Roddy Lumsden in conversation with Niall O'Sullivan

Niall O'Sullivan interviews Roddy Lumsden, born in St Andrews in 1966, whose introduction lists an Eric Gregory Award, a place on the Poetry Society's Council of Trustees and three collections: Yeah Yeah Yeah, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best first collection, The Book of Love (2000), a Poetry Book Society Choice shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, and Roddy Lumsden is Dead (2001). The first question teases him about his reputation for quirky relationship poems. Lumsden answers that critics stick to one idea of a poet, though he admits to writing about love and sex since his teens, and mentions a forthcoming sonnet sequence, Cavoli Riscaldati.

Several answers are travel and performance stories. He describes a long trip to California, Alberta, New York and the American South, including ten weeks at the Banff Centre in a log-cabin studio, where he wrote poems and parts of nine songs. He recalls good and bad readings, from Stockholm and Galway to a half-empty Oxford room and a cancelled Berkeley date. On talent and hard work he argues that the work reveals the talent. His recent poems draw on non-fiction such as Forgotten English and British folklore, with more image and less narrative, and he admires Brenda Shaughnessy, Kathleen Ossip and Susan Wheeler.

He then discusses a New and Selected Poems due from Bloodaxe, with a new collection, Mischief Night, and the pamphlet The Bubble Bride, written during a commission at a hotel near St Andrews. As host of the Eric Gregory winners' readings he welcomes the awards but fears conservative judging and over-polished poems from creative writing courses, and he names debut poets to watch. His advice to novices: do not assume you have a voice to find, seek a good editor, avoid online discussion lists and beware taste and terminology.

Later questions cover the composition of the Roddy Lumsden is Dead sequence, his habit of asking audiences to hold their applause, the website The Poem, and his book on poetry and song lyrics, The Message. Lumsden says he rates musicality above substance in poetry and quotes lines from one of his songs. The interview ends on his years of income from pub quiz machines and his trivia site Vitamin Q, to be turned into a book.

don't assume you have a 'voice' to find

Roddy Lumsden, The Wolf, issue 4

the work often reveals the talent

Roddy Lumsden, The Wolf, issue 4