Tips for Preparing a Poetry Pamphlet by Attracta Fahy

Attracta Fahy, Dinner Through the Fields, winner Fly on the Wall Press Chapbook Competition, 2019.

In choosing poems, I relied first on my intuition.  I also focused on poems that had already been published.  I started with a group of poems that I was confident about and I found a theme that connected them. 

The next step was selecting poems that continued to reflect this theme while also highlighting sub themes.  My aim was to choose poems that were evocative and relatable and brought the personal into the collective.

Choosing a title was difficult.  I scanned the lines, contemplated the title of every poem (while a title can be right for a poem, it may not work for a book).  I looked for a title that would open a door to a reader.

The first poem needed to be carefully chosen, one that was strong but also was an invitation to read further.  I then focussed on the final poem, one that made a satisfying ending.

For the rest of the poems, I thought in terms of a sine curve, alternating slow and fast, long and short, shifting back and forth until the sequence feels right. 

I then, finally choose the title Dinner Through the Fields of the manuscript, hinting at a wide range, from the specificity of a dinner to the spatial openness of fields.

The whole process took time.  I allowed myself that space and time.  When the chapbook was ready, I submitted it to a UK competition  and it won.