BOOK REVIEW
“The pain will remain as long as it needs to and you’ll realise, when you’ve healed, that you needed it, too.”
‘The Girl Who Chases Sunsets' is Erin Cherie’s debut poetry collection. The book deals with themes childhood, mental health, love, loss, family, heartbreak and more in a beautifully raw and inspiring way, explaining how and why she's spent a lifetime chasing sunsets, and how sometimes the light you need has always been inside of yourself.
This book will find you when you’re meant to read it. Erin‘s writing conveys amazing and resonating emotional depth. It’s truly an inspiring read with beautiful writing. She has a wonderful way with words to craft a sentence together creating excellent poetry.
Erin’s writing is embraceful and emotive that lingers all the way through the book in a perfect manner. From being scared of change, to devastating events, to realising the ones who stayed and the ones who got away are all part of her story. There’s a pleasant mix of short and longer pieces that truly make ‘The Girl Who Chases Sunsets' a worthy read from beginning to end.
Erin Cherie is a writer from England, UK. She is passionate about dogs, books, music and coffee, passing her time either writing sad poetry or bingeing old TV shows. Erin has a degree in English Literature and has been writing songs, stories and poetry for as long as she’s been able to write.
Words by Danielle Holian
INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about your writing background.
I was always a very creative child. I wrote a lot of stories growing up, plays, movie scripts, magazines, anything and everything. English was always my number one subject at school. In particular, I was absolutely fixated by music and wanted to be a songwriter for a very long time. Right up until I was about 19 years old. I had notebooks upon notebooks filled with songs, and eventually that turned into poetry. I ran a blog as a teenager and contributed to other blogs and publications too; I even do blog writing now in my current job, so really the written word exists in literally everything I do.
What, or who, influenced you to start writing?
In general, writing was a solace in my life when I needed a safe place the most. I was very shy growing up and sometimes felt like I couldn’t express myself properly; poetry allows you to do that in a way you otherwise might not be able to. I can’t pinpoint when exactly I started writing creatively, I was definitely too young to be able to recall now. However, to be completely honest, I didn’t really fall in love with poetry until I was 18 years old, when I had to study Ariel by Sylvia Plath at university. I guess you could say that collection changed my life and really sparked this whole thing I’m doing now.
And what influenced your poetry book ‘The Girl Who Chases Sunsets'?
The book is really a selection of poems I’ve written from the age of 18 up until now. It’s purely just influenced by my real life experiences, growing up and trying to make sense of the world. It feels like my whole life, and all the emotions that have accompanied it thus far, are captured in the pages of that book. I wanted to publish a poetry book for years, but it never felt like the right time for whatever reason. Luckily, I had a moment last year where I thought “ok, I think I can do this now. Let’s go.” 'The Girl Who Chases Sunsets' is about my lifelong relationship with endings, as well as my fascination with the beauty of something I can never quite catch up with.
How has your life in general influenced your work in general?
I’ve not had the smoothest time in life so far, as might be apparent by reading my work at times. I think a lot of the pain I’ve carried has over time felt less heavy because of being able to write it out. Most of what I write can be somewhat dark, raw, oftentimes sad, but all of it is very real and a truthful insight into my brain. I hope that is why people like it. If I hadn’t been through what I’ve been through, perhaps my work would be different. I would not want to change it, though. I think the darker, sadder, more raw parts of ourselves are fascinating, and absolutely the most relatable.
How do you find the balance between writing about your own personal experiences and exploring topics that may not necessarily be autobiographical, but still speak to many people?
I just really like to tell stories, whether they are fiction, non-fiction, personal to me or not. I write about anything that moves me. What I love about poetry is that it’s subjective, so sometimes I can be very specific about something and other times not as much. Naturally, most of what I write is autobiographical, or has an autobiographical tone, as I think it’s quite difficult for it not to, but I think as humans we feel a lot of the same things universally. As a reader you can take a poem, read the words, and mould them to fit you and your circumstances quite easily for the most part; I think that’s really incredible.
What makes a piece of your writing right to post on your Instagram, versus the ones that stay in the book?
I think I am quite vulnerable in my writing and generally do share most of what I write on social media, but there’s almost something safer about a poem existing only inside a book. It’s essentially only available for people who go looking for it. It's tucked away. There’s a poem in my collection called “I understand it better now that I’m older” that felt too personal to post on Instagram. I’m not sure why. To this day, I have not posted it. I think it belongs on that page in my book and nowhere else, you know? I detached it from myself and that’s now where it stays.
And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Don’t just write what you think you should be writing and don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Write for yourself first and remember that your poetry is a safe space. The control belongs to you. Write even if you don’t think anybody will read it. Write and rip it up or burn it. Just don’t stop writing, even if you think it’s bad. Don’t get caught up in the madness of social media, and remember why you do what you do: because you love it. Hold on to that, always.
Grab your copy of 'The Girl Who Chases Sunsets', here.