Matthew Sweeney

Where and when were you born?

Co. Donegal, Ireland, 6 October 1952

Could you tell us something about your background?

Father was headteacher in a primary school. Mother a housewife. I went to a boarding school, Gormanston, near Dublin. Then to College.

Were either of your parents or grandparents (or any other relatives) writers? If not, were any of your relatives actively interested in literature?

No writers among parents or grandparents. One second or third cousin on my father’s side, Jack Sweeney, wrote some poetry, and was in charge of the Lamont Poetry Room and reading series at Harvard University. His brother, James Johnson Sweeney, was an art critic and one of the editors of the acclaimed Parisian periodical, Transition. They both wrote encouraging letters to me when I was starting out.

Are any of your siblings writers or involved in a creative profession?

No, although my two sisters are good at music.

What was the first poem (or who was the first poet) that turned you on to poetry?

I remember, at around ten years’ old, hearing Walter de la Mare’s poem ‘The Listeners’ read out in school, and liking it. Also some of Yeats’ early ghost/fairy poems – ‘The Stolen Child’ and ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’. These awakened my interest in poetry.

What age were you when you first began writing poetry, and did you receive any encouragement?

I started writing what I thought were poems while at boarding school, when I was 14 or 15 years old. I got no encouragement from my English teacher.

When you started writing poetry did you have dreams about becoming a "professional" poet? If so, did anyone advise you against this course of action?

I had no thoughts of becoming a professional poet when I started. The only advice I got on this was the precise reaction of my English teacher when I showed him three of my poems. He glanced at them, handed them back, saying poetry was something one grew out of.

Did you ever get a poem published in your school magazine?

There was no school magazine that I remember. I may be wrong about this, but anyway I have no memory of publishing any of that apprentice work.

Did you go to university, and if so, which subject did you study?

I took that English teacher’s advice and gave up writing, then went to University College Dublin to study Chemical Engineering. Halfway through that degree I quit – the poetry I was supposed to grow out of came back, and the day before a big physics exam, instead of revising for this, I found myself reading Byron’s two long poems, ‘Don Juan’ and ‘Beppo’. A few years later I went to the North London Polytechnic to study English and German.

When did you first start submitting to poetry magazines? And can you tell us how many rejections you received before having something accepted for publication? (And if you received many rejections, was this off-putting?)

I started submitting to small poetry magazines in the early to mid ‘70s. Initially I got loads of rejections. Then one day a poem was taken, after which, bewilderingly, came more rejections. Finally it began to settle down a bit. And yes, it was temporarily off-putting and depressing to get rejections, but initially anyway, they can make one try to write something a bit better.

What was the worst rejection you ever received? (Please quote it, if you can).

Not an exact quote but something like: ‘I have no time to waste on someone who has absolutely no talent whatsoever.’ This from David Marcus, editor of the ‘New Irish Writing’ page in The Irish Press newspaper – where many of my early poems subsequently appeared.

What was your first published poem? Which poetry magazine published it? And what year was it published?

The first poems I received payment for were for two that appeared in the above-mentioned ‘New Irish Writing’ in, I think, 1976 – one was ‘The Rabbit Catchers’, I can’t remember the other. I know I received a cheque for £6 for the two of them. About a year earlier I published a poem called ‘Nudancer’, or something, in a small magazine or broadsheet, maybe Hayden Murphy’s long-running Broadsheet, which came out of Dublin.

Round about the time that you started seriously writing poetry, who were your literary heroes? And would you say they had an influence on your writing style?

The first poet that meant a lot to me was Sylvia Plath. For two years in the mid 70s I possessed two poetry books, Crossing the Water and Ariel, and I learned most of what I’ll ever learn about the writing of poetry from those two books – although I don’t think an influence has even been discernable. Kafka and some other German-language writers have also been very important to me.

Have you ever attended a creative writing course or been involved in a writers' group? If so, did you find it useful?

In the late 80s I was invited to join a Notting Hill based poetry group called ‘The Pembridge Poets’, run by the Ulster poet, Robert Greacen. Then, after Robert moved to Dublin, I formed a spin-off, and much-expanded group that met in the upstairs room of The Lamb pub, in Lamb’s Conduit Street, and became quite well known as ‘The Lamb Group’. Both groups proved very useful, until they outgrew themselves.

When did you put together your first collection of poetry?

