Rhythm and Poetry: Karl Nova, CLiPPA winner 2018


Karl Nova has just been awarded the 2018 CLiPPA (CLPE Poetry Award) for his debut collection of poetry, Rhythm and Poetry. Nova, a rapper and poet, was clearly a favourite with the huge audience of children who attended the ceremony, and impressed the judges too: ‘This book really stood out with its refreshing use of the rap genre, its musicality, its immediacy and thoughtful reflections on the creative process’, said Chair Grace Nichols. Charlotte Hacking interviewed Karl about his poetry for Books for Keeps.


Congratulations on winning CLiPPA 2018. How do you feel about winning and what opportunities do you hope it will bring?


I feel so happy, it felt really good. I was shocked at first, I honestly thought maybe John Agard or Sarah Crossan would win and when they announced my name, I was in shock. I took the award with me to a school in Luton where I do a residency once a week to show them and for the children it meant so much. They saw a guy who wrote a book, worked really hard and who’d been working with them for a while and he won an award that they could touch and


see his name on and it really gave them a boost too. I hope this will give me a platform now to bring more poetry to more kids. It’s a transformative thing to work with them and bring out their creativity; that’s the most important thing this does for me.


When did you become a writer of poetry? What helped you develop into the award winning poet you are today?


I started writing poetry at the suggestion of my younger sister. I was going through a lot in my teens and she noticed that I’d always written a lot of little raps and things and told me I should write more. So I started writing for myself; I wasn’t going to show it to anyone. I had stacks of notebooks, but I would hide them under my bed. Then I got into music and started making songs and performing rap, all the time still writing poetry, but doing it for my own recreation. What really took it to the next level was when I started doing workshops with schools and I realised I needed more material to bridge the gap between myself and the students. Working with them reminded me of everything I went through in my teens and as a child, and that’s where poems like Peer Pressure came from.


How has your background as a hip hop artist contributed to the way you write poetry? How is it different to writing your music?


This is a really interesting question. Being a hip-hop artist feeds into my work as a poet, I don’t really separate them in my mind, but when they come out on paper I know which will be a song and which will be a poem for a book or a recital. When I started writing raps, I wanted to write so well that if someone looked at my lyrics on paper and read them, they knew they were as good as if they were hearing me perform them or if they were hearing them over music. I wanted it to be like standard poetry. I was also inspired by people like Saul Williams, who is an amazing spoken word artist, and by watching Def Jam poetry DVDs; this was a real turning point for me. They would perform the most incredible poetry, which inspired me to want to be as good as these artists were. When I was writing the book, I wanted to be an authentic voice and for that voice to be heard clearly. I started thinking of poets I like, like Maya Angelou, who has a very unique voice in her performance and also in her writing and that’s what I aspired to do.


Your collection spans many topics and themes, from peer pressure and cyber-bullying, to your love of London, your family and music. How did you put the collection together?


The collection was quite hard to put together. I wanted to write for me, about the things I love, like my mum and like London; my childhood memories. Also, about my own engagement with writing and poetry and some lyrical exercises, crossing over with my music.


4 Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018


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