Issue 3: Interview with Katelyn Goyen
“Frankenstein in hand, and head filled
with Otherness, I took a shortcut to class
said she was ten meters away
swiped on her profile &
met my babydoll in the light of day”
~ Babydoll in the daylight by Katelyn Goyen
You described your poem, "Babydoll in the Daylight" as a "vampire fantasy love story" - a kind of Frankenstein-meets-Tinder. Where did the inspiration for this piece come from?
Frankenstein-meets-Tinder is a pretty accurate way to describe the poem. I think this poem crawled into my mind after reading Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice earlier this year, which reignited my interest in vampires, and other monster stories. Like many of my poems, the setting is loosely based on the South Brisbane Cemetery. However, the tumble through the tombstones is entirely optimistic.
I love the visceral imagery in your piece and your use of compound words ("skinwarm," "moonbake," "milkmoon"). What draws you to this kind of imagery?
Generally, I’m drawn to the fantasy, sci-fi and horror genres where visceral imagery is usually used to unsettle or scare the reader. In this poem I wanted use luxe and romantic imagery, along with a sinister tone, in the hopes that it would get under the reader’s skin.
I like using compound words mostly because it’s fun to make up words. They also have the element of surprise and I feel like they have a slippery texture.
Your poem Platinum Summer was recently published in Blue Bottle Journal, and this year you were chosen for the Toolkits: Poetry program. When did you first start writing and submitting poetry and why?
I wrote my first poems as a little kid, writing about mountains and trees and whatnot. My interest in poetry was revived by studying English Literature at university. Reading T S Eliot’s The Waste Land in class absolutely blew my mind and from that point I was completely enamoured with reading and writing poems. I think I started submitting poems around that time as well. I stuck with poetry because I liked that there aren’t a lot of rules, and because poems are smallish, which is great for my short attention span.
Which writers or poets are currently at the top of your reading list?
At the moment I am trying to work my way through everything Jeff Vandermeer has ever written.
Katelyn Goyen is a Brisbane based poet. She co-edited the dearly departed 'zine The Tundish Review.