Jessica Knight: Poet to the Front

Please note: The writer has a cold. She is just going to quote directly for this one. Grammatical errors may be forthcoming.

Name: Jessica Knight

Nature of Work: Feminist poet, writer and activist

When and why did Jess start writing?: I think I was about nine and I remember telling my mum: I think I want to be a writer, I think ’cause I was a big reader. Also, being poor, writing is one of those things that you don’t need money to do. This was before the internet so you know, not that many people would see it but you could do it with a pen, which my mum got me, and an exercise book from the supermarket. I wanted to write then and there, so I wrote a story called Possum in the Roof. Because there was a possum in the roof and the sound of them at night-time fucking terrified me. I seriously thought they were trying to get inside the house and maybe jump on my face, because that’s what they sound like they want to do at night-time. When I wrote that story my mother said it was brilliant and I guess that was when I thought: Hey, maybe I can do this. Also I was a sick kid so books, writing, has always been this amazing escape. But not just an escape, something that nurtures your own experiences and allows you to make connections. I like to think that every time I write about being in my body it’s … this is gonna sound wanky; it’s like a feminist political statement. Even though I’m not body normative it doesn’t mean what I have to say about being in this body isn’t valid and someone being in another body is.

Why poetry?: Poetry is really good when you don’t think you can make sense … So I started trying to do one every day, so at least I was producing something. And when I was really sick* your attention span goes to utter shit. Before that I was able to get up early and go my part-time job, you know write 1000 or 500 words, go to work and I was fine. But this illness thing ruined it. I couldn’t sit for an hour, two hours and do something I was happy with and this was causing a great depression because I always thought I was a writer … And I started to think: Well if you’re not a writer Jess, what the hell are you? And illness, I find, is something you can articulate quite well in poetry … All it needs is the essence of how you’re feeling and you’re there basically, and you can get someone else to feel that way, hopefully.

*Jess recently got a new kidney – thanks Jess’s dad! You can read about it here.

Who inspires/informs her work?: I have to say the writing of the body thing is really important. So Hélène Cixous, the French feminist writer – her essay; The Laugh of the Medusa and that kind of stuff. I just thought her writing was just so brilliant and she has almost this rally cry telling women that they should write and write and not think that their stories aren’t worth telling. I think that’s really important and even though that was years ago, women do need to try and convince themselves that their stories are worth telling. There’s a lot of people telling you that they’re not. Or you just get told ‘your writing’s just so personal’. And just because it is, it doesn’t mean that’s the only thing it is.

What Jess is currently reading.

What is Jess working on at the moment?: There’s this book that I’ve always wanted to write. It’s about a girl who meets someone who pretty much encapsulates all of the terrible male writer archetypes that there are. And she meets him three-four months before she goes to London and sees the world, all that type of stuff. So she goes away and she misses him terribly so she writes to him and he writes to her. Then when she gets back…

I’m not going to put in spoilers. You’ll have to read it for yourself.

Why you should check out her work: Jess’s writing moves between guffaw funny and blatantly honest, occasionally stark observations around experiences of a body which might, by some, not be considered normative. Unique and powerful have been overused so much as adjectives in literary criticism, but they really are apt here. Her book of poetry, Tongue Between Teeth, is still available in limited numbers.

You can also check out a forum about Feminism and Disability that Jess was part
of here.

Reading is good for you.