Issue 3: Interview with Suzi Mezei
“The weight of us all on the back seat squeezes tyres, makes the car lag /
on its ascent up Warrigal Road, many generations of emigres locked together /
in Sunday visit clothes.”
~ Wild Rides by Suzi Mezei
Your poem "Wild Rides" explores fantasies of belonging and not belonging in Australian society, as the speaker experiences and internalises racial discrimination. What sparked the inspiration for this piece?
Around the time I wrote this piece, I’d read ‘A Room of Leaves’ by Kate Grenville. It made me consider (among other themes) the migrant experience and the barriers that prevent us from ‘fusing’ with a new place. These include race, gender and economic status. I considered how those who arrive here by air or sea are not born into the country; they have to learn it.
I’m aware that (some) descendants of the first invaders regard the arrival of migrants (especially those of colour) later, as an invasion. Perhaps we test their sense of entitlement.
Recently, I was stuck in traffic on Warrigal Road and saw the cream house in my poem. I was thrown back to a time when I was desperate to belong to a club that was nowhere near ready to accept me.
It can be an arduous journey to reach the point where you can simply say I’m here without having to justify it.
Your microfiction Heritage was runner up in our Winter Flash Fiction Competition, and also explored tensions in intergenerational relationships and cultural identity. What do you enjoy or find challenging about writing across these different forms?
I enjoy having the freedom to express my ideas in different forms although poems occasionally morph into short stories. I like reading; poetry, novels, plays, non-fiction and haiku, so I’m constantly inspired to explore these forms in my own work. I also studied journalism at uni and I think the observational techniques I picked up there, have worked their way into my creative writing process.
You're also currently working on a novella! Can you give us a glimpse into this creative project?
Lots of research and hopes of interviews with people who really don’t want to be interviewed!
I read an article by a sexual abuse survivor who said that in order to prevent abuse we have to understand how a perpetrator is made. I think she’s right; what part does society play in constructing and abetting a perpetrator? How much depends on biology, intelligence, personality, etc?
My own childhood trauma left me asking “why?”
The focus of my story is the perpetrator who will be a fictional composite based on all that I’ve learned.
Who are some writers or poets you've been enjoying lately?
The novel that’s most impressed me this year is David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black, winner of the International Booker Prize. I also couldn’t put down Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I’m now enjoying Bug Week, a collection of short stories by Airini Beautrais, a NZ writer. Poetry: I’m into Louise Gluck and Judy Grahn and many contemporary poets who share their work in magazines, anthologies, and journals. But my staples include Plath, Ferlinghetti and Sexton.
Suzi Mezei is a Sri Lankan born Australian writer. Her work appears in several journals and anthologies. Her short fiction was selected for Microflix. She is currently working on a novella, eating vast lockdown portions of treats from the French Bakery and guilt-exercising when it's not too cold.