I felt this ridiculous pressure to publish my first book before I was thirty. It duly came out, under the title A Dream of Maps, from a small press in Ireland, Raven Arts Press, in 1981. It was much too early - too many of the pieces in there show their influences. I’ve included only one poem from that book in my Selected Poems.

How long did it take to get it accepted for publication? And, if appropriate, how many times was it rejected? (Please tell us the name of the publisher. Also, if appropriate, could you tell us who rejected it)

I tried several English publishers before sending to Raven Arts. The nearest I came to acceptance in the UK was with Chatto. Two small pamphlets did appear in England prior to the book, from Omens and Oasis magazines, respectively.

How long did you have to wait between acceptance and final publication?

I don’t remember it as being very long, but it was a small publisher.

What sort of critical response did you receive?

Better than it deserved! There was some interest.

Would you say that your publisher actively promoted the book?

Not hugely.

Did you do readings and signings at bookshops to help promote the book? If so, did you organise these yourself, or were they organised by your publisher? And would you say that they had a significant effect on sales figures?

I did a few readings, not many. I don’t remember who organised them. I have no idea if they helped sales, although readings usually do.

How many copies of the book sold?

I have no idea – at a guess, a couple of hundred, maybe?

Is it still in print?

Fortunately not!

At the beginning of your writing career did you enter any poetry competitions? Did you enter a lot or just a few? Did you have any success? And, with hindsight, what are your thoughts about the relative merits or demerits of poetry competitions?

Yes, I entered some. Won a few small prizes – including one with that single poem from the first book that’s in the Selected. I remember the cheque enabled me to buy a turkey for the Christmas dinner.

Which of your poetry books has been the most successful in terms of sales, and how many copies has it sold to date?

The best-selling of my poetry books would be one or other of the collections for children, which might have sold in excess of 3000. Some of my adult books might have hit 2000. Weigh these figures against the 14,000 + sales of the handbook, Writing Poetry, that I’ve co-authored, and you’ll see that a lot more people want to write poetry than read it.

Have you won any awards for your poetry?

I’ve won a couple of small awards, nothing substantial. An Arts Council of England Writers’ Award. A similar thing from the Arts Council of Ireland. A Cholmondely Award, and the Prudence Farmer Award for the best poem of the year in the New Statesman magazine. Nothing prestigious or career-altering, in other words.

Do you make a living out of poetry?

Certainly not from royalties from the poetry books.

If not, do you make an adequate living through poetry related activities such as teaching creative writing workshops? Or do you have to supplement your income through unrelated activities?

I can occasionally just about manage it from readings, workshops, teaching poetry courses, being lucky enough to get the odd stipendium or residency somewhere, or grant. But this used to be a lot easier when I lived in the UK. Living abroad, as I’ve been doing, one gets forgotten for so much.

With the benefit of hindsight, are you glad that you pursued your dream of being a poet? Also, if you could turn the clock back, would you do anything different?

I wouldn’t do anything else. There’s nothing else I feel competent at except writing poetry – or some prose – and giving advice on how to do it.

If a young would-be poet approached you, which poets would you recommend as vital reading?

Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost (also his advice on writing), Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Graham, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Emily Dickinson.

Which poetry magazines would you recommend him or her to subscribe to?

Poetry London, The London Review of Books (not a poetry magazine but it publishes a lot of poetry), London Magazine, Poetry Review, Magma, The Wolf.

Assuming that this would-be poet showed some promise, would you advise him or her to pursue a "career" in poetry?

Would advise him or her to learn the nuts and bolts of craft and technique and let the rest happen or not happen.

If so, what further advice would you give him or her?

Read a great variety of poets, contemporary and earlier, including some in translation, and some they think they don’t like.

Finally (and extremely hypothetically), you are selected to appear on the hit reality TV show, "Desert Island Poets", where you are marooned on a tropical island for three months with a typewriter and several reams of paper. You are provided with all necessary provisions, but you are only allowed to take three books with you. Your appearance fee is more than you could hope to earn in a decade and the show is so popular that all previous participants have become best-selling poets. So, would you participate? And if so, which three books would you take with you?

What a good idea! Of course I’d participate.

1.Dante’s Inferno, in the original Italian but with a facing prose crib English translation.

2. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.

3. A decent English dictionary.

See Matthew Sweeney's List of Publications

Return to: What Makes Poets Tick?

Return to: Main Menu