Charlie Bowden
Why did you submit to trash to treasure lit?
I thought the concept was a unique and welcoming one which would enable me to submit work that wasn’t along the exact same lines as typically published poetry.
How would you describe your writing practice?
I write whenever I feel a motivation to. I keep a note on my phone of potential ideas for titles and phrases which is where I always turn first when thinking up a new poem. I like to see past concepts I came up with at the spur of the moment come together with fresh ideas to create something new.
What is the biggest thing that stops you from submitting work to lit mags/journals/publications?
Overly stringent or strict submission requirements in terms of font size, file format, certain wording being used in the cover letter. I can appreciate that having a uniform style is useful but sometimes it goes too far and feels like the publication is just seeing who actually follows the requirements.
Do you think the writing industry has an impact on your confidence in your work (good or bad)? Why?
Whenever I hear a poem read on a podcast, a radio broadcast or a video online I both get inspired to write some poetry of my own and wonder what it was about that poem that made it get the opportunity to be read out. It does make me feel a little self-conscious sometimes.
When do you start to doubt a piece that you are working on?
When it’s taking a long time for the poem to come together, it sometimes makes me think if the poem is worth writing if I can’t come up with the correct wording quickly. However with experience I’ve realised that some things come to you fully-formed a long time after you’ve begun them and a poem which takes a long time to write is not any better or worse than one which took less time.
Once you trash one of your pieces, what makes you come back to it (if ever)?
Usually when I write a poem, it’s because I’m feeling something that I want to capture in words. No matter how the writing experience goes and whether a satisfactory poem comes of it, that feeling is still important and that is what usually compels me to finish the job, even if it is a long time after I trashed the original piece.
How many pieces do think you have currently in your 'abandoned' folder?
On my notes app I usually have around ten half-poems of small disconnected phrases. Usually I aim to get back to them as soon as possible but some of them have been in there for a long while.
What is the ultimate reason that you trash your work?
Sometimes the emotions you’re trying to get out of a piece don’t line up with your emotional situation when you’re writing, so you have to leave it. It should never feel like you’re forcing a poem out of yourself. It’s better to stop writing and potentially pick it up later when your feelings are more aligned to what you were exploring.
What writing advice have you been given that has changed your perspective on how you treat/view your work?
Someone told me once that poems are never truly finished and it’s so true. Especially in the light of the world of publication with edits, corrections and drafts, poems are always open to minor or major adjustment. It has made me feel better about some of the half-poems I’ve left to the wayside because I know they’re just not fully formed yet, and although they may never will be I can go back to them to improve them and make them better reflect my emotions.
Charlie Bowden is a student from Hampshire, England, who discovered a love for writing poetry in lockdown after spending years studying it at school. His work has been included in collections by Young Writers and the Stratford Literary Festival and he won the 2021 Forward/emagazine Creative Critics Competition. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter @charliebpoetry for more.