ART OF CLIMBING
“When I go running, I start with a line and take it out with me.”
Helen Mort is a Sheffield-born poet, climber and trail runner who is interested in pop psychology and body image. She’s won stacks of prestigious awards for her work, and was the Derbyshire Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Carol Ann Duffy described her as, “Among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of young British poets”.
I’ve been writing since before I can remember. My mum tells me I used to dictate poems to her when I was a tiny child. But I started putting writing at the very heart of my life after university: I left my day job in an office to take up a writing residency at The Wordsworth Trust in Cumbria and never looked back. I was drawn to the fells as much as I was inspired by the opportunity to read and write.
I often keep ideas in my head for months, or even years, before I try to put them down on paper. Poems, for me, are about connections between events and emotions and you have to leave yourself room to be surprised by those links. My first thought isn’t always my best one.
My favourite novel is Climbers by M John Harrison. If you’re a climber, it’s an
24 | CLIMB. WALK. JOIN.
utterly convincing portrait of an obsession. But it’s also totally universal and about more than climbing. It’s dark, funny, surreal and – therefore – incredibly true.
I was born in Sheffield and grew up in Derbyshire, so that has always been the landscape I write from, my imaginative home. Many of my poems have been inspired by the lyricism of urban place names or the stories of Peak landmarks.
My forthcoming novel Black Car Burning is rooted in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. In it, I explore trust, via the legacy of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield and via the relationships and adventures of two female climbers.
My favourite way to write is to get my trail shoes out and take an idea I’ve been carrying for ages out for a run with me. As I move, my thoughts start to fall in line with the rhythm of my feet. Writing outdoors stops me from being too insular, too introspective. It’s a reminder to look around.
I feel most at peace with my body when I’m climbing or running and most at peace with my mind when I’m writing something that I believe matters. I think these things will always be linked for me.
I’m always finding fault with my own poems. But I’m probably most proud of
writing a poem called Rachel in Attercliffe – based on a documentary about sex workers in Sheffield. I was nervous about adopting a particular narrative voice but I did it anyway. Writing has to be about taking risks; if something makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, it’s a good idea to explore it.
I’m proud to call myself a feminist. I like writing about women who have been overlooked or treated unfairly by history in some way and I guess that’s inherently political.
As a writer, you should only be competing with yourself. Read widely, find the literature that sets your world on fire and work out why it does that. Keep a thin skin for your writing but grow a thick skin for your publishing career.
More about Helen on her website
helenmort.com. Her blog, Freefall, explores poetry, pop psychology and more:
https://helenmort.wordpress.com. We highly recommend you check out her beautifully-observed collection Division Street, named for a street in Sheffield, and No Map Could Show Them, odes to the women who dared to break new ground.
Interview: Sarah Stirling Pictures: Helen Mort collection.
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