post on your Instagram, versus the ones that stay in the book?
If it’s good enough for the book it can go on Instagram, I would say that if a book contains 100 poems like Coast did I wrote close to 500 poems and what didn’t make the cut had the good lines cut out and recycled. I write to practice writing, so when I have something to say I know how to articulate it right.
And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Read lots, avoid clichés, don’t worry if it doesn’t sound timeless because you won’t be alive in 200 years time. Give your life a great soundtrack, music is in the soul of everyone, let it shine through. Most importantly, sound like you, the world doesn’t need twenty writers that sound like someone else, thus giving us twenty one people all putting out the same book.